Does anyone have a good link or links to decent articles on how to deal with young pups growling at owners? A new member on the list I moderate have asked what to do with her 13 week old (toy) pup that growls when picked up and I am just waiting for the same thing to happen as last time when people shouted about pushing the pup down forcefully to make it submit etc. I have the good links to bite inhibition and resource guarding, but none quite fits here -any suggestions on good sites to point the owner towards? It's always so good to be able to back up what I  say myself with somebody ELSE's words of wisdom!

Turid Rugaas ( another great Scandanavian ;) ) Has a good article scroll down to the 'Slamming doors' bit.
Hope this helps as I 'owe' you a favour M! :D

Brilliant! That's the ticket, PERFECT! :D Thanks!

What an excellent article. It neatly avoids getting into the dominance trap while explaining how pups need kind and consistent guidance for everyone to live happily together.

I also found the "puppy licence" interesting because I've watched Nips and his brother and sister forget that their particular licence expired a long while ago when in the company of their mother. Only she had another litter about 12 weeks ago and while the pups could get away with murder - including "talking back", if the older siblings tried it on they got a very serious telling off!

That really is an excellent article, thanks for the link too, :)

Lindsay
x

I will be passing that one on to a few people as well.  Great article.

Is your dog growling? Wonderful! That means that he hasn´t been scared into passivity and has kept a natural part of his way of communication. Growling isn´t dangerous, it´s simply a way to let others know that he is uncomfortable.

That is really intersting observation in that article!

We tried a dog from a rescue but it went for kids so I took it to a behaviourist to be assessed and on ther recomendation returned him to the rescue with the information they supplied to help find a more suitable home. One thing they commented on was he had lost his growl.  They said this means he bites first with no warning as he has previoualy been punished in hs first home for giving a growl.

And also he must have been hurt a lot by kids because he was so agressive towards them. All I knew was he'd been from a house with lots of kids where the mum had said she didn't have time for a dog. 

He as the do who made me so intersted in behaviour and taining of dogs because I wondered how anyone could screw up a dog so badly so quickly..he was only 9 months old. Some people!  If I took him now with more experience and no little kids I could do more for him. Poor lad.

Good advice, particularly section 1 - stop provoking it! I know what list you mean Goldmali, and I stand by my advice which nobody responded to - if there isn't any reason to pick the dog up, stop doing it - lots of dogs don't like being swooped down on and yanked violently into the air without warning!! :-)