# Growling while playing�is this aggression?



## n2goldens (Nov 5, 2017)

*Growling while playing…is this aggression?*

I have a 10 week old puppy that I have had for twoweeks. She is your typical puppy when itcomes to being very mouthy and biting. One thing I have noticed is that she growls when she is playing with hertoys and at times she will growl at my daughter and me. This is our third golden and neither of ourprevious goldens acted this way. I amwondering if growling at her toys or biting and growling at my daughter and meare signs of aggression. Any suggestionson how to correct this behavior?


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## hahuston (Jul 5, 2017)

n2goldens said:


> I have a 10 week old puppy that I have had for twoweeks. She is your typical puppy when itcomes to being very mouthy and biting. One thing I have noticed is that she growls when she is playing with hertoys and at times she will growl at my daughter and me. This is our third golden and neither of ourprevious goldens acted this way. I amwondering if growling at her toys or biting and growling at my daughter and meare signs of aggression. Any suggestionson how to correct this behavior?


I think she's just being a puppy and playing. My dog is very verbal. He demand barks, growls at his toys when he plays, and "talks", but has yet to bark at the doorbell or people coming and going. One of my neighbor's golden barks at every little everything while another neighbor has never heard her golden bark. 

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## davmar77 (May 5, 2017)

n2goldens said:


> I have a 10 week old puppy that I have had for twoweeks. She is your typical puppy when itcomes to being very mouthy and biting. One thing I have noticed is that she growls when she is playing with hertoys and at times she will growl at my daughter and me. This is our third golden and neither of ourprevious goldens acted this way. I amwondering if growling at her toys or biting and growling at my daughter and meare signs of aggression. Any suggestionson how to correct this behavior?


we notice that when amber plays with the tug type toys. not as much on the others.


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## n2goldens (Nov 5, 2017)

hahuston -


Willow does seem to be very verbal. She barks when I am getting her dinner ready, I am sure that is from excitement that she is about to eat. The growling is a little upsetting. Like I said our other goldens never growled. I am hoping that this just is a puppy phase. 


Willow will be starting puppy training in December. I hope that helps. 


The aggressive manner of her growling and biting is concerning. It scares my daughter.


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## n2goldens (Nov 5, 2017)

davemar77 -


Willow will roll around with her toys and growl. Last night was bad because she was growling when my husband and I were playing with her and she was biting us. We kept replacing our hands with one of her toys, but that didn't seem to distract her. I ended up taking her potty on last time and putting her in the crate.


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## hahuston (Jul 5, 2017)

n2goldens said:


> davemar77 -
> 
> 
> Willow will roll around with her toys and growl. Last night was bad because she was growling when my husband and I were playing with her and she was biting us. We kept replacing our hands with one of her toys, but that didn't seem to distract her. I ended up taking her potty on last time and putting her in the crate.


My Asher bites a lot, and hard, when he's tired, hungry or has to go potty. If he's been fed and pottied and is still biting super hard, refusing to be redirected, off to bed he goes. He's usually out cold within seconds.

I think you'll feel better after you get to talk to the trainer and start classes. What you describe really doesn't sound unusual to me. 

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## ceegee (Mar 26, 2015)

n2goldens said:


> (...) The growling is a little upsetting. Like I said our other goldens never growled. I am hoping that this just is a puppy phase.
> 
> Willow will be starting puppy training in December. I hope that helps.
> 
> The aggressive manner of her growling and biting is concerning. It scares my daughter.


Does your puppy class include a session on canine behaviour? If not, ask the training school if they offer one: it might help you to understand why she does this. It's important for you to be able to distinguish aggression from intense play. Ten-week old puppies are rarely, if ever, aggressive: they just don't know what behaviour is acceptable to humans and what behaviour isn't. If play-growling isn't acceptable to you, it's up to you to teach her not to do it. Ask the trainer at your puppy class to help you with this.

Some pups are more verbal than others. Some have higher drive than others and invest themselves more intensely in their games. Both will tend to growl more when playing. Did you choose your pup from the litter, or did your breeder choose her for you, based on the type of personality you said you wanted? For example, I do dog sports with my golden (agility), and "play intensity" is something I'd want in a puppy.

