Hi i am new to this but can anyone help me please! I have a 8 month old male bullmastiff and now and again he will growl at my grandchildren is this a common thing with these dogs, Most of the time he plays with them fine.
All the sites i have been on about bullies say they adore kids so i carn`t uderstand it can anyone help me please.

A growl is a warning, fair and square, it means back off or I will bite. Your grandchildren may be doing nothing to cause it but nevertheless I would not allow them to interact at all with your dog. It may also be worth getting him checked at the vets as it could have a medical reason. A guide saying a breed is good with children is just that, a guide. All dogs are different and there is nothing to say he will like them. If he is 8 months he is also coming up to the stage where the hormones kick in so that could well be a trigger for it. A dog of mine once growled at a child and it was the last time he had contact with them. It's just not worth the risk IMO.

Thanks for your advise do you think he may outgrow this problem ?

How old are your grandchildren?

We have 11 grandchildren aged between one and ten years old

Hi Lesley,

I agree with Colliesrus - a growl is a warning.  It's better that he warns rather than just reacts with a snap or more meaningful use of his teeth :(  BUT you'll have to look at the bigger picture and work out if there was possibly something that one of your grandchildren did to hurt, frighten or annoy him on any of their visits.  He's still very young but of course it's a teenage stage for him with hormones flying around and also he's a large and robust breed so you have to be extra cautious about incidents.

I've met lots of B/Ms through friends and think they are great dogs but, as with every animal, a dog has to be treated with respect and perhaps the children don't know how to do that yet.  

As Colliesrus said too, a breed guide is only that, and for every 10 dogs that live up to that guide there could easily be another 10 that don't so take practical safety measures to ensure the children can't tease him - even unintentionally.  If they are calm and so is he, perhaps allow supervised access to one another to make sure that he stays well socialised with kids and also to help teach the children how to behave around dogs but if there is not a responsible adult around who can give 100% attention to any interaction, it's probably best to keep him away from the children and them from him.

Good luck, and be safe.  Teri :)

My oldest elkhounds growls when cuddled....although it sounds aggressive to some people we now know that its what we call a 'pleasure grumble'. Is it possible your dog is doing the same? What is his body language like when he growls?
Archer

That is interesting Archer as your boys Grandsire is Brodies (bryony's boy that I bred) sire and he can do this when really pleased and being petted,a dn it really does soudn a bit off, and he is wagging his tail and rolling over for a tummy scratch while he does it.  I ahve discouraged it in the ring, but there are certain people he is more likely to do it with, usually when he really wants to make freinds, rahter than just accepting a fuss :D

Hi Lesley, i dont know whether you've been on this site, but it's for bullmastiffs with lots of experienced people who have owned the breed for years, give it ago and see what you think. Also whats he usually doing when he growls?  Does he just do it out of the blue?  or is there a reason for him to do it?   Most bullmastiffs are excellent with kids like other breeds but they do need they're own time when they wont to be left alone.   Good luck.

http://ukbullmastiffs.proboards46.com/index.cgi?action=login

Warm regards Susan

To everyone that has replied to my question i would like to thank you all for the information witch has been a great help to me. thank`s to all.   LESLEY

I'm not sure if the grandchildren are alll there at the same time :P but if so, it may be that the dog enjoys them but also after a while can feel overwhelmed and wants them to leave him in peace - I can see this in my own dog when we visit my OHs nieces who love her to bits. I ensure she is left in peace at this time. Children can often be very much in a dog's face and several hours of it can make the best tempered dog grumpy.

Also, remember small children who crawl can be very disturbing for a dog, more so than babies or older children, simply because they are so different and "keep coming" :P

Good luck
Lindsay
x

You need to get him to a good training school and stop the children playing with him unles you are there every min.
Ihave had this breed for 26 years great breed in the right hands but in the wrong ones.....

Is it something so simple as a warning that this young big dog is getting tired and needs some peace and quiet?

Well my boy must be like that too,love the word pleasure grumble,we as in all our family know his noise is not a growl but visitors who he adores (can be anyone from the milkman to the grass cutter)think he is growling but the more they stroke the more the noise comes.

