What am I not doing?

[k9krazee]

Nobody ever said anything about hitting the dog. If you tell a dog not to growl, it's only showing it that warnings are pointless. This causes you to create a dog that bites without an obvious warning.

I'm not saying you should ignore the growling, but you need to address the problem and not the symptom. The dog is obviously uncomfortable about something and that issue should be addressed, not the dog telling you that it's uncomfortable.

[sasvermont]

Nobody ever said anything about hitting the dog. If you tell a dog not to growl, it's only showing it that warnings are pointless. This causes you to create a dog that bites without an obvious warning.

I'm not saying you should ignore the growling, but you need to address the problem and not the symptom. The dog is obviously uncomfortable about something and that issue should be addressed, not the dog telling you that it's uncomfortable.

I am not sure exactly what you're addressing in this comment. If you tell a dog not to growl (unacceptable behavior) it is not going to drive them to bite! Get real. I TOTALLY do not agree with you! You can't read a dog's mind. How can you determine why the dog is "obviously uncomfortable"...... My dog has growled at me - when she was young and guess what, she has NEVER bitten me or anyone else. She was told NO when she growled.

[Varga]

I agree with k9krazee and K9soul. Worry less about "asserting dominance" and focus more about building trust between you and your dog

[k9krazee]

I am not sure exactly what you're addressing in this comment. If you tell a dog not to growl (unacceptable behavior) it is not going to drive them to bite! Get real. I TOTALLY do not agree with you! You can't read a dog's mind. How can you determine why the dog is "obviously uncomfortable"...... My dog has growled at me - when she was young and guess what, she has NEVER bitten me or anyone else. She was told NO when she growled.

Three rolly eyes, I win!

Growling is unacceptable behavior to whom? Growling is the dog's way of letting you know that they feel threatened, uncomfortable, possessive, defensive, whatever. I don't have to read the dog's mind to know that that.

Let's say a dog has a bone and it growls at you because it doesn't want you to take the bone. You tell the dog not to growl. He STILL feels uneasy that you're going to take the bone away. You stopped the growling, but you didn't stop the way he feels in the situation. I'm not saying that it will "drive the dog to bite", but he's not left with many other options to let you know how he's feeling. Some dogs may submit to the correction and you won't have any problems, some may feel like they have to use physical means to get the point across. All dogs are different and all situations are different.

I'm not advocating letting the dog get away with growling, just that you should look into the cause of the growling. In the bone situation I'd play trade games until the dog felt comfortable giving up his bone, thus eliminating the growling without correcting the dog for doing it. I want to teach the dog not to feel possessive or uneasy that I'll take it away.

Or in Clover's situation I'd probably cut back on sticking my hands into her food bowl. Too much of a good thing can be bad. Maybe instead I'd hand feed her or use her meal times as training times. I'm a huge advocate of hand feeding your dog anyway, I think it's a nice bonding thing.