There’s no way around it: we don’t want canine aggression in our homes. When humans approach dogs in this way, they usually intend to be friendly, but dogs may perceive this behavior as threatening or intimidating, and react accordingly. Many dogs are uncomfortable with being hugged or being approached with direct eye contact. Humans and dogs have different communication systems and as a result, there are often misunderstandings between the species. Instead, they communicate via the only means available to them–they growl or snap. I don’t like it.” They can’t reason with a small child to quit pulling their ears or quit crawling on them. They can’t say, “Please don’t do that to me. Simply put, dogs can’t use words to talk to us. The good news is that growling and snapping don’t necessarily mean that worse behavior is inevitable. From a dog’s perspective, there’s always a good reason for aggressive behavior. However, for a dog, they’re simply ways of communicating. To us humans, expressions of canine aggression are unacceptable behaviors. Does this sudden behavior change mean you must rehome him, or worse? Does it mean you have a dominant dog on your hands that you must force to be submissive? What would suddenly make your dog act aggressively? After all, you may have done your research and made sure you adopted the best dog for your family. If your dog recently growled or snapped, you may be wondering why.

Growl definition