[Alevelsareboring]

Ok so my dog has been doing this for the last two years maybe 3 im not sure. He is a 4 year old Stafforshire Terrier who we've had since he was pretty much born.

Whenever i stroke him he growls while playfully wagging his tail. I can usually tell when he's growling playfully or when he's growling because he feels threatened or annoyed and this growling seems to be playfully. But it's a little confusing because i always hear that a dog growling is him showing aggression and warning you not to touch him or invade his space.

I just want to know if my dog is showing aggression. He started doing this after a year or two, whenever me or my brothers came back from school as we are all teenagers and there's 4 of us we used to always pet him and he's get really happy and lick our faces for like 10 minutes straight. After a while it got kinda annoying him trying to lick our faces all the time when we come back so we didn't let him and after a while he started biting like clothes or shoes to control his happiness. So whenever we'd walk in he'd be wagging his tale and looking for something to bite. Once he had something he'd follow us around biting the shoe or cloth growling while wagging his tale, he would also occasionally drop the shoe and try to lick us as well.

Now whenever i just start petting him he get's really happy and tries to look for something to bite i kind of think he uses shoes to control his excitement because he knows we don't like it when he licks our faces. He does try to do it sometimes but when we move our faces away he grabs his shoe and growls while wagging his tail. So what do you guys think is it aggression or is he just happy?

[Leooonie]

What does he so when you take the shoe away? I would assume from what you have said it is no sort of aggressive response. Only only indication would be him becoming stiffer and deeper chesty growling when you take the shoe.

I would say it is something he has learned gets him lots of attention and possibly has become a habit. It may have originally formed from frustration that he couldn't output his excitement directly onto you and so redirected it to other objects.

Unless you are irritated by it or it is causing excessive damage there is not any harm being caused by his actions
However if you would like it to stop, I would suggest either ignoring and object biting or provide him with a chew toy or similar when you get in... That way he will either no longer find the biting rewarding or will forget about it once shown a toy FIRST and never after the biting or else you risk making it worse.

For future reference . A play growl is slightly higher pitch and more in the mouth of a dog than a chestier deep aggression growl. Aggression growls vary widely also depending on your dogs current emotional state... But body stiffness is a massive indication.... A wide whippy fast tail usually would indicate playfulness whilst a stiffer tail with a narrow arc or wagging motion may more likely signal a more anxious state:

Hope that helps!


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[Indo-Chinese Food]

i havent heard of "playful growling" -either hes growling or he isnt. A growl is unmistakeable generally, its of a low pitch, lower than you dog would usually make. also dont mistake wagging tail for happiness 100% of the time, excited dogs wag their tail too, and over-excited dogs can bite .
tbh you havent gven enough clear information to be sure either way, but if hes bearing teeth at the same time, its possibly nervousness or possibly territorial behaviour.

[Alevelsareboring]

(Original post by Indo-Chinese Food)
i havent heard of "playful growling" -either hes growling or he isnt. A growl is unmistakeable generally, its of a low pitch, lower than you dog would usually make. also dont mistake wagging tail for happiness 100% of the time, excited dogs wag their tail too, and over-excited dogs can bite .
tbh you havent gven enough clear information to be sure either way, but if hes bearing teeth at the same time, its possibly nervousness or possibly territorial behaviour.

No he doesn't bear teeth at all, he doesn't really bite the shoes or clothes really, he kind of just bites then and then holds them in his month, so he can't really growl with this teeth.

From your description it sounds like he's been playful which i thought at the start so thanks.

[Alevelsareboring]

(Original post by Leooonie)
What does he so when you take the shoe away? I would assume from what you have said it is no sort of aggressive response. Only only indication would be him becoming stiffer and deeper chesty growling when you take the shoe.

I would say it is something he has learned gets him lots of attention and possibly has become a habit. It may have originally formed from frustration that he couldn't output his excitement directly onto you and so redirected it to other objects.

Unless you are irritated by it or it is causing excessive damage there is not any harm being caused by his actions
However if you would like it to stop, I would suggest either ignoring and object biting or provide him with a chew toy or similar when you get in... That way he will either no longer find the biting rewarding or will forget about it once shown a toy FIRST and never after the biting or else you risk making it worse.

For future reference . A play growl is slightly higher pitch and more in the mouth of a dog than a chestier deep aggression growl. Aggression growls vary widely also depending on your dogs current emotional state... But body stiffness is a massive indication.... A wide whippy fast tail usually would indicate playfulness whilst a stiffer tail with a narrow arc or wagging motion may more likely signal a more anxious state:

Hope that helps!


