Expert Trainer Explains Why Dogs Growl & How to Handle It
Adrienne Farricelli CPDT-KA, Dip.CBST
December 22, 2024 at 5:00 PM
"After my dog's TPLO knee surgery, he has a few times now growled at my wife. It is only when we are sitting in the living room (he is in a confined area still) and she comes home from work through the door. (So only when she's coming home from being out all day).
It's an odd behavior -- he loves her and always wants to cuddle her. It also doesn't necessarily appear like a typical aggressive behavior. However, it is unsettling given his breed. We were just hoping to hear from a professional on what might be going on and how to nip this in the bud (no pun intended)." -- Justin
Related: Why Does My Dog Growl When I Pet Him?
Dogs Growl to Communicate
Hello Justin, I understand how unsettling it can feel when a dog who is normally loving and cuddly undergoes a behavior change like this that feels so out of character. I'm glad you are seeking help now, as early-onset behaviors are more responsive to behavior change processes than more established ones with long rehearsal histories.
You are correct to use caution in labeling the behavior as aggressive, considering that growling is ultimately a form of communication. What is the dog trying to say? We can gain some insights into a dog's thoughts by carefully evaluating the circumstances that lead up to the growling.
The fact that your dog has undergone a recent surgical procedure could play a role in this behavior, particularly in the case of a surgery that impacts the dog's mobility and involves a recovery period.
While the surgery could be a key factor, there are however other elements to consider as well, such as the use of medications, the healing process, environmental factors, and the dog's relationship with the individuals in the household.
Each of these factors may influence your dog's actions, and unraveling them will require a thoughtful, layered approach. Let's dig deeper into what dogs may be trying to communicate through growling and what can be done to ameliorate the situation.
What Does It Mean When a Dog Growls?
As mentioned, growling is not necessarily a sign of aggression. Sure, in some contexts it can be a precursor to a bite, especially when the growl is ignored, but it's more often a form of communication.
What are dogs trying to communicate by growling? Growling is used to communicate a wide array of emotions or needs, which may vary based on context. For example, this guttural vocalization can be used to express discomfort, anxiety, frustration, or to warn of a potential threat.
In some cases, growling can be a way for a dog to seek attention, or it may take place during play. Obviously, these forms of growling are accompanied by looser body language compared to the more serious types of growling.
In most cases, growling is a distance-increasing behavior, meaning that the dog is asking for space or for an interaction to stop. In these cases, the growling acts as a warning. Heeding the warning helps prevent putting the dog into the most dangerous situation of biting.
Ultimately, the key takeaway is that growling is not a diagnosis; it's a clinical sign that signals an underlying problem that needs to be addressed, points out veterinary behaviorist Dr. Lore I. Haug.
How Do Surgeries Impact Dogs?
Any type of surgical intervention can impact dogs physically and emotionally. Following are several factors that may play a role in changing the way dogs behave.
Changes in Routine
Dogs thrive on routines because having consistency and predictability in their daily lives provides them with reassurance. A surgical procedure disrupts a dog's routine in several ways.
For example, in the case of orthopedic surgeries, there may be changes in the walking schedule. The dog may also need to be on a restricted exercise regimen, which leads to increased confinement. Even interactions with the people around the dog may change, as often one dog owner becomes the main caretaker.
All these changes can have a deep impact on dogs. When a dog's day-to-day schedule changes abruptly, this can be perceived as very unsettling and may lead to stress and confusion.
Pain and Discomfort
Even if the dog is provided with medications to control post-surgical pain, some level of discomfort or pain is almost inevitable, especially with an orthopedic surgery such as a TPLO procedure.
According to a 2024 study, when an animal feels discomfort, it experiences extra mental strain, or "cognitive load," which can make it harder for the animal to handle stress in their environment. Pain can therefore make dogs more sensitive to stimuli in their surroundings, and they may become less tolerant of situations that they normally would've handled well.
Dogs may act more irritable and may respond to certain situations in uncharacteristic ways, such as growling, snapping, and avoidance behaviors. Certain events that may have led to pain in the past may cause dogs to react in a negative manner, as they anticipate pain.
