Training a puppy is not an easy task, as it requires a lot of dedication, patience and understanding. However, there are often situations of misunderstanding, such as when a puppy bites or growls, which can lead to misunderstandings.
For this reason, in this article on our site we want to help you in case you are wondering why your puppy bites and growls and what to do to avoid it. Knowing how to act at all times is important, since educating a puppy is a most rewarding task, necessary for it to live happily and harmoniously with you and for which you need to understand your furry friend.
Why does my puppy growl when I play with him?
Usually, we tend to associate the growl with a sound that indicates threat and aggression, since dogs do it in order to warn that they are upset and, therefore, the growl is the prelude to the bite. For this reason, it is not strange that some guardians who are not familiar with puppies growling when playing, get scared thinking that he is developing an aggressive character, even going so far as to scold him, something totally counterproductive. However, the growl doesn't just indicate threat
In order to understand your dog, it is very important that you pay attention not only to the sounds he makes, but to the entire set of body signals that reflect his state of mind and attitude. So if his body language is a play posture, your pup is indeed playing. And it is that, it is natural for your puppy to growl while playing, either to provoke you and make you play with him or because he is pretending to fight or hunt, since that, if you look at how your puppy normally plays, he instinctively interprets situations that suppose training for when he is an adult.
Finally, it should be noted that your puppy biting you while playing is also normal. However, as we will explain later, it is important to know how to offer your puppy the appropriate guidance so that he learns to measure his bite and control himself, since he is not yet aware that he is hurting you.
Top reasons a puppy bites and growls
There are other reasons why your puppy could growl or bite you outside the game, to which you have to pay special attention, as you need to know how to manage them properly so that they do not evolve into a problem of behavior in the future. Thus, the most common causes are the following:
Fear
One of the reasons why your puppy growls at you if you get close, and may even bite you, is because he feels insecure. It is not usual to find this problem, because normally puppies are adequately familiar with human contact. However, the experience of traumatic experiences and/or a bad socialization during the first months of life, as well as a possible genetic tendency that may aggravate this behavior, may be the explanation for this problem, which will require a lot of patience and empathy. The aggression is therefore not because the little one wants to attack you, but because your puppy is afraid of you and tries to defend himself.
Resource Protection
There is a myth that says that if a dog growls because you approach something valuable to him, such as his food, his bed, his toy…, it is because he is "dominant" or wants to "show you leadership". of the". With this mistaken belief, many people often scold their dogs, which has very detrimental effects on their behavior. The truth is that the protection of resources occurs when a puppy feels insecurity that they can take away something valuable for him because he has experienced situations very early age that led to that apprenticeship. For example, when your puppy had to share food with his siblings, it is normal for him to see them as competitors for this resource, especially if it was scarce, and he had to prevail for survival. Even so, we must not forget that it is the caretaker who is responsible for making sure that there is plenty of food for the whole litter and that they do not have to fight over it.
This insecurity can arise for many reasons depending on the elements that it protects, but the main origin is that it has associated the fact of approaching that element that is so important to it with the fact that you want to remove it. Another very common example is that your puppy growls at you when you approach his toy, many times this is because he associates that every time he plays with something, someone is going to take it away and the fun is over (for example, a slipper). It is normal, then, that he growls to avoid it, because in his eyes you are a spoilsport.
Pain and/or illness
It should never be ruled out that if your puppy growls at you when you touch him or pick him up, it is because he feels some pain or is not feeling well. It could be that your puppy has an injury, for example, and that when petting him he suffers a lot and for this reason expresses his annoyance. It can also happen you are sick and feel like isolating yourself.
When a puppy is not feeling well, you can clearly see that he has a sudden change in behavior, going from being an animal full of energy and happiness to being rather dull and apathetic. In addition, you should look for other signs, such as excessive licking, lack of appetite, strange movements or walk, etc. In any case, what you should do is take him to the vet as soon as possible before it's too late. See Symptoms of a Sick Dog for more information.
Why not scold a puppy if he growls?
As we have discussed, grunting is a sound that indicates that something is bothering you or that you are not feeling well. This signal is usually a warning to ask us to stop doing whatever we are doing that is making you feel bad. But what happens if you scold your dog when he growls? As much as it annoys you when your dog growls, it shouldn't feel like a threat, but rather a necessary form of communication used by the animalto ask you to stop
When you scold your dog, you might be able to inhibit the growl, that is, your dog stops communicating, but not for that you are going to solve the main problem: what is making your dog feel bad. Therefore, unfortunately, in this way you will only achieve that when your dog feels upset or upset he does not tell you and, if there comes a point where he feels really upset in a situation, go to biting you directly to ask you to stop, without first warning you of its state. To give an example of how we would understand it from a human perspective, it would be the equivalent of instead of resolving an unpleasant situation by asking with a “please, stop”, we would directly resort to physical aggression, since verbal communication would be of no use because the other person is not listening to you.