This was posted from The Student Room's iPhone/iPad App

Thanks alot from your answer i'm pretty sure he's just redirecting his excitement into something else.

Usually he goes for this old shoe that's always lying around that no one wears so i don't really have a problem with it. When i want him to stop i tell him "drop it" and he drops it straight away almost immediately after that he seems to get even happier and try and jump on top of me to lick my face. I do let him sometimes but if i decline he jumps back down to bite the shoe. I can pretty much tell him to stop and lie down if i say it sternly enough though.

Also in regards to your attention comment do you really think he is doing it for attention?

Also do you think dogs may find it annoying when they get alot of attention? My brothers play with my dog sometimes like when they get in but most of the time they do there own thing. When i'm at home the dog pretty much follows me everywhere and is like permanently in my room. I always pet or play games with him all the time, sometimes he'll be relaxing and i'll pick him up and start stroking him or rubbing his stomach. He sometimes growls a little when i do this and growls when i try and pick him up again is that aggression or playful? It's pretty much understandable though who would want to thrust 6 foot 4 inches into the air and back again out of the blue lol.

[Ham22]

yes there is such a thing as playful growling. my dog does it a lot. before he got decrepit and apathetic he used to want to hold my hand in his mouth and squeeze it when i came home whilst growling and generally going crazy. its not threatening behaviour.

[daydreamnation]

hes bored stiff and wants you to play with him

[AmethystLove]

Yeah from what you say he defo wants to play!!


This was posted from The Student Room's iPhone/iPad App

[Alevelsareboring]

Thanks Guys

[danny111]

(Original post by Indo-Chinese Food)
i havent heard of "playful growling" -either hes growling or he isnt. A growl is unmistakeable generally, its of a low pitch, lower than you dog would usually make. also dont mistake wagging tail for happiness 100% of the time, excited dogs wag their tail too, and over-excited dogs can bite .
tbh you havent gven enough clear information to be sure either way, but if hes bearing teeth at the same time, its possibly nervousness or possibly territorial behaviour.

A growl can be playful. When I play with my friends dog, say tug of war, he starts growling like mad. When he sees someone being tickled, or generally just two people fooling around he gets totally mad too, barks and jumps up and down at you and wants to join the fun.

Now this dog is trained extremely well, so I have no fear there (i have put my fingers with a treat in his mouth before and he didn't start eating til i took them out). We don't know much about OP's dog so you are indeed right in saying we can't be sure.

[Indo-Chinese Food]

(Original post by danny111)
A growl can be playful. When I play with my friends dog, say tug of war, he starts growling like mad. When he sees someone being tickled, or generally just two people fooling around he gets totally mad too, barks and jumps up and down at you and wants to join the fun.

Now this dog is trained extremely well, so I have no fear there (i have put my fingers with a treat in his mouth before and he didn't start eating til i took them out). We don't know much about OP's dog so you are indeed right in saying we can't be sure.

barking and making noises when pulling on things arnt he same as 'growling' in my perspective. as i siad a growl is generally unmistakable, a low pitch noise made by the dog when it is feeling uncomfortable about a situation, or being terroitorial over a place or object. If you miss that you often can get the next stage, which can be a bite.
like i said the op has been too general in description adn not consistent or clear, so it could be anything. generally if it isnt 'growling but nipping at shoes is often symptomatic of 'herding' type fixation, more common with the herding type breeds of dog.

[danny111]

(Original post by Indo-Chinese Food)
barking and making noises when pulling on things arnt he same as 'growling' in my perspective. as i siad a growl is generally unmistakable, a low pitch noise made by the dog when it is feeling uncomfortable about a situation, or being terroitorial over a place or object. If you miss that you often can get the next stage, which can be a bite.
like i said the op has been too general in description adn not consistent or clear, so it could be anything. generally if it isnt 'growling but nipping at shoes is often symptomatic of 'herding' type fixation, more common with the herding type breeds of dog.

I've heard him growl at enough dogs to know it's the same sound. And the reason he is doing it, is because we were pulling a (broken) basketball, there is your "territorial over an object". I do think he understands the difference between playing though. I can in the middle just tell him to drop the ball, and he does. Then as soon as I take it and run, he's off after me. The only thing you have to know is to actually do give the dog the object in the end.