Hi Im Chris and am new here.
I have had dogs for 25 yrs
i currently own a crossbreed  who is 13
recently lost my border collie who was 14
we decided to get a pup so family suggested a smaller but active dog so I now own a borderxlakeland bitch pup of 8 weeks
only prob is she seems to have a poss aggression prob already!!!
her mum is a 2 yr old boder x lakeland and her dad is a full border
she had 4 brothers and small kids  at home
we have had her 1 week (i know i know) but some times when you pick her up she really growls as tho she wants to attack then others times is fine I hope Ive not made a bad choice any advice please 

I don't know about Terriers, but there will be people on here who do so be patient until they come on. :-)

However, some dogs just don't like being picked up. She could be one of those. Does she only growl when you pick her up or at other times as well? If this is the only time she growls then I wouldn't worry too much, just don't pick her up if you don't need to.

i agree with other post,if it's just the picking up she doesn't like then don't worry too much. stop trying to pick her up for a while and just reward calm behavour ie when you stoke her and touch parts of her body, every time she lets you do this giver her a little treat so she learns that being touches is a positive experience for her.
you never know she may of had a bad experience before you had her when children were too heavy handed and tried to pick her up.

A lot of dogs don't like being picked up, if you think about it, suddenly being scooped up into mid air a long way off the ground must be quite a strange sensation for a dog.

Hi,i've had lakeland and lakeland crosses for quite a while and this is completely normal.I have a 14 week old pure lakie at the moment who is exactly as you describe.All i can advise is teach the pup the word no as soon as you can and then use it when she growls.If she growls when being picked up and cuddled she is protesting so don't put her down and give in to her until she has calmed down.This is typical lakeland attitude.I got my latest pup from a man that has been in the breed for 45 years and he taught me a lot about how to handle them .She will calm down but will always have that lakeland fiestiness.

> All i can advise is teach the pup the word no as soon as you can and then use it when she growls.If she growls when being picked up and cuddled she is protesting so don't put her down and give in to her until she has calmed down.This is typical lakeland attitude

I must admit to being worried about this statement. A dog will growl as a warning. By telling her off I would be worried that she would just bite without giving a warning. As I have said previously, I know nothing about Terriers and their behaviour, but this statement does worry me.

> we have had her 1 week (i know i know) but some times when you pick her up she really growls as tho she wants to attack then others times is fine I hope Ive not made a bad choice any advice please

Why are you picking her up ? Is there a specific reason that you need to pick her up ?

Hi Lindy Lou,yes i completely agree with you however terrier pups have a way of growling as protesting and i have been shown by someone with 45 years experience with this breed(who am i to argue) that no amount of protesting is permissable otherwise they very soon get the better of you.Growling as a warning we do not get because the pups very soon learn not to try to take you on.But yes i see where you're coming from.

When we bought our Border home he was like a little wild thing, unhandled and he scratched and bit like a goodun,  now he's a bona fida lap Border!! wounderful with kids ect. We did not pick him up after working out he did not like handling, what we did was sit on the floor every evening a bit by bit he came to us. Eventually he became a bit of  lap dog because my cocker is. Now even if he's doing something else the minute my OH gets on the floor Jake is there like a rocket!!! he sleeps in between my OH's legs with his head on his chest and he is huge!! looks really funny. persevere and patience its early days.

I have two terriers, I am NO expert, all I can say is the key for me has been, persistence and detatching yourself (and family) from the wanting to fuss and baby the puppy. Be gentle and kind,ignore the bad and reward the good behaviour, and it will all come together, just bear in mind terriers by their nature will 'try' constantly'. That can be wearing, but it is also part of the charm of having a busy dog.

Karen :)

Hi Bucksmum. I will bow to experience on this, as I have no experience with Terriers. :-)

I just hope that anyone else with other breeds will go to the breeder of their breed to find out the respective traits of certain breeds. This is not a criticism, just a hope :-D The little I do know about Terriers is they are a law unto themselves ;-) The general public should do their homework (again no critism to any person on here ) prior to getting a breed of any kind. For instance, most gundogs love mud and water, but the majority of toy breeds would be horrified to see a puddle :-D

> I just hope that anyone else with other breeds will go to the breeder of their breed to find out the respective traits of certain breeds.

I keep thinking that I'll write an alternative breed description for mine (gundog).  Might sometimes more useful than the dry breed standard and along the lines of:

Likes to sleep upside down showing his testicles to the world, the vicar, and anyone within 200 yards (binoculars not required!).  Can carry water through several rooms leaving ever decreasing drips til there is just enough to wipe on the curtains.  If left on the wrong side of the door will make authentic Darth Vader noises through the gap at the bottom.  Will endear himself to your vet ensuring he's regularly invited back for return visits (necessary or not).  Slinks round the edge of the cow field whilst simultaneously attracting their attention until finally hiding behind you at the last minute and just in time to ensure you are flattened by a herd of curious bullocks.  Waits for you to say "Mine never does that" before proving you wrong, again.  Can achieve the art of invisibility when you go to the dog medicine cupboard.  Can hear the ham packet being opened from a 1000 paces.  Can tell you, to the minute, when it's 5pm and 'dinner time'.  Sneaks into your heart and has you planning a small herd of the same breed before you can say 'I'll never have more than two'  !!

Growling, proper growling (and i dont mean that chatty grumbly groany noise that ISNT growling that a fair few breeds do), IS a communication that the dog is uncomfortable/threatened/scared by what is happening.

It means 'please dont do this, i dont like it'.