Many male elkhounds do the pleasure grumble - it's not aggressive at all, and quite normal for the breed.  There is no accompanying aggressive body language, just a big smile.  Our Trygg always does it - he has a range of growls and sighs and it's just his way of "talking".  Sometimes he does it when judges are going over his ribs, often he does it the morning when he greets you with his teatowel/bed in his mouth.

my 9 month old rottweiler growls when he's being cuddled or petted but it is a completely different growl to that of when he is warning off one of the other dogs or if he feels threatened,, you can tell its because he loves what you are doing .. he is always growling at my 11 year old when she fusses him but has never ever bitten her and never would he is her shadow lol :D ive always found from their stance and body language that you can tell wether or not it is an aggressive,, playful growl etc ... i would advise though that if you can't tell from his body language wether or not its an agressive growl that the best thing would be to keep him away from the children to be on the safe side

I agree entirely. 

Also no dog should ever be left unattended with kids.

My Belgian shepherd bitch who was born in 1988 loved my daughter to death (only 14 months old when she came) followed her around devotedly making up games etc.  I still had to pull her pigtails when she took her temper out on pulling the dogs ears. 

When I had visiting kids including my own baby sister (then around 4 years old) and other children I found that she would become uncomfortable and stressed after a time. 

I would then give her time out by allowing her to go upstairs for some peace.  Any time she felt overwhelmed or uncomfortable she learnt to come and sit by me and look expectantly at the living room door.

I now learn how right I was to do this as my sister now 20 admits that she used to think it fun to tease the dog and encourage my daughter to do so!  She used to press her down against the sofa with ehr legs, try ditting on her etc. 

I was horrified, as I never left them alone, yet she was still able to sneakily do this!  this girls has no empathy for any livign creature, and the Rabbits she tried having as pets would scrathc her, and her family cat doesn't like her either.

I agree,
Small children need to be watched with pets very carefully,  my 5 year old nephew from Germany was visiting and sitting on the sofa with the cat on his lap, between his parents.  On glancing over I could see the cat's eyes bulging and her tongue sticking out   He was strangling her quietly while his parents were talking to us I jumped up and told him off in german, grabbed the cat and his parents were completely unaware of what had happened, they didn't believe me as he 'loved' animals :rolleyes:  Stupid cat hadn't even scratched him :rolleyes: but then she wouldn't, she seems to be more Ragdoll than Burmese :(  After that I wouldn't let him near my dog or cat ;)

I don't allow my friends children near my animals either, they poke, prod, pull and sit on their mini schnauzer and he's incredibly good with them - not, he's a dog on the edge, but I bet it'll be one of their friends that eventually gets badly bitten, he's already snapped at the children as he's been told off for growling and grumbling at them :(

The dog needs to know that there is a place she can retreat to that is safe and she won't be bothered

My puppy (9 weeks old) gets very hyper-active in the mornings, and now she has started to growl if you don't respond to her (i.e., if she jumps on the sofa for the 100th time, and you say off, lift her legs off and then ignore the behaviour) she will play bow but growl in what sounds like an aggressive manner. She also snaps in my direction, almost like she is trying to incite me to play because she sees it as a game. Is growling in this context a warning that she will bite, or just a means of getting attention. Also, what is the best way to curb this barking/growling for attention or in response to correction (we NEVER do anything more than the command and an actin - so, as I said, something like, if she nips hard when playing, we yelp and ignore her), as she is particularly doing this in the morning and I am worried about the neighbours complaining!

My pups have always been very excitable first thing - I put it down to being refreshed and full of joy! Obviously your pup's too young to go out for walks, and will be brimful of energy, which under 'natural' circumstances she would burn off by playing physical games with her littermates. Have you tried to reproduce this is some way - does a tuggy game help?

Both my dogs do the 'play growl' the one only does it while playing (tuggy, pully games) but the younger one does it while wiggling his bum, wagging his tail and carrying a toy, he also does a quiet growly woof at the end, its definately an incitement to play and sounds completely different to a real warning growl, its really cute to see and hard to resist :)

AAHH! I love the pupy welcome, even tho its mad :) I found that after a short game, giving breakfast kibble in a treat ball (I made my own for pups) helps to get rid of some their energy and gives them something to work at :)  

Thanks to everyone who has replied to my post, I have now found a dogpsyche how may be able to help i will keep you all informed how i go on
LESLEY.