For example, if your dog moves or gets up when he's confined and hears somebody coming through the door, and this causes pain, through associative learning it may be possible for the dog to associate that specific person with the pain.
Similarly, if a dog is sleeping and is roused from a deep sleep by a person entering the home, the dog may react due to feeling vulnerable, disoriented, or startled from being abruptly awoken -- and may associate the person entering the home with these feelings.
Related: What Can You Give a Dog for Pain Relief? OTC Meds & Supplements
Reduced Mobility
When dogs undergo a surgery that involves the joints or bones, such as a TPLO, it will significantly impact the dog's ability to move around freely.
Reduced mobility can trigger emotional reactions due to the dog's loss of independence and sense of security. This may lead to feelings of frustration and increased vulnerability since the dog cannot move as quickly as they normally would.
Reduced mobility removes or significantly reduces a dog's flight response. In a nutshell, it prevents dogs from moving away freely, as they would if they felt stressed by something. This causes them to more readily go into fight mode rather than flight mode, since they have no other choice.
Confinement
Confinement can be mentally taxing on dogs and make them feel more vulnerable. As with reduced mobility, confinement further removes a dog's ability to move away (flight), which, again, can make them more prone to reacting defensively (fight).
Furthermore, as dogs become less mobile, they may become more territorial over their space. Dogs may start perceiving the area where they spend the most time as their "den," which can lead to a heightened sensitivity to people entering their perceived "territory," even if they are family members.
Relationship Changes
Oftentimes, when dogs undergo a surgery, there is one person who will take care of the dog, help the dog get up, take the dog out on leashed walks, provide mental enrichment, etc. This might temporarily increase the bond between the dog and the main caregiver, which could create shifts in their interactions and potentially lead to "owner-guarding" behaviors.
Medication Side Effects
When dogs undergo surgery, they are often provided with pain medications and anti-inflammatory drugs to ease the pain and inflammation. Some of these drugs can cause side effects such as disorientation, nausea, and changes in mood. Disorientation and mood changes can lead to behavior changes.
Fortunately, pain and medication-induced behavioral changes are typically temporary and go away once the pain subsides and the medication is stopped. However, we must consider that learning components could be at play, which we'll discuss in the next paragraphs.
My Dog Is Suddenly Growling -- What Should I Do?
As seen, surgery, even if successful, can be a stressful event for dogs. Pain, a confined recovery space, changes in routine, medications, and physical limitations can sometimes lead to sudden and unexpected behavior changes.
These behaviors may reflect how the dog feels about their surroundings and their interactions, and they may impact the relationship the dog has with the people he normally trusts.
1. Mention the Behavior to the Vet
A good place to start when a dog starts growling suddenly and the behavior is out of character is discussing the behavior with the vet.
The vet may want to evaluate whether the dog is in pain and how the recovery period is going. Adjustments may be made to the medications if the vet deems it necessary. This is important because a behavior change program is destined to fail if the underlying cause of the behavior change stems from a medical issue or a medication side effect.
2. Consider That Growling Has a Learning Component
Although growling may subside once the medical circumstances that led up to it are addressed, something to consider is that growling may have a learning component too. In other words, growling is not only influenced by immediate triggers (like pain or discomfort) but also by the associations and outcomes that take place during certain events.
We have already discussed how a dog that is recovering may associate a person entering the home with the pain felt upon moving or the unsettling feeling of being roused from deep sleep. In this case, instead, we'll be discussing how outcomes may influence behaviors.
As mentioned, growling is a distance-increasing behavior, and its function is often to increase space or stop an interaction that the dog finds uncomfortable.
In the case of a dog that growls upon a person entering the home while he's recovering, if the growling is successful in increasing distance (the person moves away either by chance or purposely), that reinforces the behavior.
By growling, the dog therefore learns how to manage the environment when he's not feeling comfortable. Even after the physical pain subsides, the dog may continue to growl in similar contexts because the behavior has been reinforced.
Related: Why Is My Dog Suddenly Aggressive Toward Me?
3. Avoid Suppressing the Growl
It may be tempting to correct the dog for growling, but because growling is a form of communication, it is vital that it's not suppressed.
