Is A Growl Ever Not A Growl? Not The Ear Groanie Sound.

[Guest oldNELLIE]

I know you have gotten a lot of "my dog does something like this..." but I will share one more.

 

Nellie loves getting scratches on her haunches and will back up into your legs as a way to ask for them. She does a sort of silly looking stomp with her two back legs when she is excited about the scratches. Every once and a while though she will suddenly turn and snap, growl and quickly move away. We look at it as her way of saying "enough".

 

Some people may not agree with this, but we don't "correct" her when she snaps (she also has a sleep startle and will growl or snap sometime on the couch or in bed). Although I DO understand that all dogs can bite, Nellie is not a biter, and this is her way of telling us she is uncomfortable. We don't act afraid or angry... a quick "at-at" or "Nellie" does the trick. Her snapping is a way to communicate and for us to learn her boundaries. I would never want for her to not feel comfortable growling and move right into a bite.

 

We also don't have kids, which may change things...but I have always had "growly snappy bitey" dogs growing up and while I understand it can be frightening, to me it is just their way of saying "please don't..." and it doesn't always have to be for a reason or be something that we understand, you know?

[Tracey]

I just have to add super kudos to your DH for being so patient and trying to work with Rufus. In general I don't think that many people would keep a dog and continue to work with them after several snappings. I know, I know greyhound owners are a breed all their own. I've been keeping up with this thread and just wondering if he snaps when DH is just touching his ears or if it happens when he touches him other places? I know that when I brought Tank home we had a couple of snaps and went to the vet and found out he had an underlying ear infection. Just a thought. Good luck and God bless you both for being so patient.

 

Just want to clarify, Rufus has snapped just the once. The growling incidents have happened a few times, generally several days apart.

 

Anyway, as we're approaching this differently now, we realize Rufus has zero respect for DH. ZERO. We all know Greyhounds are lazy and that they may not rush over when you call them, but with enough prodding, either of us can get Chase, Morgan or Reggie to get up and come over to us no matter how uninspired they may be feeling at that moment. Jason was trying to get Rufus to come to him last night and except for the fact that he blinked occasionally you would have thought Rufus was dead. He wouldn't even acknowledge him. Now if I call Rufus, he will get up and come over and as I said, if I stand up to walk out of the room he is on me like glue. From some of the reading I've done, it seems that in the pack the higher ups will ignore the members they deem lower than them and clearly this is Rufus's take on Jason. It's funny because the other dogs either tend to regard Jason and I as equals, or in Chase's case, he listens to Jason better than he does to me (at feeding time Chase wants to jump all over me and it usually takes Jason reprimanding him to get him to stop. He only listens to me if I have a squirt bottle in my hand ).

 

Anyway, once we get past tax season and things settle down we're going to enroll both Reggie and Rufus in obedience and Rufus will definitely be spending a lot of time getting trained by Jason.

 

And Jan, thanks for letting me know about Smartydog. I was not familiar with them. I just looked on their site and I found this for tomorrow:

Coming When Called

 

How timely! I guess we'll be there.

[FiveRoooooers]

[\quote] Anyway, once we get past tax season and things settle down we're going to enroll both Reggie and Rufus in obedience and Rufus will definitely be spending a lot of time getting trained by Jason.

 

And Jan, thanks for letting me know about Smartydog. I was not familiar with them. I just looked on their site and I found this for tomorrow:

Coming When Called

 

How timely! I guess we'll be there.

 

Saturday's seminar is for hoo-mans only, but the demo dogs are awesome Hope you guys can make it.

[Houndless]

I just have to add super kudos to your DH for being so patient and trying to work with Rufus. In general I don't think that many people would keep a dog and continue to work with them after several snappings. I know, I know greyhound owners are a breed all their own. I've been keeping up with this thread and just wondering if he snaps when DH is just touching his ears or if it happens when he touches him other places? I know that when I brought Tank home we had a couple of snaps and went to the vet and found out he had an underlying ear infection. Just a thought. Good luck and God bless you both for being so patient.

 

Just want to clarify, Rufus has snapped just the once. The growling incidents have happened a few times, generally several days apart.

