# Growling around food / when tired



## LukaP (Oct 28, 2018)

Hi everybody!
I have a wonderful 1.5 year-old male vizsla (unneutered).
He is extremely well behaved, very calm inside the house and generally very obedient outside (we have attended professional obedience courses for hunting dogs). He appears to be a very self-confident dog, likes to play a lot with other dogs and has never shown any aggression towards them or people.


However, for the last month or so I started noticing an undesired behavior towards my 10-year-old son and wanted to ask your opinion.


During the evenings, when the dog is waiting for his dinner and watching the activity in the kitchen, either from his cushion, or from under the table, he occasionally growls if my son approaches him or tries to touch him. I have also noticed the same growling if the dog is very tired, after being outside (e.g. hiking) for the whole day. The same growling (and even a snap towards my son's finger tonight!) sometimes occurs when the dog is resting in his (open) crate and my son comes to kiss him goodnight.
In summary, the growling occurs in the following situations: when the dog is tired, in the evenings and when food is involved.


Otherwise, my son and the dog have a nice relationship. They play a lot outside and my son takes him for a walk without any issues. The dog is very obedient on a leash when out with him (I don't allow my son to walk the dog without a leash despite a perfect recall).



About 3 weeks ago, the dog has also growled at another child and at an adult when he was very tired & waiting for food. However, he never growled at my wife or me.


I would be most grateful for your thoughts. My plan was to try to avoid these situations by instructing my son to ignore the dog when food is being prepared. Furthermore, my son also started preparing the dog's food, which seems to help with the growling. Moreover, I think that the crate is the dog's sanctuary and there should be no good-night-kissing when the dog is tired & sleeping.


However, I cannot help myself worrying that an aggression towards my son will develop out of this, despite reading on various websites that growling is only a warning to leave the dog alone.


Thank you in advance for your opinions!


----------



## texasred (Jan 29, 2012)

You know what the known triggers are.
I would crate the dog at those times for now.
Find someone in your area to evaluate, and work with you on getting this turned around. 
I would not let a 10 year old walk a dog alone, that has growled, and snapped at him.
I'm not saying your dogs triggers will change. Its just if they ever do, you need to be close at hand.


----------



## LukaP (Oct 28, 2018)

Thank you for your thoughts, texasred. Much appreciated!



Regarding the crating suggestion, do you think I should crate him when preparing food, or in the evenings when he is tired in order to avoid the triggers?


I have tried crating him a few times when preparing food. Then my son opened the crate and invited him to the food bowl in the kitchen - there was no growling during that occasion.


I'll keep on doing this more consistently in the evenings, before the evening meal and when he's tired.


If the growling does occur, what do you recommend? Who should let the dog know that such growling is not desired? Should it be my son, or me?


Thank you for your thoughts - this issue is really bothering me. I cannot stop thinking about it...


----------



## gingerling (Jun 20, 2015)

Agree with crating as an interim step. Not nearly as concerned about grouchiness at nite as I am about snapping at a finger!

Growling, lunging, = "NO! STOP THAT!!". By you, as the Alpha male. Get in his face, he needs to know that behavior is not OK.

Then, have your son start feeding him, have him put the food out and put it down and say "OK!".

Two things: The first is puppers has figured out the pack pecking order and sonny is Omega, so you want to raise your son's status by being the one who feeds. The other is the general "OK" command..a really important one that most folks miss....b/c it trains the dog when it's theirs, regardless of what the "It" might be....food, getting out of the car, going out the open door, retrieving, etc. So, every time you do "it", tell him "OK!", he'll get the message he needs to wait for that, especially if paired with "Wait" if he seems too eager.


----------



## LukaP (Oct 28, 2018)

Thank you very much. I cannot stress how helpful your comments are.

I crated the dog before feeding tonight. My son prepared his food, invited him to the bowl and confirmed with an "OK" that he is allowed to the bowl. (We were using this "OK" since he was a puppy, so he's used to this).

No growling tonight whatsoever. We also avoided kissing good-night.

Regarding the snap: on the one occasion that it happened, my son touched the dog's nose when the dog snapped. It was not a big snap, he did it lying on his side, half asleep and without lifting his head. But it was a snap, no doubt about that. Could it be that it happened because dogs don't like their noses touched?

In any event, we will be paying very high attention with regards to how things develop.
I will report back how things will be progressing.

Thank you again for all your kind advice!