It would be counterproductive to scold a dog for growling in hopes that he stops growling. This approach would only backfire, potentially leading to a dog who skips growling as a warning altogether and goes directly to biting.
For example, if a dog is punished for barking or growling at an approaching visitor, the dog may learn to eventually sit quietly without growling, but the dog's emotions aren't being addressed. Although the dog may appear to be sitting quietly, he may still display other subtle signs of discomfort, but these are often missed by owners and visitors.
If the visitor happens to reach toward the dog, the person may still get bitten because suppression of the growling did not address the underlying issue, points out Dr. Lisa Radosta. Obviously, this is a dangerous situation for both humans and dogs.
4. Identify the Trigger
The good news is that when dogs manifest barking or growling behaviors in specific contexts, we have more control. However, it's important to dig deeper into this contextual growling to identify the exact trigger.
By teasing out the factors contributing to the behavior, we can better understand what is driving it and, subsequently, determine the most effective approach to address it. For example, some important questions to consider to determine some rule-outs include:
Does the growling occur when your wife enters the home and your dog is in your vicinity? If so, the growling may suggest some form of "protective" owner-guarding.
Does the growling occur when your wife enters the home and walks past the dog's confined area? Does your dog have food or toys in the confined area? If so, the growling may suggest some form of space-guarding or food/toy resource-guarding behavior.
Does the dog growl at your wife only when entering the home or also at other times (e.g., while she moves around the house)?
Evaluating whether growling occurs outside these specific contexts (e.g., without food or toys, when not in vicinity of the owner) is a good way to rule out these potential triggers.
Note: It is not advisable to deliberately experiment to see what exactly provokes the growling in order to gather this information. Doing so allows the dog to rehearse the problematic behavior and can be stressful to the dog. There may obviously be safety concerns too.
In many cases, behavior professionals can obtain this information via a thorough history-taking, basically data-gathering based on a dog owner's careful recollection of past events. However, situations sometimes warrant direct observations or recordings of the behavior for more accurate assessments, but only when safe to do so.
Related: Can a Toy Be Toxic and Cause Resource Guarding?
5. Prevent the Dog From Practicing the Behavior
The reason why we want to avoid the dog rehearsing the growling is because the more dogs are repeatedly exposed to growl-evoking events, the more the behavior becomes deeply ingrained.
Essentially, we risk strengthening the associations between the trigger (person entering the home), the dog's behavior (growling), and the consequence (person leaving).
Further, the more the dog rehearses the behavior, the more stress levels increase, which may cause an escalation to more intense behaviors (snapping, biting), and the behavior may generalize to other contexts (the dog may start growling in other situations outside of confinement, like while resting or lying in a confined space).
When Managing the Environment Alone Might Work
The best way to prevent the dog from practicing the problem behavior is through management. For example, keeping the dog behind a baby gate, exercise pen, or in a room located away from the entryway when the wife enters the home may prevent your dog from being triggered.
Other options include having the person enter through a different door, move more quietly, or send a text message in advance so preparations can be made to avoid startling the dog.
Generally, if the growling behavior is an isolated event -- or transient -- and potentially linked to the dog's recovery from surgery (e.g., pain, medication effects, confinement stress), then management alone may be appropriate as a stand-alone solution.
If the growling persists past the recovery time and/or presents on other occasions, and it is linked to an underlying emotional response (e.g., fear, anxiety, or guarding tendencies), then it is important to work on the issue directly. A behavior modification plan that aims to change the dog's emotional response would be necessary.
6. Work on Changing the Emotions
The process of changing a dog's emotional response requires a careful balance between management and systematic behavior modification setups. For safety purposes, and to ensure correct implementation, it's important to work alongside a dog behavior professional.
The behavior modification process may vary from one case to another based on several factors. For example, a dog who acts overprotective of one owner may need different modifications than a fearful dog barking/growling when someone enters the room.
Therefore, below is just a basic example of what a general behavior modification to address growling at a person entering the home may entail.
