You’re visiting family, and you brought Scruffy. Everything was going fine, and then suddenly, Scruffy snapped and growled. Now everyone’s mad, Scruffy is a “bad dog”, and the good vibes are off while everyone stares at you for bringing your super dangerous totally aggressive unreasonable dog to the family get-together.
Don’t get me wrong; some dogs truly are not sociable with other dogs, and prefer and are better off staying at home while you go spend time among the bipeds. But that’s not always the case, and that’s what we’re here to talk about today: the beauty of a growl.
For a lot of us, our dogs are family. They’re part of the crew, they travel with us, sleep in our homes, come along for family outings, and are just part of the “pack”. We put them in sweaters, give them nicknames, fuss over what they eat… All of that is well and good, but sometimes, it slides into scolding dogs for doing dog things. Telling your dog to knock it off because they’re sniffing another dog’s butt, when that’s how they get to know each other. And yes, correcting your dog for growling.
“You’re a trainer, why would you let a dog growl?” Precisely because I’m a trainer is why I will let a dog growl. There’s a thing in dog behavior called the “ladder of aggression”. While I dislike the misuse of the term “aggression”, which is unprovoked hostility, that’s what it’s called, so that’s what I’m stuck introducing it with. I much prefer the “ladder of correction”, but I’m not the ultimate decider of dog lingo and no one has to go with what I say.
Anyway.
Correction is the act of introducing an unpleasant stimulus to deter unwanted or inappropriate behavior. We as humans do it all the time, with family, friends, and total strangers. Say you’re at the grocery store, and someone bumps you with their cart. The first time, maybe you assume it’s an accident and leave it alone. The second time, however, you might turn around and give them a warning glance to stop. The third time, you’re done, you tell them to knock it off. Maybe politely, maybe forcefully. Fourth time? They’re pushing your boundaries on purpose at this point, and you snap and tell them to get away from your or else.
And if they do it a fifth time? Hoo boy.
All of those steps were escalating corrections. Correction is part of communication, it’s how we set and enforce boundaries to protect ourselves, our families, and our communities. All animals do it, one way or another. Our escalation ladders look different, but they all have the same purpose and they all start small before moving up to higher levels of “knock it off”.
Dogs are no exception; barring dogs with broken communication (we’ll get to that in another post, because it really deserves its own discussion), when a dog is uncomfortable, they start with a stare-down. This is the first sign that a dog is warning you off, the classic “freeze and stare”. This is “hey, I’m uncomfortable, and I need you to step back”. From here, a dog will escalate to bared teeth and growling, to snapping, to a tackle/take-down/physical correction, to a full-on bite. That warning was your first chance to back off. If you didn’t listen, it’s not your dog’s fault when they escalate, it’s yours for failing to listen to and respect their warning.
“That’s all well and good, but why do trainers tell us that growling is bad? Isn’t growling and backing off letting my dog set the rules?”
Unfortunately, as I’ve said before, dog training is the wild west. There are no rules we all consistently agree on. Every trainer is different and many, to be blunt, have no idea what they’re doing. Retaliating on dogs for growling comes from the entirely debunked “dominance theory”. People, particularly men, latched onto the idea of “alphas” and “dominance” because it’s a reflection of the outdated and endlessly toxic old-school concept of masculinity: never back down, never let anyone tell you what to do, never negotiate, never be the weaker one. Unfortunately, gents, dominance theory was debunked when the very person who “discovered” it went back and realized that the wolf who he thought was keeping everyone else in line was actually just freaking out and having a complete and total meltdown, and was aggressive with every other wolf in the enclosure as a result of his own fear and insecurity.
There is a lot of commentary I could make, here, but I’ll leave that one to my readers.
Moving on. There’s a great clip out there that highlights all of this perfectly. Not for the faint of heart, but if you want to see it, search for “showdown with Holly” and you’ll find it.
In this clip, the reality TV star (I refuse to call him a dog trainer) continually harasses and threatens a dog who is displaying resource guarding. The very first thing he does is set down her food bowl, and then IMMEDIATELY begins displaying aggression towards her with a stare-down. Holly is blinking and looking elsewhere, trying to show “hey, I’m not here to fight you, dude, calm down.” Holly begins eating her food, and the TV star proceeds to physically position himself above her, then jabs her in the throat when she tries to tell him off. He continues to threaten her and hit her until she snaps. She’s tried everything in her toolbox to de-escalate the situation, and the TV personality has refused to listen, demanding that she “be submissive” to him and let him do whatever he wants. When she has tried everything she can to de-escalate and protect herself, she grabs his hand in a firm bite, and he responds by kicking her in the stomach and continuing to tower over her and threaten her.
“But he’s being bitten by a dog, that hurts, he’s reacting to the pain.” Sorry, but no. Let’s get something clear: the antagonist is never the victim. Terrorizing another creature and provoking them to defend themselves, then acting like you did nothing wrong, is disingenuous and cruel. I have had dogs latched onto me, usually from a neurological episode or because they are intensely fearful or protective and I unknowingly did something that overstepped their boundaries and triggered a bite. I wait it out quietly and calmly until the owner can take control. I have never in my career jabbed, kicked, or punched a dog, even in self-defense. There is no excuse for this behavior, ever, certainly not from someone who claims to be a “dog trainer”.
My point is, this is what happens when we deny dogs their emotions and thoughts and expect them to never tell us “no”. We create dogs who lash out immediately instead of using their early warnings to communicate discomfort. It’s important to allow dogs their communication and their ability to convey these things in their own natural language; when we don’t, we create fear biters who snap for what we see as no reason at all. Dogs don’t growl because they want to hurt you; they’re growling specifically because they don’t want to bite you. It’s on us as their owners, handlers, trainers, and advocates to hear them and respect them for telling us what they need from us, even if what they need is for us to back off, be respectful, and give them some space. Backing off isn’t “being submissive”, and if your dog being respected makes you feel insecure or like you’re not “in charge”? The problem is absolutely not the dog.
Respect that growl and be grateful that your dog is communicating with you to try to de-escalate. They don’t have to, they choose to.