22/05/2025
Informational Thursday
Famous animal behaviorist Ian Dunbar says that “punishing a dog for growling is like removing the ticker from a time bomb”.
Dogs use growling as a way of letting you know that they are stressed or upset. If you punish a dog for growling, you run the risk that they will avoid the early warning procedure and go straight for a bite the next time that they are uncomfortable.
There is a world of difference between temporarily suppressing a behavior, and changing the dog's underlying emotional state to produce long term behavior change.
For example, if you were scared of snakes, and I punished you for screaming by shooting you in the leg, you'd probably force yourself to stop screaming. But have I changed the way you feel about snakes? Would you act rationally if a snake got up close and personal with you? Probably not! If anything, I may have made you feel even more afraid of snakes, as you now associate them with the pain I inflicted. This is exactly what happens when you punish a dog that growls.
With your training, always think to yourself - is this a quick, short term solution, or will this benefit my dog and I in the long. So what can happen when you punish a growl is that your dog will learn that growling doesn’t work, and they will escalate to the next step. If you’re lucky your dog is very socially tolerant and offers many protracted warning signals, trying to avoid escalation. You punish the growl, so your dog moves to a snap. If you're unlucky, you will have a less tolerant dog with less warning signals and may go from a growl directly to an out right bite. Now, you have a dog that bites without warning. These are some of the most dangerous dogs to live with. And it’s difficult if not impossible to get that growl back.
So if you can't punish a growl, what can you do? You can take stock of the situation and ask yourself what happened right before your dog growled (this is known as the antecedent to the behavior). Did they have a high value chew? Were they being approached by a stranger? Were you touching their paws? Then, reach out to a positive, force-free behavior professional and come up with a behavioral modification plan to help counter condition the dog to whatever it is that is eliciting the growling, and manage the behavior in the meantime (avoid putting the dog in these situations).
If your dog growls, don’t take it personally. Understand that our dogs have a whole range of emotions, just like we do, and if we can build mutual respect by listening to our dog’s communication signals it can only deepen and improve our relationship. And most all, don’t punish that valuable communication!
(Graphics from https://www.beacondogtraining.com.au/thatdoggeek and http://www.co-evolve.co.uk/featured/blog-11-your-puppys-learning-and-experiences/)