..about my springer lad.

He's nearly 4 months now (ignore the pet ticker it seems to have given up lol), and he's had various socializing classes with other dogs, people etc.

He's incredibly sweet natured and affectionate and I love him to bits, but I'm just curious over his lastest antics. Both me and my OH have given respective opinions on the whys and what fors, but just I'm curious to see what the more experienced ESS and pet owners think it is.

Lately whenever he 'senses' someone outside or infact sees them outside, he will do a little grumbly growl and then not quite bark, he does a sound like "buff" doesn't open his mouth or anything, he does this several times until he's happy they've gone.

Yesterday I was under my car doing some work and he was outside with me when I heard him do the ''buff'' noises again, I slid out to see what it was and saw it was the next door neighbour walking by in front of the drive. He never shows aggression to people, he is an utter softie and loves meeting people and adores attention and affection, so I'm curious what this is?

My OH believes it's because he still isn't very confident, whereas I'm wondering if he's showing protective tendancies but wasn't sure given he's a springer, I didn't think it was in their nature. I am new to this breed though so look forward to hearing what you think he might be doing, the noises are quite cute actually

Sounds like a bit of a territorial warning. He's warning folks off the property (and yes, he sees the car as his property as well).

I'd keep an eye on this, as it could lead to either a big window-barking issue or a territorial one.

As he's only just begun this behavior, you may want to distract and reward him for turning his attention to you and not giving the low bark, before a window-barker is born.

I would agree with the last post.

In addition I would say that Springers can be protective. I used to have a Springer until October last year - she was the most loyal, sweetest girlie you could imagine but she would keep a watchful eye out for the family.

IMHO the dog is guarding, which for most people is one reason to have a dog. The area many people fail to train is at which point the guarding is no longer controlled by the human but is completely given to the dog to judge when to be guarding and growl and when to be welcoming.

The dog will only know the friends that have been introduced to the house, most others will be treated as foes by default and so the response to any movement is growl and bark.

If it is cute (I know we have one that did that) our amusement can encourage the behaviour so it develops as a pup but becomes a problem as an adult.

I suggest thanking the dog for the first few barks but then body block the door/window etc and quieten the dog down. Not always possible if you are not there at the time, but ideally the dog learns that a few woofs is all that he is allowed to offer. Otherwise when left in sole charge of the house you might have an upset neighbour, unless they are deaf.

Ideally you need to train for noises as well so at night when the curtains are closed the dog will respond to disturbances he can't see.

The dog sees his job as defender, allow him that role, he just needs guidance as to when to defend.

Cracking advice folks and thank you, I'll put some of the body blocking in to practice and see how he gets on.

Agree, but would add that he is also warning you that there is someone near.

My dog makes exactly the same 'boff' noise that you describe, it's never aggressive, just saying 'someone's there'.

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Excellent point. Some people really prize this quality, if they can control it.

As I live alone, I actually do want to preserve the warning bark to an extent.

I did work to control window barking, but my opinion going in was that was not a behavior that could be extinguished, only one that could be controlled.

I worked with a distract and reward process to limit window barking. She still barks when she hears or sees something unusual, and is trained to the cue "Enough" to stop barking. It took a lot of training to get this down, but we've got it.

Generally, when I am home, she will give 1-4 barks (or grumbles, as you described) and then turn to me to decide whether the barking should continue or stop. If I so much as shake my head, the grumbling/barking stops. If I make no move or change of expression, she barks her fool head off.

At 2AM, I do want her to bark! The rest of the time? No,no,no.

So yes, you can teach the dog to have a "stop" cue.

My neighbors do not report that the dog barks when I'm not home (I have asked, as I worry about this in a townhome), so I think her protectiveness is more about protecting me than protecting a physical space.

Edit to add:My other big cue that she is protective of me moreso than the property: even though she is a big human attention whore, she will stay between me and a new person or me and a new dog for quite some time. I honestly did not see this at first. I thought that as she was so motivated to seek human attention, she put herself conveniently where the highest number of people could pay her attention. No, that was not it. She sees me as her prized resource, and she protects it. It's a long story to explain, but if you think your dog is too protective of you, please respond and I'll go into the whole mess of how I determined that my dog was protective of individuals rather than territories.

Really interesting post and thank you, having read that it's funny how things seem to make sense and click in to place. My lad, as mentioned, is incredibly affectionate, a total sweetheart and adores attention from human and animal alike, but he certainly does do the action you described; he will always stand right in front of me when another person/dog/cat approaches and again I've always assumed this is him wanting to be greeted first but he won't actually roll over or request attention until I acknowledge them in a friendly greeting.

At this stage I don't think he's too protective of me, as he isn't a barker, and unless he's doing the 'boff' noises he's actually a quiet little chap; I've noticed when he is 'boff'ing, he either looks to me or will come and seek me out if I'm in another room, and if I don't react (as I thought this would discourage him from making the noise) he will return to the window/door and do the same thing, rinse and repeat.

Thanks again for all these pointers and advice, it's fascinating learning about the little behaviours and nuances of our canine companions

When your dog grumbles at a passing person, they are automatically being rewarded for the behaviour by the other person going out of sight. The dog growls, the person leaves= reinforcement and more likely to happen in the future.

I would work to desensitise him to seeing people outside the property, and also limit access to seeing out of the window altogether whenever possible- baby gates, temporary frosted glass etc.

Set-up situations with your neighbour if possible. Start from outside the house, with your dog on-lead, and as soon as your neighbour appears, reward and reward. You may also like to look out for social behaviours that your dog offers too, such as ground sniffing, or looking away. As soon as your dog offers these behaviours, they get rewarded by distance from the stranger, and most importantly, the person goes away. Repetitions of this will allow your dog to control their own behaviour, and replace the barking and growling for calming signals, which will have the desired reinforcement too. Check out BAT training by Grisha Stewart for more info:
Behavior Adjustment Training (BAT) | Official site for BAT: dog-friendly training for reactivity (aggression, fear, frustration) by Grisha Stewart, MA

You're in a space that could break several ways. He may be placing himself in front of your out of nervousness (backing up to you is a sort of reinforcement), he may have some resource guarding, or he may be simply trying things on as he matures.

The big sign to me that my dog was getting a resource-guarding issue was that she would put herself between any person or dog she knew and ANY new person, dog, object, etc. She may have only recently met them, but now she decided they needed protection. It could have been as simple as a dog she met at the park for 10 minutes before another dog entered--she'd get between that dog and the new dog. Or she'd get very upset that a person she'd met previously paid attention to another dog. It does take a pattern of behavior to recognize this propensity.