Finally, the use of violence in the education of your furry is completely counterproductive to establish a relationship of trust with your puppy, since as you have seen, the reasons why your puppy growls and bites is due to fear or insecurity generated by certain situations. Obviously, you cannot try to resolve this behavior with more fear.
What to do if my puppy growls and bites me?
As you have seen, there are several reasons why your puppy growls and bites, and it does not have to be harmful, rather the opposite, since it is natural for the puppy to growl when he plays. However, if your puppy growls in other situations, such as when you approach him or something valuable to him, you will need to identify where this insecurity comes from in order to locate the source of the problem. Here's what to do in each case:
Recommendations for scared puppies
In case your puppy has recently arrived in your family and has a rather skittish character, if he has not had contact with people since childhood or, in case he has had negative experiences such as abuse, it is understandable that he shows fear or distrust if you approach him, caress him, pick him up in your arms…
Under the circumstances, you must be patient and give him timeto adjust to his new environment and family. This implies that you should avoid forcing situations in which he may feel uncomfortable (such as going directly to him if he moves away or directly picking him up) and invite him to be the one to approach you through prizes, sweet words and avoiding sudden movements. In this way, little by little, you will be associated with you as someone positive and trustworthy.
Discover in this other article How long it takes for a puppy to get used to its new home.
Treatment for the protection of resources in puppies
If your puppy growls at you to prevent you from taking away something valuable to him, you should work on this behavior problem as soon as possible in a positive way, because this long-term problem has quite negative consequences and if it is not works could easily become aggravated.
In order to redirect this behavior, it will be important that your puppy does not see you as a threat that wants to “steal” something from him, but that he he will have to associate your presence with something positive. For example, if your puppy growls and bites at you when you approach his food bowl, move to a distance where he feels calm, then reward him with a very tasty treat (more than his usual food) for being calm. Gradually approach him and help him associate your presence with a reliable and protective figure, so that he no longer feels that you are a threat when you approach his food, but rather the opposite.
For more security, little by little you will have to carry out the same procedure with other members of the family. Well, even if he no longer feels insecure with you, he could continue to growl at other people or animals. Always, very important, keeping a safe distance in which your puppy is safe and avoiding punishments at all costs that will only generate more mistrust in your furry.
If you think that this problem has become unmanageable because it has been sitting for too long, it is best to go to a professional as soon as possible so that I can advise you in a personalized way.
What to do if you feel unwell?
It should never be ruled out that your puppy has started growling and biting at you because he is not feeling well, is in pain from an injury or is sick and is upset when you touch him, for example. In these cases, the most common is to observe significant changes in your puppy's normal behavior, such as that he is more apathetic, has lost his appetite, has strange behaviors such as licking himself too much, etc. Therefore, you should take him to the vetso that he can make the relevant diagnosis
Tips for puppies that bite too hard
Unlike us, dogs play with their mouths, since they don't have hands. This implies that, at times in which you interact with your puppy and he is very excited, you can take a more or less painful bite, without there being a bad intention on the part of your friend. For this reason, during the process of training your puppy, it is very important that you know how to indicate when he hurts you so that he can measure himself and interact with you consciously, inhibiting bite.
For this purpose, what you should do is stop the game every time he bites you hard and make a sound like “! oh!”, so that your puppy will associate this situation with the end of the fun and, little by little, will learn to control himself. In the same way, if your puppy wants to play with you when you don't want to and asks you to by biting or growling, he will need to learn to respect your limits and, therefore, you will have to ignore himand appear indifferent to his demand. On the contrary, your little one could learn to bite you to get you to listen to him, which is obviously harmful for when he is an adult.
Finally, you must not forget that your puppy needs to bite, because his teeth are growing and hurt, and by biting he manages to calm said pain. In addition, they have the need to explore their environment through their mouths. For these reasons, you should give your puppy toys that he is happy to chew on, ie chew toys, so that he can perform this behavior calmly.
Don't miss these articles to learn more about how to train a puppy and how to prevent it from biting everything:
- How to train a puppy?
- How to teach a puppy not to bite?