 

 

Got'cha. Sorry for the misunderstanding. I've been following the thread and thought he's snapped several times. Give DH extra pats and tell him that Rufus really does love him, it's just in Rufus' eyes he's low man on the totem pole.

[Tracey]

[\quote] Anyway, once we get past tax season and things settle down we're going to enroll both Reggie and Rufus in obedience and Rufus will definitely be spending a lot of time getting trained by Jason.

 

And Jan, thanks for letting me know about Smartydog. I was not familiar with them. I just looked on their site and I found this for tomorrow:

Coming When Called

 

How timely! I guess we'll be there.

 

Saturday's seminar is for hoo-mans only, but the demo dogs are awesome Hope you guys can make it.

 

We signed up, so we're planning on it. Will you be there?

[FiveRoooooers]

I will be there

[MerlinsMum]

Yes, sounds like you're on to something with the NILIF, Tracey. I was thinking that the time he snapped at Jason was just after Jason had let him lick the plate - and Rufus had come to him requesting it.

 

I think NILIF will probably yield some encouraging results :goodluck Keep us posted!

[FiveRoooooers]

Hmmm... another thought: Which one of you started calling Rufus"Captain Underpants" ??

ETA, sorry for the brain fade. that was reggie, wasn't it.

Edited February 20, 2010 by FiveRoooooers

[Tracey]

Hmmm... another thought: Which one of you started calling Rufus"Captain Underpants" ?? :lol

ETA, sorry for the brain fade. that was reggie, wasn't it.

 

Well, to your point, maybe Rufus felt jealous because Reggie got some stylin' pants and he didn't?

[Tracey]

Update March 11: On Saturday February 27 we took Rufus and Reggie to a Greyhound activities class put on by a local trainer. We had Jason handle Rufus as I thought this would be a good trust building exercise. It was an enlightening day as we realized Rufus is much less confident about things in general than we imagined. He was by far the most unsure Grey in the class. Based on this experience and what we'd been seeing at home, we kind of revisited the idea that maybe Rufus was growling at Jason out of fear.

 

So Jason's continued feeding Rufus, giving him treats and participating more with all the dogs. When he interacts with Rufus, such as petting him, he keeps it brief and we both tell him what a good boy he is. I got the idea that maybe if I praised him as well as Jason that it would carry more weight, since Rufus has never once growled at me when I've done any of the same things he's growled at Jason for. We have also taken to using a VOG to reprimand him if he does growl. This approach seems to be having some positive results.

 

Rufus growled at Jason once on the day of the class and then went four days before he growled at Jason again. It's now been eight days and counting since that growl and Rufus has been very sweet. He's becoming more playful with Jason and is following him around often when Jason gets up. Rufus also seems to look at Jason for more petting when Jason stops. We take these all to be good signs. Of course, we both think there may be more growls in the future. Rome wasn't built in a day. But we do think it looks like we're making strides in the right direction, which is wonderful, because most of the time Rufus is a very sweet boy. Just thought I'd share a positive update. Now hopefully I won't have jinxed us.

[LBass]

That is such an encouraging update to read! Sounds like you are on the right track with Rufus.

[Batmom]

Good news! I'd been wondering how you all were getting on.

 

Don't forget we like pictures .

[Guest LindsaySF]

Glad to hear the good news.

 

I agree with you, based on watching Rufus at the class he seems like an insecure dog. He's probably growling out of fear, or he could even be a wannabe alpha. (True alpha dogs don't feel the need to growl/act out all the time to reinforce their position, wannabes are insecure deep down).

 

I hope Jason doesn't take it personally. It's probably not just him, but it could be the fact that he's male. Men are more scary to a lot of dogs because of deep voices, being taller/heavier, some of their mannerisms and body language, etc. (Sophie is still afraid of my brother despite our working on this. He's tall, has a deep voice, and he shaves his head too so he wears a lot of hats. Sophie is having none of it. She will take treats though. )

 

Keep up the good work!

 

 

 

~Lindsay~

[TheFullHouse]

Very good update! Sounds like you just have to take it slow and steady with him.