Generally speaking, puppies will "growl" at humans to try and engage them in play. My golden (at 2 years old) will still do this occasionally: he play-bows, jumps around and "invites" me to play with him. It's funny to watch - and it always works! Our toy poodle does it too, much more. It's their way of getting us to do stuff with them and is the reverse of aggression. Ours are both high-drive dogs chosen to do dog sports, and they need a fair bit of human input. It's what we wanted.

How old is your daughter? If she's old enough, she should go to puppy class with you, to learn how to interact with the dog. My daughter came to her first puppy class when she was 6 years old, and I'd have taken her if she'd been younger. 

As for the biting, all golden retriever puppies are mouthy, some more than others. Again, it's up to you to teach her not to put her teeth on human skin. I teach this by allowing the pup to mouth us, and "squealing" and withdrawing from the game when he bites too hard. If he initiates the biting, he goes for a time-out in his crate. Some trainers will recommend redirecting the biting to a toy, but I'm not a fan of this method: it always strikes me as "rewarding" the dog for biting. Withdrawing human attention and putting in time-out has always been effective for us: goldens are sociable dogs and want to be with their humans. Our current golden was a shark when he was younger, but he's as gentle as they come now.

Good luck, hope you get this sorted out.


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## mylissyk (Feb 25, 2007)

A 10 week old puppy growling is just playing. She is not aggressive. She is playing the way she would play with littermates. This is normal puppy behavior.

If you are really afraid of her growling, take her back to the breeder.


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## mylissyk (Feb 25, 2007)

n2goldens said:


> davemar77 -
> 
> 
> Willow will roll around with her toys and growl. Last night was bad because she was growling when my husband and I were playing with her and she was biting us. We kept replacing our hands with one of her toys, but that didn't seem to distract her. I ended up taking her potty on last time and putting her in the crate.


Totally normal, and you did exactly the right thing. When they get too over stimulated they need a time out.

It is 100% normal for puppies to bite you. They use their mouth on everything in their environment. She is just learning what you want, keep putting toys in her mouth, praise her when she chews on them. Keep doing that and over time she will learn to chew toys and not you. It does get better.

Keep in mind 10 weeks is an Infant.


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## mylissyk (Feb 25, 2007)

Read through this thread. Great information here.

http://www.goldenretrieverforum.com...y-up-1-year/380986-its-puppy-not-problem.html


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## Joanne & Asia (Jul 23, 2007)

Our Kismet is 10 weeks tomorrow and has just started growling during play with us. He has been doing it with toys for the past week. It happens when he is over aroused and I have found that if we do some training sits and downs and look commands he settles right down. I have used a time out once and that worked well too. Normal puppy excitement I think.


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## Gleepers (Apr 20, 2016)

Penny is almost 2 and still growls when she plays. It?s not a mean growl but the more excited she gets the worse it sounds.


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## Nate83 (Jul 13, 2017)

Angel will grab my sock and run to me growling because she wants to play.


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## n2goldens (Nov 5, 2017)

hahuston said:


> My Asher bites a lot, and hard, when he's tired, hungry or has to go potty. If he's been fed and pottied and is still biting super hard, refusing to be redirected, off to bed he goes. He's usually out cold within seconds.
> 
> I think you'll feel better after you get to talk to the trainer and start classes. What you describe really doesn't sound unusual to me.
> 
> Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I337 using Tapatalk




I have noticed with Willow that she does bit harder when she is tired. I have also noticed those are the times it is harder to redirect her.


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## n2goldens (Nov 5, 2017)

ceegee said:


> Does your puppy class include a session on canine behaviour? If not, ask the training school if they offer one: it might help you to understand why she does this. It's important for you to be able to distinguish aggression from intense play. Ten-week old puppies are rarely, if ever, aggressive: they just don't know what behaviour is acceptable to humans and what behaviour isn't. If play-growling isn't acceptable to you, it's up to you to teach her not to do it. Ask the trainer at your puppy class to help you with this.
> 
> Some pups are more verbal than others. Some have higher drive than others and invest themselves more intensely in their games. Both will tend to growl more when playing. Did you choose your pup from the litter, or did your breeder choose her for you, based on the type of personality you said you wanted? For example, I do dog sports with my golden (agility), and "play intensity" is something I'd want in a puppy.
> 
> ...





