I have a three week and a half old litter of four pups, and one of the girls seems angry all the time. Although she doesn't growl when she is picked up, she spends a lot of her time in the the pen growling. She does seem to play with her litter mates, but I can't help but notice how angry she seems. The other pups don't growl back.

Is there anything I can do to curb this behavior? Both the mom and the dad are miniature poodles and are not aggressive dogs at all, they're both very well socialized, gregarious dogs.

Any suggestions?

Thanks!

you sure its growling and not puppy play behaviour?

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love me love the dogs

Encourage mum to spend as much time as possible with them... mum will tell her off if she thinks it is aggressive behaviour.

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SOMETIMES YOUR KNIGHT IN SHINING ARMOUR IS MERELY AN IDIOT WRAPPED IN TINFOIL

Just the pup finding its voice ,may turn out to be a more vocal pup than the rest! expressing it self, Play noises , wanting attention, could be lots of different things . This doesnt mean that the pup will turn out to be agressive.

Just keep an eye on her as her personality is just starting to come outand dont worry too much

hey, bb! :--)

is she markedly larger or smaller than the other 3 pups?

is she so small she gets picked-on, is she mounted + pushed-around + pestered?
is she much-bigger than her sibs, pushing *them* around?
is she more-co-ordinated?

they are only 3.5-WO and a matter of 3 or 4 days extra development (if her dam was bred more than once) can make quite
a difference in growth, co-ordination + strength - BUT as the litter grows-up, those few days become less significant.

what gender(s) are the other 3 pups?
what do each weigh? (have U been tracking wt-gain?)
does the mother-dog seem at all upset by this growling? most dams will intervene to stop excessive-aggro -
if she ignores it completely, EVEN * WHEN she is in the pen / nest with the pups, then chances are it is not a worry.

Unless of course, Mom-dog is deaf? i realize this is not likely, i think U would have mentioned it - yes?

pups growl in play, to defend a toy or food, to protest being mugged, climbed on, chewed on by sibs, SAT on, etc.
it could be anything, really. sorry, its hard to say.

could U put a video on U-Tube? NOT just the growling, but before it happens, and after?
preferably while mom-dog is in with her litter? (so we can see her reactions - concern, relaxed, ___ )

thanks, i hope we can see a bit of this behavior - fingers crossed!
--- terry

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terry pride, APDT-Aus, apdt#1827, CVA, TDF
*wolves R wolves, dogs R dogs, + primates R us.*
tmp, sept-2007

Thank you so much for your replies. There are three girls and one boy, the first born is a girl, and she's the one that growls. I think that it may just be that she's more vocal, because the mom does not react to it and she's pretty good with them. The other pups don't really react to her either. She'll growl when she's playing and they won't growl back but keep playing with her and she'll growl when she's moving around the pen or sitting. They all weigh around the same and are about the same length.

I'll post a video on youtube as soon as I record the behavior and put the link on here.

Thank you so much for all of your feedback! It's our first litter and I want to make sure that they grow up to be great pups like the parents!

Im sure you have nothing to worry about my litter of newfies were the same and they turned out lovely, its a learning stage some like the sound of thier voice more than others, mum will step in if she thinks there is a problem.