----------



## Gabica (Jan 20, 2018)

There is another possibility / trigger beside all the great advices you have already received. He is getting into the age which is called the terrible 2.... this is their last fear period usually, can let till they are 3 and comes with some more prevalent signs the during puppy hood. Dogs which used to love children can develop suddenly a fear from them, tails between the legs or other unusual behavior, just as u described. Their confidence at activities they used to love and be really good at can suddenly undergo a deterioration. i have seen male dogs at this age becoming afraid of stairs (!) and older women with a bit of a deeper type of voice... type of foods they used to love suddenly dislike... i guess the list can be endless.
as in any other fear period it is important to work thru these so that they don`t become permanent. i agree that i would not let your son being alone with him until you figure what is really happening. another interesting point to consider: your 10 year old may also go thru a change and become a mini teenager himself. that may actually interfere with a dog in his own fear period.


----------



## gingerling (Jun 20, 2015)

Recall that their noses are very sensitive, so if your son touched him there unexpectedly...like when he's asleep.....then he instinctively would jolt in a very self protective way. If he really wanted to bite him, he would have. 

With that added detail, I actually like to think the puppy showed really good restraint there! Tell your son to not startle him..part of being Alpha is respect..a good life lesson, for sure.


----------



## texasred (Jan 29, 2012)

Someone that has been in vizsla rescue for many years, recommended this place today. They are said to be wonderfull, in helping family's work through problem areas witj their dogs. 
https://www.familypaws.com/


----------



## LukaP (Oct 28, 2018)

Gabica, thank you for your thought about the terrible 2 - I was not aware there was such a period 


For sure some of the things are changing. The growls were just one of them. He also started hiding under the kitchen table sometimes when waiting for food or with too many kids running around the house. I could say that he also reacts in a bit more sensitive fashion to a harsher voice during a correction, for example. Furthermore, he allowed himself to jump on my bed during one occasion (we have a rule that the bed is a no-no, unless invited). I also have to correct pulling on the leash a bit more often than usually (especially during the first early morning walk). So perhaps he is testing the limits a bit more than a few months ago.
As for my son... yes, I guess the first slight signs of puberty are starting to show and perhaps the sensitive vizsla nose has picked the smell of it 


Gingerling, thank you for your thought about the snap. My son should not have touched his nose when the dog is asleep. We explained this to him (as many times before - but sometimes kids are a bit deaf to what the parents are saying....) and hopefully he has learned his lesson.


In any event, I will not let my son alone with the dog until we are sure there are no more growls. We will continue the routine of crating before feeding with my son preparing the food, and leaving the dog in peace (especially his nose!) while sleeping. We did it this morning and all was fine. But I guess we will only be certain that things are OK after a few months without a growl...


----------



## texasred (Jan 29, 2012)

Its not always, that the child does not listen. It's just that they sometimes act, before thinking it through. You can't totally fault the child, for having a brain that's still developing. They need tons of reminders.
Plus most don't have enough situational awareness, to keep track of dogs body language. They read the happy dog, or growling dog. Its the in between that they have trouble with.


----------



## gingerling (Jun 20, 2015)

Luka, you're getting a lot of feedback and my sense from some of your replies is that you're not grasping some of it...I see you are in Europe, so maybe English isn't your first language?

It's highly doubtful at 10 your son smells differently..puberty?... and therefore your Vizsla feels challenged by him. Rather, its the unpredictable nature of kids..like touching his nose...that freaks them out. As kids get older, their actions are more predictable to dogs, and they can both anticipate and tolerate those intrusions better. With some kids, as they get bigger, their actions actually become even more challenging b/c instead of showing gradual self control, they do not and their size magnifies their actions and the discomfort for the dog. This seems to be the case here.

So, although this presents as a dog training issue, it's more a kid training issue...a lot of your efforts should be directed at helping your son show better awareness and self control...your Vizsla is merely reacting. The best way to eliminate a bad reaction is to eliminate the cause. And in all my years raising Vizslas I have never encountered something called "the terrible two's", what you have isn't a normal developmental thing that will naturally pass with time. Rather, it's the combination of the Vizsla's emotional sensitivity, coupled with the fact that yours might be even more so, coupled with the intensity of the environment at home. You can do little about the former two, so you're left using your awareness of them to adjust the latter variable.

So, I would NOT limit your son's time with the Vizsla..that will only freeze in place the anxiety and reinforce the Vizlsa's negative response..but rather supervise his time with the Vizsla. What you want to do is extinguish/eliminate what's there btwn them, and the only way to do that is with supervision and guidance.


----------



## LukaP (Oct 28, 2018)

Thank you for additional clarification. I really appreciate it. We are first-time dog owners and don't have experience with such issues.



So far, we have not experienced any more growling. I'll report back in a few weeks how things are progressing.


Thanks again!


----------



## LukaP (Oct 28, 2018)

Hi everybody,
I would just like to report back that we have not experienced any growls since my last post.

I'm nevertheless paying attention to the triggers: tiredness + food on the kitchen counter + noisy kids in the house. When these triggers occur, I rather ask the dog to go into the crate in order to avoid potential tension / anxiety, which could lead to growling.


Thank you again for kind words of advice and support!


----------

