Puppy growling?
Yuma is coming up on 11 weeks now and he's made a lot of progress in the potty training area, which is great! I do have some concerns with growling, however...
Yuma growls more than any other puppy/dog I have ever met or owned! I'm starting to wonder if this is normal for the Kai at this age? Granted, he does seem to have an alpha personality and I'm sure some of it is just due to "being a puppy", but aggressive behavior is definitely not tolerable in our house.
We try to avoid playing games like tug-of-war so as not to give him extra opportunities to growl, but he often does it when we're not playing at all! Sometimes he will just come up to me when I'm sitting on the couch and growl at me and then try to bite. I would like to think it's just his way of trying to get attention, but I've had enough puppies to know the difference between an aggressive growl and a playful one.
Has anyone had a similar experience?
Yuma growls more than any other puppy/dog I have ever met or owned! I'm starting to wonder if this is normal for the Kai at this age? Granted, he does seem to have an alpha personality and I'm sure some of it is just due to "being a puppy", but aggressive behavior is definitely not tolerable in our house.
We try to avoid playing games like tug-of-war so as not to give him extra opportunities to growl, but he often does it when we're not playing at all! Sometimes he will just come up to me when I'm sitting on the couch and growl at me and then try to bite. I would like to think it's just his way of trying to get attention, but I've had enough puppies to know the difference between an aggressive growl and a playful one.
Has anyone had a similar experience?
Comments
When Goro was in his bitting stage we worked on teaching him to lick us instead of bitting. It worked ok. He grew out of the biting and stuck with the licking lol
If I start "hand" playing with the Kai, both of them will mouth me if I let them (now that they are older). I didn't play this with them when they were younger simply because I wanted to establish the ground rules.
Yeah, I'm realizing that at this point it's much easier to just keep my hands out of the play area as much as possible so that he doesn't even have an opportunity to bite.
When I was in elementary school my family adopted a German Shepherd - Husky mix who had been abused and abandoned... She was very protective of me and bit a neighbor boy, so we had to get rid of her
Overall puppy biting is a pain (literally). It will pass, but it's important to establish rules when they are young.
I see your concern after having what sounds to be a dog that was deemed to show aggression. But you've picked the right breed if that's your fear. Kais, by nature, have never shown to be aggressive to me at all.
I encourage you to play with your puppy as much as possible. That's the way you two are going to bond and have a relationship at his age. He's only 11 weeks old. It's normal to bite at that age. Have you ever watched two puppies play? They bite the crap out of each other and love it. It doesn't mean that he's being aggressive or mean. He's just having fun, and doesn't understand that you don't like it because he wouldn't mind playing like that with another pup.
It takes time to learn how to communicate with a new puppy. He has no clue what you are saying or feeling. Just like us humans have really no clue what they are thinking at that age. My advice is to first get him into a puppy socialization/play group class so he will have an outlet to get some of that energy out. My next advice would be to walk him before you start playing that way he won't be so over the top. Lastly, don't discourage growling if it's in good fun. Now if he was growling at you because he was resource guarding toys, food, etc. then I would have an issue with that, but only to the extent that I would work on building trust so he would stop doing that with you.
My last piece of advice is to stay away from the "dominant/alpha" way of thinking. I find that people usually use these terms to describe a behavior that they don't understand. For instance, I hear people say that their dog is an alpha when the dog is really insecure and lashing out or fearful, but mostly when their dog is just rude and has no social manners or training. In this case you were pondering "alpha" traits in your pup because you just didn't understand why he was growling.
Thanks, guys. This is all really great advice and was really reassuring! I will try not to worry about it so much.
We taught my parents' chocolate lab the word "gentle" and it works really well in a lot of situations, so I'd like to do the same with Yuma. I'll try the treat method to encourage kisses and let you know how it goes!
Where do you find the best puppy socialization groups? Are the PetSmart classes ok or should I look elsewhere? I've never been to one, so I could use suggestions!
My Shiba Inu, Akita, and Kai were very loud when growling. Shikokus are also loud, just see @Edgewood's videos of Kuma and Sachi playing.
Tug-of-war is great too! I taught my Shiba and Akita "drop it" and "leave it" by playing this.
I have actually had the most difficult time lately finding a trainer that I like. Kais are handler soft, and should not be pushed into a certain behavior or have trainers use pressure points to force them into a command.
I tried the Petco class with Sasuke and hated the trainer.. He would spray my dog with canned air! He then recommended dog training for dummies when I told him I wanted to seek help elsewhere.
Now, he was babysitting a poodle that had the high level of intensity that Sasuke had. Watching them play was really enjoyable because I was reassured his growling was for play.
A growl is a way of communicating. It can be used to communicate any number of things, but it's important to respect and listen to a growl. However, when playing, some dogs growl - as already noted - that's play. Just like when children are playing and running around screaming at each other. They may yell "I'm gonna get you!" ... That's play - they don't actually mean that they are trying to hurt the other child. Same applies to a growl during play.
Kai tend to grumble and growl, I guess they do it a lot. They can be vocal toward other dogs about their space. I've become somewhat jaded by it, but I've come to understand that most people think Kai growl/grumble a lot. Tho, they have obviously never owned a Shikoku. lol
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After everyone's input, I think we will most likely give the PetSmart class a go. If nothing else, it should at least be good socialization. I can tell Yuma is wearing out our 12 year old lab, so I think some play time with other youngsters would be really good for him.
I've met other shiba and one shikoku, but not kai ken so can't help on puppy or adult kai ken behavior..
The biting will get better with consistent work and training plus the pup gets better as they age.
NK seem pretty mouthy as pups and pups are mouthy in general.
Saya was horrible grabbed pants legs and hands she got better with work.