Puppy growling

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Oldashthearab

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Yesterday Bob (12 weeks) was sat on my boyfriends lap with a bone. My boyfriend moved the bone and Bob had a little growl, immediately he was put on the floor, bone taken away and ignored. He had had his 2nd jab and was chipped the night before so was possibly feelin bit down.
Bob has started puppy training so i will check with trainer, but in meantime i just wanted to check with you clever lot whether it had been dealt with correctly. I do not want a snappy terrier!
Later the same day i had Bob on my lap, with his bone, and i could do whatever i wanted... he is also happy for me to play with his food whilst eating and take anything else away. So do you think it is just Bob testing his bounderies with other people?
 
I think you dealt with it fine.
smile.gif


LOL I once caught my father sitting on the floor as my JRT pup (at about the same age) had growled when he tried to sit on the sofa!!!
shocked.gif
I didn't know who to reprimand 1st!!
grin.gif
 
Yep, sounds like a very confident puppy with a tendency to be dominant. The best thing is to calmly but firmly make him understand that this sort of behaviour will not be tolerated.

You should keep taking his food and treats away as and when you want, and your BF should be able to do the same. Any possessive behaviour should be met with removal of all attention including the toy/chew/food. If he persists put him in a quiet place on his own to indicate that if he does this behaviour he is removed from 'the pack'. When he is used to both of you, get as many friends as possible to do the same, although, obviously supervise how they react so they can be helped to do the right thing if Bob growls.

Make sure he does not get too attached to being on your lap with food. If he does he will have to eat his treats on the floor and only come for cuddles when he has finished eating and you ask him to come to you.
 
Personally, as long as they are puppies, I prefer the approach of that I am so high over them in rank that their pitiful little growls isn't worthy of my attention.


I don't like the method about having their gnaw bone taken away for so and so long, to teach them a lesson. To me teaching them to allow us to take gnaw bones and other things from them, should be based more on trust us and less on obedience. Learning the puppy that it can trust you to know best, to provide/give more yummy gnaw bones than you take etc.


Since Bob has no problem with allowing you to take a bone from him, maybe Bob trust you but felt uncertain in a similar situation with your boyfriend and that is why he growled? Personally I prefer to be careful with presuming that puppies growls because they are testing the boundaries, they can just as well be growling because they feel uncertain with the situation.

If they do growl because they feel uncertain, because they are not confident in the situation, then removing the gnaw bone might only confirm that they couldn't trust you...
However letting him go together with the gnaw bone after a growl would <u>never</u> be an option for me either, so I would have kept the puppy in my lap or besides me, held the gnaw bone and allowed the puppy to continue gnawing and not let it go until it was calm and relaxed about the situation.

smile.gif
 
[ QUOTE ]
I think you dealt with it fine.
smile.gif


LOL I once caught my father sitting on the floor as my JRT pup (at about the same age) had growled when he tried to sit on the sofa!!!
shocked.gif
I didn't know who to reprimand 1st!!
grin.gif


[/ QUOTE ]


Your father of course and I mean that seriously. No matter why your JRT pup growled in the first place, it was your fathers reaction to the growl, that might teach your pup that it could take command over the situation by growling.

smile.gif
 
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
I think you dealt with it fine.
smile.gif


LOL I once caught my father sitting on the floor as my JRT pup (at about the same age) had growled when he tried to sit on the sofa!!!
shocked.gif
I didn't know who to reprimand 1st!!
grin.gif


[/ QUOTE ]


Your father of course and I mean that seriously. No matter why your JRT pup growled in the first place, it was your fathers reaction to the growl, that might teach your pup that it could take command over the situation by growling.

smile.gif


[/ QUOTE ]

Don't worry Finny Dad got sent to his bed with no tea!! He was also firmly told next time just to quietly tell Oz to get off.
grin.gif
 
Thats an interesting answer FinnishLapphund....im not sure he is as confident as he could be, in his 1st puppy class he sat under my chair and just popped out to bark at the others to start. He did get braver towards the end and hopefully thats something we can build on.

He does test other people though, to see if they know 'the rules' ie when my aunt is here he will jump on sofa and try and climb on here lap which he just doesnt do when im around!

Past few days we have been working on 'leave' and i have just worked on that using his favourite bone with no issues, so hopefully we are on right track ;-)

Thanks for your replies guys...much appreciated!
 
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