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CC rescue question

Hollysidekick

New Member
I have always had dogs. I have four now; 9 yr old Boston Terrier (inherited from my father in law who passed) 12 year old Australian Blue Heeler, 5 year old female pit bull and Lucy, 2 year old CC. I have also had GSD and other small dogs. All are rescues. Lucy was around 18 months when I got her and she is a joy, truly. My question is this... my pit is very submissive (they get along great) and when loving on the pit she likes to .. only way to describe it is "purr" . She kinda moans when someone in the family loves on her and its adorable. The Pit and Lucy are very close and lately when I love on Lucy she starts to growl a little. She doesn't show ANY sign of aggression when she does it. I am not rough housing with her.. literally just petting and scratching her down on the floor with her. It is the only time she gets vocal like this and its a bit disconcerting.. anyone have experience with this kind of vocalization? I understand these dogs are different than other breeds and I am trying to keep that in mind with her. Anyone?
 

Nik

Well-Known Member
My mother in law's rescue dog growls when you stop petting her. It is her way of complaining and saying "keep petting me". It can be disconcerting if you don't know it's her way of asking for love.

My dog Diesel sometimes makes what we alternatively call crocodile or dinosaur noises while we are loving on him. It is his way of saying pin me down and rub my belly. If you don't literally pin him he starts swinging his head around while making his crocodile/dinosaur noises. Once you pin him and start rubbing his belly the crocodile noises stop and his tail just thumps into everything like crazy. Diesel also makes the crocodile noises at our other dog Kahlua sometimes and it means "play with me". Usually he does it at her while rolling around on the floor on his back and swinging his head around back and forth. Kahlua understands the noise and always pounces him to play when he does it.

In both cases the vocalizations always stop once the dog gets what it is asking for. Does Lucy stop making her growl noises if you pet her more or differently? Or if you play with her? Or maybe she is asking you to stop? If you stop petting her does the growling stop? My best guess (not seeing the behavior myself) is that she is asking for something she wants and communicating with you. See if you can find out what that particular behavior means for her. Once you translate her sounds and behavior it won't be disconcerting to you anymore. You just need to find out what she is telling you.
 

Jarena

Well-Known Member
I have a 5 month old CC girl. I was actually thinking about posting a similar question. My girl started doing some growling/crocodile noises about a month ago. It seems to be her way of communicating. I feel like it's her way of telling me she is annoyed with me. It's almost always when I am invading her space trying to kiss on her. Most of the time she doesn't mind but sometimes she kinda grumbles at me and as soon as I back off she stops.

I also wonder if backing off is the correct response from me. I'm not sure if I should be letting her "tell me what to do". I don't want to punish a growl (better to get a warning rather than a bite) but I also don't want to be growled at.
 

Nik

Well-Known Member
I have a 5 month old CC girl. I was actually thinking about posting a similar question. My girl started doing some growling/crocodile noises about a month ago. It seems to be her way of communicating. I feel like it's her way of telling me she is annoyed with me. It's almost always when I am invading her space trying to kiss on her. Most of the time she doesn't mind but sometimes she kinda grumbles at me and as soon as I back off she stops.

I also wonder if backing off is the correct response from me. I'm not sure if I should be letting her "tell me what to do". I don't want to punish a growl (better to get a warning rather than a bite) but I also don't want to be growled at.

Backing off is the correct response. You want her to feel confident that you will respect her communications. If you want to be able to keep petting her and have her okay with it you can work on conditioning that with the use of treats and toys so she sees cuddle time as a happy fun thing or at least something that if tolerated will end up with her getting a reward of some kind.
 

marke

Well-Known Member
I have a 5 month old CC girl. I was actually thinking about posting a similar question. My girl started doing some growling/crocodile noises about a month ago. It seems to be her way of communicating. I feel like it's her way of telling me she is annoyed with me. It's almost always when I am invading her space trying to kiss on her. Most of the time she doesn't mind but sometimes she kinda grumbles at me and as soon as I back off she stops.

I also wonder if backing off is the correct response from me. I'm not sure if I should be letting her "tell me what to do". I don't want to punish a growl (better to get a warning rather than a bite) but I also don't want to be growled at.

i'm going to disagree with the personal space , I've never raised a dog that had their own personal space when it came to me or my family ...imo, a dog with their own personal space is a bite waiting to happen ........ ........ I wouldn't punish her , i'd distract her , change her thought and make it enjoyable ........ I always make sure my dogs know getting their head grabbed and kissed is fun , kids will do that almost instinctively ...... I start out grabbing their heads gentle , rubbing their ears so they like it , in time I can grab it and rough them up and they think it's great .....
 