I have signed Willow up for puppy training starting in mid-December. I am also going to start taking her to a puppy/training group in two weeks. After watching her play the past couple of days I do realize that the growling is from her playing hard. She did growl and jump at my daughter, but again I think that was her way of playing. I agree with you that a 10 week old golden puppy wouldn't be aggressive. She just plays very differently then our other goldens and it took me by surprise. 


The breeder picked our puppy. We said we are looking for a puppy that is friendly, outgoing (not shy) not anxious or high strung. We want an active, happy dog, but not hyperactive and one that enjoys cuddling. 


Our daughter is 13 and she will be attending training with us. She does already play an active role with Willow. She takes her in the back yard and plays with her and also feeds her dinner. 
*

**

*I like the idea of a time out. When you put your golden in time out, did you use a crate? Did you tell him you were putting him in time out?


Thanks for all your help and advice.


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## n2goldens (Nov 5, 2017)

mylissyk said:


> A 10 week old puppy growling is just playing. She is not aggressive. She is playing the way she would play with littermates. This is normal puppy behavior.
> 
> If you are really afraid of her growling, take her back to the breeder.


Thank you for reassuring me that it isn't aggression. I have come to understand that she is playing, and playing much differently then our other goldens. I also believe the night that she was acting very mouthy and growling was that she was overly tired and needed to go to bed. When I put her in her crate she was asleep in no time.


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## hahuston (Jul 5, 2017)

n2goldens said:


> Our daughter is 13 and she will be attending training with us. She does already play an active role with Willow. She takes her in the back yard and plays with her and also feeds her dinner.
> *
> 
> **
> ...


My 3 oldest kids, ages 6, 9, and 12, have all been to training classes with us and take very active roles in Asher's training, according to their age. It has helped them all get comfortable with him and learn to read his body language. 

Time outs are not puppy punishment in our house. No matter how frustrated we are, we do our best to maintain a sense of calm in our body language and use a sweet tone of voice, the words we use don't matter then. So I can crate Asher while sweetly saying, "If you weren't so cute, I'd wring your adorable puppy neck. Mommy needs you to have a time out." The crate is his safe place for rest, high value treats, and a place to be confined safely when needed.



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## n2goldens (Nov 5, 2017)

mylissyk said:


> Totally normal, and you did exactly the right thing. When they get too over stimulated they need a time out.
> 
> It is 100% normal for puppies to bite you. They use their mouth on everything in their environment. She is just learning what you want, keep putting toys in her mouth, praise her when she chews on them. Keep doing that and over time she will learn to chew toys and not you. It does get better.
> 
> Keep in mind 10 weeks is an Infant.



I am glad that I did the right thing. I want to make sure that I am training her correctly and not doing things wrong.


I am working hard on redirecting Willow when she does bite. I always have toys in arms reach to replace my hand with a toy and praise her. 


You are correct I cannot expect a 10 week old puppy, now 11 week old puppy to act like a adult dog. Sometimes it is hard when you are sleep deprived.


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## mylissyk (Feb 25, 2007)

Good for you! I am really happy you are figuring her out. They are such individuals, just like us.

Time out is good for when they are over stimulated. Sometimes like a human child they get cranky when they are tired and need a nap. You can use the crate with a good chew bone, or a puppy play pen. I don't think it necessarily needs to have que word, but no reason you can't say "nap time" or "time out", when you feel the puppy needs to wind down. I would usually pick up the puppy and with a positive attitude put him in the crate. It's not meant to be a punishment or discipline.


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## n2goldens (Nov 5, 2017)

mylissyk said:


> Read through this thread. Great information here.
> 
> http://www.goldenretrieverforum.com...y-up-1-year/380986-its-puppy-not-problem.html



Thank you for the link. I will take the time to read it.


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