[Sarah1983]

To those saying they have no problem with dogs growling at them. Imagine this you get an older dog from a rescue center you have never let any dog on furniture and don't plan to start. This dog you have got seems used to being allowed on furniture and gets on it when she wants. You gently get her down but she growls showing her teeth each time. Would you have a problem with this as most people are saying they wouldn't have a problem with a dog growling at them.

It's not a situation where I'd find the reason for growling acceptable as such but I still wouldn't punish the dog for growling. Instead I'd teach it to get on and off the furniture on command in return for rewards. Turning it into a confrontation and a battle of strength/wills is only going to escalate it from a growl to something more in many cases. I don't see a growl as aggression, it's just communication and most of the time means you've missed the signs the dog has previously been giving that it's uncomfortable in a given situation.

 

[Sarah1983]

If a dog growls I want to know why so I can deal with the cause of the problem - not the symptom.
For example, I can overcome resource guarding, or fears and phobias, get vet treatment if the dog is in pain etc. I want to remove the reason for the dog wanting to growl in the first place.

If I simply punish growling, the cause (ie the pain or fear etc) is still there, only now the dog is less likely to tell me when something is wrong. This massively increases the chances of the dog biting "without warning" - because I took away that warning system.

This! The reason for the growling may not be acceptable but unless you get to the bottom of it and remove the reason the dog feels it needs to growl you're not actually solving the problem, just suppressing the communication.

 

[Sarah1983]

We've had killer snowmen here. Until he discovered they were a good source of carrots anyway :lol: Then they were just noseless snowmen.

We've also had killer balloons, killer fallen trees, killer mushrooms and, the biggest threat of all, a babies woolly hat hung on a tree branch. Spen went through a phase of leaping about 10ft in the air when he came across anything out of the ordinary then having a mad growling or barking frenzy at it.