Nik

Well-Known Member
i'm going to disagree with the personal space , I've never raised a dog that had their own personal space when it came to me or my family ...imo, a dog with their own personal space is a bite waiting to happen ........ ........ I wouldn't punish her , i'd distract her , change her thought and make it enjoyable ........ I always make sure my dogs know getting their head grabbed and kissed is fun , kids will do that almost instinctively ...... I start out grabbing their heads gentle , rubbing their ears so they like it , in time I can grab it and rough them up and they think it's great .....

That's a very good point Marke. I have always conditioned my dogs in the same way so there hasn't really been an issue with that. I just think the most important thing is not to punish for growling. You want the dog to still give warnings when they are upset. But, yes I agree redirecting and making the contact happy and desirable is the ideal response.
 

Hollysidekick

New Member
My mother in law's rescue dog growls when you stop petting her. It is her way of complaining and saying "keep petting me". It can be disconcerting if you don't know it's her way of asking for love.

My dog Diesel sometimes makes what we alternatively call crocodile or dinosaur noises while we are loving on him. It is his way of saying pin me down and rub my belly. If you don't literally pin him he starts swinging his head around while making his crocodile/dinosaur noises. Once you pin him and start rubbing his belly the crocodile noises stop and his tail just thumps into everything like crazy. Diesel also makes the crocodile noises at our other dog Kahlua sometimes and it means "play with me". Usually he does it at her while rolling around on the floor on his back and swinging his head around back and forth. Kahlua understands the noise and always pounces him to play when he does it.

In both cases the vocalizations always stop once the dog gets what it is asking for. Does Lucy stop making her growl noises if you pet her more or differently? Or if you play with her? Or maybe she is asking you to stop? If you stop petting her does the growling stop? My best guess (not seeing the behavior myself) is that she is asking for something she wants and communicating with you. See if you can find out what that particular behavior means for her. Once you translate her sounds and behavior it won't be disconcerting to you anymore. You just need to find out what she is telling you.

She does it when she is hanging with the family. She has a space for herself if she wants to be left alone ( I had heard this breed needs something like that) and she has used it every so often. She gets love and hugs and kisses all the time. My first thought was that she was trying to imitate the Pit Bull. I will continue (carefully lol)to try and understand what she is trying to tell me. She doesn't not stop when I am rubbing her but she does stop if I tell her to stop. We are also having chewing issues and she loves to steal stuff out of the house and take it outside in a pile. I think that is more of a bored issue.
 
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DennasMom

Well-Known Member
Denna sometimes groans with pleasure... like when I'm rubbing her ears... other times it turns into more of a growly "purr" as you described it... Her eyes are rolled back in her head, so I know it's not a "quit doing that" sound... just another vocalization. It can sound a bit... ah... disconcerting for a human, but based on her body language, I roll with it and keep loving on her. She could just move away if she really didn't enjoy the attention. I can ask for quiet with a gentle "shhhhh" sound, but I normally don't need to.

Our last dog absolutely learned the joy of vocalizing from other dogs, so the thought that she's imitating the pit might be right on, too.
 
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Nik

Well-Known Member
She does it when she is hanging with the family. She has a space for herself if she wants to be left alone ( I had heard this breed needs something like that) and she has used it every so often. She gets love and hugs and kisses all the time. My first thought was that she was trying to imitate the Pit Bull. I will continue (carefully lol)to try and understand what she is trying to tell me. She doesn't not stop when I am rubbing her but she does stop if I tell her to stop. We are also having chewing issues and she loves to steal stuff out of the house and take it outside in a pile. I think that is more of a bored issue.

About the chewing issues - If she is stealing and chewing stuff she isn't suppose to you may want to try bitter apple spray if you haven't yet. Diesel used to have a bad habit of grabbing and destroying stuff that wasn't his. Bitter apple spray resolved the issue entirely for us. It does eventually wear off so we have to remember to reapply it but he doesn't try to destroy stuff as much anymore and I attribute a lot of that to the spray. He has his own toys and stuff to destroy if he must destroy something but I spray over everything he could possibly get to that I don't want him to touch.

Now I have also heard some dogs don't hate the bitter apple spray taste... I am super happy mine does though since it works like a charm for us.
 

Hollysidekick

New Member
About the chewing issues - If she is stealing and chewing stuff she isn't suppose to you may want to try bitter apple spray if you haven't yet. Diesel used to have a bad habit of grabbing and destroying stuff that wasn't his. Bitter apple spray resolved the issue entirely for us. It does eventually wear off so we have to remember to reapply it but he doesn't try to destroy stuff as much anymore and I attribute a lot of that to the spray. He has his own toys and stuff to destroy if he must destroy something but I spray over everything he could possibly get to that I don't want him to touch.

Now I have also heard some dogs don't hate the bitter apple spray taste... I am super happy mine does though since it works like a charm for us.
Funny I JUST went out and got some lol... so far it seems to be working quite well thank you for the suggestion!