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Hi all

My husband made a chicken coop and we now have four chickens. Here's the problem - we got the chooks this afternoon and at first our 8 month old female was calm and sat watching them. When I went to go near the coop her ears went back ad she started to growl. I then moved back and walked away. My husband then did the sme thing and she growled at him too but he didn't act like a coward like I did he just calmy spoke to her, patted her and she growled for a little bit then stopped but started watching every move he made. What should I do. How do I stop the growling. I am naturally wary when a dog growls and I m sure she senses it. How do I overcome this?

 

She does have little episodes when she gets a little nuts and gets in her growling, scary moods and I just generally keep my distance then she's fine again.

 

What s the best way to handle a growling dog?

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Personally, I think in these early stages the best thing to do is to redirect her and then praise her for the redirect.

 

Growling is communication. If you repress it, you're likely to get a dog that won't communicate whatever displeasure it's feeling and go directly to a bite without that verbal warning. You don't want to do that.

 

In this particular situation, it would be best to let her know in a friendly way that it's not her job to protect or be possessive of the chickens. Redirection should work now before the behavior has become set. Later, it will be more difficult.

 

A word of warning, though . . . with your initial response of backing away from the chickens you run the very real risk of increasing the behavior! She growls, you back off. In her mind, growling works! You've reinforced the undesirable behavior by giving her what she wants.

 

So, do what your husband did . . . call her on her silly antics and proceed with what you were doing. If you're not comfortable with just walking up to her and telling her she's being a silly girl while you pet her, then toss a ball (assuming she likes balls) away from the chickens, praise her and go on about your business.

 

At 8 months it's unlikely that she'd respond by escalating with an attack, and if she did, I'd be pretty worried about her and get her to a good behaviorist pronto. It's more likely that she's just testing her limits, which is common at this age. But if you give in to your fear and let her get away with it, she'll learn very quickly that growling works and there's a good chance she'll generalize it to other people as well.

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If you are afraid of your dog for growling, you need to work with her a LOT more. You have no reason to fear an 8 month old pup, if you establish a pattern of working with her, training her and acting as one of the humans in charge of your pup's world. In this case, your husband did just right. As Donald said, your hubby simply let her know he wasn't impressed and went on doing what he was going to do.

Hiding from your puppy is NOT the way to deal with behavioral issues. You would not hide from your child if he was complaining or having a temper tantrum. Just like children, puppies need rules and boundaries.

What DO you do with her? What are your usual daily interactions with her?

And what are these "growly scary moods" you say she has?

Wishing you luck,


Gloria


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Dogs are opportunistic and teenage dogs push boundaries. If they try growling and it works, they'll growl. If it doesn't work then they won't (for the record, I'm talking about bratty pushy growling, not any more serious agression/behavioral issue). Two of my dogs each tried growling at me once. It didn't work, they never tried it again.

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Hi Gloria in answer to your question I walk her twice a day, take her to obedience every Saturday ad play fetch with her numerous times every day then lots of love and cuddles. I only work part time so have penty of time to spend with her. Today m husband lets the chooks out and Lilli has been perfect tail wagging and keeping a close eye on each of them. I think I give her too much freedom (treat her like one of my children) so I have to get tougher, harden up and reset some boundaries I just love her so much I want her with me all the time. Our obedience club as classes on Wednesday nights too and I am thinking of taking her twice a week now. She loves seeing her furry friends.

 

Thans Gloria and everyone for you advice. As always it is much appreciated nd very helpful.

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Sounds like you're doing a lot of good things, then. :)


I am a bit concerned about the scary growly things you say she does, however. Can you elaborate? What is she doing that makes you want to avoid or hide from her? That is a thing that must be changed, for the good of you both.

~ Gloria

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Hi Gloria

 

Firstly, the growling has not happened again now that we let the chooks out to run around all day, Lilli seems to love watching each and every one of them. No signs of aggression at all but she follows them around and eats their poop. Yuk but I guess it's a doggy thing.

 

The other growling issues have been random, one night we put it down to her having an upset tummy or maybe it is her way of letting us know she is tired of cuddles and wants some space. I was talking to a friend of mine at work who also as BCs and the first thing she said is "leadership" I have to toughen up, stop treating her like a furry person and reinforce who is boss. She was being fed inside but now I feed her outside amongst other things.

 

Se really is the most beautiful girl and I just get upset when she does these things she's my baby but in the end she is also a dog. xoxo

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Se really is the most beautiful girl and I just get upset when she does these things she's my baby but in the end she is also a dog. xoxo

 

She's a dog first, your baby second. I agree that you need to tell her you don't like it. How forcefully you give her this information should be tempered according to her age and her personality.

 

And I think if you accept that growling is her way of telling you that she doesn't like something, you won't take it as personally as you seem to be doing. I'm not saying you should let her growl at you whenever she wants to. Growling is one of the ways a dog has to convey information.

 

If, for example, a dog growled at me if I hurt it, I wouldn't be quite as upset as if the dog is trying to say, "These are MY chickens". The first is understandable and still needs to be addressed, the second situation has got to be set right immediately. The growling in itself is just the dog communicating.

 

It sounds like you're doing a good job of changing how you deal with her, but truly, you've got to let go of having your feelings hurt when your dog growls at you. If she could talk, she would let you know verbally. She can't, it's not unusual or bad, and it's part of having a dog.

 

Ruth and Agent Gibbs, who likes to yodel his feelings to the world

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And, tangentially, how you react to a growl is very dependent on the dog in question and teh rest of the way you interact.

 

For example, if I had a dog who was regularly pushy, or defensive of something like food, I would treat that a lot differently than I would a dog who was growling because of fear and a dog who growled only occasionally in a not terribly threatening manner.

 

I have a dog who is fearful and I have no doubt would bite if cornered and scared, and so if he growled I would immediately asses everything and see what it was that sacred him, then work on conditioning him to that thing and reminding him I have his back and let me address the scary thing. With him its a communication that I *need* to help him feel safe and not get himself in trouble but if I overreact then he will be even more afraid.

 

I have another dog who is happy, obedient, not scared of anything but once turned and deliberately growled at me with a little glare when I tickled his ribs in a way he did not like. I just stopped and he turned and pushed into my hands again (in a different spot). There was no need for any correction because he was just being clear that he was unhappy with a pet he found uncomfortable and he hasn't growled at me since.

 

If I had a pushy dog I would probably handle it differently.

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It really sounds to me like she's testing her limits, seeing if she can push you around to get what she wants.

 

Have you talked to your trainer about this? She or he should be able to assess the situation and give you some advice, perhaps even setting up situations that might encourage her to try it so that you can deal with it with some outside support so that you feel more comfortable.

 

These dogs are so smart that if you let them get away with something even one time, there's a good likelihood they've learned that it works sometimes and it'll be harder to enforce the more it happens without repercussions.

 

I'm definitely not saying you need to be heavy handed in your approach. IMO that can backfire. But the way your hubby handled it seems to have worked well without any repercussions. :)

 

But others are right that your response needs to be moderated based on your pup's confidence. Being too hard on a shy dog, for instance, can set the dog up for fear aggression in the future. This is where your trainer might be very helpful in assessing the dog and the situation.

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