hi,i wasnt sure if i should post this under"health"sorry if im wrong.I have a spayed bitch of 6 years old,who seems incredibly stressy.she contiually growls,though its never escalated int o fighting,but it is so wearing!if i tell her to stop it,she just gets louder-whether im drying her,putting the dogs leads on,at bed time-during the day she lies and stares at one of my other dogs-even though shes fast asleep,its like she can never relax.would herbal calmers be worth a try,has anyone had good results?thank you in advance xxx

Telling her off won't be helping, for a start.  If she's anxious you're only adding to it and making her more so.  In the long run she may start to increase her warnings if they are ignored for long enough, and/or start to skip growling because that's being told off and trust me, that is not a route you want to go down.  She is communicating - listen to her.

You need to work out why she's growling and address that, rather than just concentrating on the symptom.  Something herbal may help, but as to what will work - well, it's trial and error.  Personally I find valerian tincture more effective than most but melatonin the best underneath prescription meds.  None of this fixes the issue though.

Frankly I think you'd be best getting a force-free behaviourist in to try and work out what's going on but in the meantime, when did she last have a very thorough vet check (including bloods), how long has this been going on, and what is her relationship with the other dogs like?  You say she stares at one of your others - is it always the same one?  What's her eyesight like?  Any food intolerances, and what is she fed on currently?  Exercise/training/play routine?

hi nikita-yes,shes always done this,i blame the fact she was only 8 months old when we had the new pup,dont know why,but i always felt bad she didnt have her full puppyhood out before the usurper.its mainly river she stares at,tends to run and grab her,especially when i turn the hoover on,or anyone comes to the door,both of them run round like headless chickens,not caring if i get in the way or not.,but if shes wound up,she will snatch at jess,the eldest (who usually knuckles under,where river sparks off back)

she is a very nervous girl,as for training,i dont do much now,but shes a good girl,comes back fine on walks. i had to stop training classes because she hated them-was very good,and learned quickly,but did evrything very slowly,and i could never get her to play in class.shed fall asleep between every exercise,literally have to be woken up for the next,and eventually i twigged she was scared,she didnt enjoy it like the other two so i stopped taking her.
she is also a bit of a bully,preventing river  from running,in the woods,unless she has a toy in her face,i put this down to her being scared and bullying to make herslf feel better
i dont like telling her off,but comforting her doesnt help either,and it does get very wearing.do you think its another face of the bullying she does?
she/they,get 3 walks a day,of varying distances,depending on my bad hip!never less than half an hour,up to an hour and a half.
her health is excellent,has never ailed a thing,slim,well muscled,shiny coat,etc,all are raw fed.never noticed a problem with her eyes.

im sorry to sound pathetic but i cant afford a behaviourist,or a thorough vet check,im on the  state pension only,although,my dogs are the most important things in my life,and i would beg borrow or steal to get them any treatment they might need.
as this has been going on for so long,i doubt im going to be able to stop it,i thought maybe if i could make her calmer,using herbs,she might relax more. i forgot to mention-she even grumbles under her breath when im putting their leads on-the other two dont react,probably used to it! thanks for your reply,nikita,i love your common sense-i find it quite hard to "read" my dogs!

Comforting won't help either if she is bullying (and it does sound very much like she is) - you need to actively work on her responses to whatever sets her off.  Some of this is management: so shutting both dogs away separately from each other when you're hoovering, for example, and then when they're together, watching her for the earliest signs that she's about to charge at River and interrupting, then rewarding the backside off her when she comes away.  Early on this may need to be when she turns away from doing it, to start making headway, but long term, you want to be aiming to reward halted attempts (charge halfway then stop and come back) and completely aborted attempts (looking at River, thinking about it but deciding not to).  Those will come as you start to work, even if it doesn't happen now.  Her stopping any attempts must be really made a big deal of though - any time she stops, it is an amazing thing and make sure she knows it.  I go with graded rewards - so if she's mid-bully and comes away when I call her, she'll get a rather lacklustre 'good girl', enough to mark her decision to stop but if she twitches to do it and stops herself, I will throw a party with whatever food or toys I have to hand!

I do find walks tend to be a little harder but again it's a combination of management and training.  Same process as above basically, but I would do a lot of work on getting a really sharp recall first so you can call her off in that more exciting environment.  I find a good 'leave' has made a huge difference here too (I've gone through all of this same trouble with Ren and, weirdly enough, it's mainly directed at River here too!  I also did it with River before Ren arrived as she can be a bully too and it worked very well - I find it's the only really successful way to improve bullying in the long term).

One thing that really helped with Ren on walks was to drill into her that whenever Linc started to run, she should come to me and was well rewarded for it - she was a bugger for chasing him and biting his side, and because of her explosive temper previously, he wouldn't dare tell her off.  So even now, as soon as she sees him pick up speed, she turns round and comes straight to me.  It allows the others to play without her barrelling in and hammering everyone for fun.

Indoors when she growls I would just move her away.  No fuss, no telling off or comforting, just look at the situation that sparked it, and consider how you could manage or train for that in the future.

I would not be surprised if she does have some soreness somewhere though, even though she's apparently always been in good health.  River came to me as a bully of dogs and indeed had been encouraged to do it to a degree, but at 6yo it was found that she had a chronic slipped disc and on the same MRI, narrowed nerve root canals in her lumbar spine were discovered too, which are congenital - she had been in pain from birth.  But fully mobile etc so I had never realised and it was only when she went on tramadol for the disc, which took away the pain of the pressure from the narrowed root canals, and all the bullying diappeared overnight that it all fell into place.  Ren too has a lot of tension which our chiropractor believes has been there most of her life and her behaviour really turned a corner when I got her pain meds and supps right.

oh my goodness,nikita,please come and live with me!haha,joking,as u guess,id drive you mad,but thanks so much for your brilliant perception-ren could be gwen!i already shut dogs in separate rooms when i hoover-i feel for the neighbours! i sincerely hope poor gwen isnt in pain tho i see how its quite possible.(and i will watch closely,now im aware)
ive had some success with telling gwen to "lie down" when ive noticed shes staring at river-whos no blooming angel herself,to my shame-tearing across the field to bark at a poor tiny on lead dog,cringe.
the "moving away"when growling, i will try,and thank you,im desperately grateful foryour help.xxxxx