Punishing that growl, again in any breed, terriers, hounds, whatever.. will result in the dog learning not to bother growling but to snap or bite instead.

Dogs on the whole do not instinctively like being cuddled or picked up - it is something you have to teach them to accept and as a result some learn to actively enjoy it, others tolerate it. To do it you make being cuddled and lifted a rewarding thing with the use of treats and praise, and you let the dog dictate the pace you go at - forcing things on a dog such as picking them up and not letting go until they stop growling, or punishing them for growling is a fast track route to a biting dog and its absolutely NOT a battle to be picking with a terrier, bred as they are to fight back against all odds and never say die!

Agree to a point,but we are talking about 8 week old pups here not adult terriers.
We run a pack of ten terriers and have to be boss or all hell would break loose.
They are taught as pups that growling at their owner isnot acceptable as they then push you further and progress to biting.
Our terriers will sit and wait for dinner,we take raw bones off them and most importantly if they have caught something they will leave it when told.
I can only talk by our own experience with over 25 years of owning terriers,not saying anyone's elses way is wrong but we do what works for us and never have had a terrier bite or even warn us of with a growl.
Just another point about not picking up a terrier too young we do as they are taught from a young age to be handled so coat can groomed,nails cut,teeth checked and loaded into vehicles etc.
Again ,not critising just saying how we have to handle ours.

I prefer to allow my dogs to growl, it means i KNOW when somethings wrong.

Dont get me wrong, that I allow and prefer my dogs to growl when something is wrong doesnt mean im permissive or lax with them... they have to sit and wait for food, they do allow me to take things from them IF i have to (and invariably... i dont!).. but i like to know if they feel threatened or uncomfortable or fearful, it tells me a great deal.

I can let (i WOULDNT.. but i know i can, and it did happen accidentally once) total strangers (and it was a 5 year old child at that!) take highly prized items from any one of my dogs, the worst they will do is get up and move. (I must repeat this was an accident)..

The reason they are safe is they will communicate every single step of the way, what they feel, from 'im not sure about this' down to 'im absolutely terrified' and everything in between.

The simple fact is if you remove a dogs growl you have removed a huge chunk of his communication tools - the HUGE problem is that 9 times out of 10 the adult owner who has trained in this manner is NOT the one liable to get bitten. The dog doesnt dare retaliate to the owner... but when a child or a stranger does something untoward or that can be misinterpreted (or correctly interpreted) as something the dog finds threatening or scary.... blammo, dog bite and you get the 'he bit without warning' story.

The daft thing is it need not be this way at all - and I live with five dogs, two of whom have a lot of terrier background, (and two are big dogs and one is a little pipsqueak but hes no trouble lol!) so i do still have to be the one 'in charge' so to speak.

I never confront a growling dog, and i set things up so that the dog need never growl - that doesnt mean i dont do things dogs dont naturally like, Errol currently gets bathed and blow dryed once a month and believe me he would rather be doing alot of things... (mostly involving rolling in icky stuff or digging his way to China) ...

I set things up so it is just never an issue, whilst Errol would far prefer to be rolling in ick than being sprayed with all manner of stuff and blow dried... being groomed is something that has always happened and has always involved treats and silly talk and ive NEVER pushed him so far that hes growled at me. So he never will - its pretty easy you just never do something in a way that involves picking an argument - after all we DO have the bigger brain, we can think our way round these things.

Kelda is a big girl, deerhound... theres things she would undoubtedly prefer not to have to do, like me untangling her knickers .. the knots pull and she doesnt like it.

Because she IS allowed to growl i know when shes approaching 'had enough', becuase shes got first class bite inhibition she can tell me when its too hurty and ill stop and rub it better.

I have no doubt that if she had been told off for growling and punished into stopping growling.... id have had my face removed for me by now (or someone else would, probably a vet!).

So some dogs might never react that way, but tbh.... the risk is too high and what it boils down to is, you dont know until it happens by then someones been injured and your dog is potentially on a death sentence.

Too high a risk when there are far more effective and kind alternatives.

Hi Theemx, sorry, i don't put things across as well as you. I think i've gone off on a comletely different track (in my own little world as usual).

I was meaning the puppy grumbles that we get at a young age,not aggresive lip back growls,more of a kind of 'i don't want to be doing this,i want to do exactly as i want' which we get for a while with young pups. When i got my latest pup he would attack the grooming brush so much he'd rip the bristles out,growling all the way.He was gently held til he had calmed,told 'no' and he now after a few times of this stands to be groomed like a little angel.Had i let him have his own way and stoped there and then,he would never accept things and learn that grumbling and protesting get himexactly what he wants in his life.
The same goes for working them.Their blood is up so much that this is the time they could bite when they catch rats,rabbits etc.
but they never do as they are told 'no,leave' and they will come off,not stand and growl.
Yes they do have a fight to the death attitude as you say but this is directed at their quarry never at us or other people as they are taught to channel their instincts into their work and at home are very calm,easy dogs.
If i had an adult terrier that was growling a warning at me as i think is what we were meant to be discussing before i went off with the fairies,lol, yes that would be different but we have never let our terriers get to that stage .I hope i'm making sense,i do waffle a bit,my husbands the one with the real affinity for terriers,it's a lovely sight to see ten terriers all at heel off leads ,he really understands them but unfortunately won't come near a computer!

> I keep thinking that I'll write an alternative breed description for mine (gundog). 

Had me in fits, and he sounds a wonderful dog!  :-)  :-)  :-)

> I prefer to allow my dogs to growl, it means i KNOW when somethings wrong.
>

Haven't copied the whole thing, but very sensible advice IMHO