Management
As discussed, management helps prevent the dog from rehearsing the problematic behavior, reduces stress, and keeps everyone safe. As part of a behavior modification protocol, management must be in place when you're not actively working on the issue.
It's important to point out that management is not avoidance; it's simply a temporary strategy that will help the dog feel safe and less stressed while preventing potential setbacks during the process.
Systematic Setups
Setups are carefully organized sessions where the dog is systematically exposed to the trigger (a person walking through the door) presented at a low level of intensity and paired with something the dog highly values (treats/foods that the dog loves work best). This is done through a combination of desensitization and counterconditioning.
Desensitization
Desensitization is a behavior change process where the trigger is presented at a low level of intensity that doesn't evoke the problematic response (growling).
Examples of how we can offer low-intensity versions of the trigger that do not evoke growling may include keeping the dog at a distance from the entryway (through the use of baby gates), avoiding doorbells or knocks, quiet entries, etc.
Counterconditioning
Counterconditioning involves pairing the trigger with something positive (tasty treats). It works best when used along with desensitization so that triggers aren't initially overwhelming.
For example:
The dog may be fed a treat when the person opens the door (without knocking/using the doorbell) and the dog watches the person enter the door quietly from a distance. This exercise may be repeated several times while paying close attention to the dog's body language to ensure the dog remains calm.
As the dog remains relaxed, it is possible to slowly raise criteria and increase the intensity of the trigger, such as by having the person move more naturally and then practicing in slightly different scenarios or times of day to help the positive associations generalize across contexts.
The person entering through the door may also toss the dog treats over the baby gate if the dog is comfortable with this and the person's treat-tossing movements don't startle the dog.
The ultimate goal is to change the dog's emotional response so that, with time, the dog no longer feels the need to growl but instead starts anticipating the arrival of the person through the door because it has become a predictor of great things happening (treats!).
Of course, this is a simplified example, as some dogs may need more substeps, considering how triggers are multifaceted. The dog may need to be first desensitized and counterconditioned to the sound of the keys jingling, the noise of the door unlocking, and the sound of door opening prior to calmly observing a person entering the home.
Dogs may also need to be fed treats as the person walks around the home, as they often stay on alert for some time after the entry.
Related: How to Help a Dog Recover From a Dog Attack
Please Work Alongside a Professional
It's always important to carefully monitor the dog's behavior and subtle body language cues to ensure the behavior modification process progresses smoothly, which is why working alongside a behavior professional is recommended.
Safety should always be the top priority. The professional may suggest using a basket muzzle and/or other forms of containment, such as baby gates, exercise pens, or crates, to ensure everybody remains safe.
A board-certified veterinary behaviorist (DACVB) or a qualified trainer specializing in gentle behavior modification techniques can help create a customized plan and ensure the dog remains below their threshold throughout the process.
Under their professional guidance, you can create a customized plan that keeps your dog below his stress threshold, setting the foundation for lasting positive changes and a more harmonious home environment.
Up Next:
Related: Help, My Dog Is Aggressive After Being Neutered!
References
Clinician's Brief, 2015. Growling in Dogs, by Lore I. Haug, Texas Veterinary Behavior Services Sugar Land, Texas
Beaver BV. Canine Behavior: A Guide for Veterinarians. Philadelphia, PA: WB Saunders;1999
Serpell J, ed. The Domestic Dog: Its Evolution, Behaviour and Interactions with People. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press;1996
Mills, DS, Coutts, FM & McPeake, KJ 2024, 'Behavior Problems Associated with Pain and Paresthesia', Veterinary Clinics of North America: Small Animal Practice, vol. 54, no. 1, pp. 55-69
Rooney NJ, Clark CC, Casey RA. Minimizing fear and anxiety in working dogs: A review. Journal of Veterinary Behavior. 2016
"Dog training and behavior modification, particularly for challenges involving potential aggression (e.g., lunging, barking, growling, snapping, or biting), require in-person guidance from a qualified behavior professional. Online articles are for educational purposes only and do not replace personalized, professional intervention. By using this information, you accept full responsibility for your dog's actions and waive any liability claims related to their behavior. If your dog shows concerning behaviors, seek professional help immediately to ensure safety and proper care."