6 months old puppy, first signs of fear aggression

[BowWowMeow]

It sounds like your pup is afraid of you and the growl is his way of trying to get you to stop what he perceives as aggressive/scary behavior towards him.

If you squash growling, especially with a fearful dog, you are likely to end up with a dog who will go straight to biting. Here's an article by the wonderful trainer Pat Miller called, "The Gift of Growl" Peaceable Paws

I think you need to start from scratch in building a positive relationship with your puppy. It also sounds like he could use some confidence building. I would enroll in an obedience course that focuses on positive reinforcement. NILIF is always a good plan to follow but in your case I would work hard on making everything fun, fun, fun. Carry treats or toys with you at all times and reward your puppy for everything he does right.

Some good reads to help understand dogs and also to help with training:

Patricia McConnell, The Other End of the Leash
Pat Miller, The Power of Positive Dog Training

There are lots more but that's a good place to start. They may be available at your local library or I'm sure you can get them for a reasonable price on line.

[cheburashka]

Awesome article, BWM! The weird thing is, he never growled at me in these cases. In fact, he's never growled at me ever, really. It went straight to lip curling and biting (I feel weird calling it biting, as it was never hard enough where I had to really yank my hand away in pain, but it definitely wasn't his usual no-pressure mouthing and he was showing visible signs of aggression with it and it certainly didn't feel nice), with no associated growl. I can only hope next time he'll give me a better warning and now I'll at least appreciate it and know how to properly handle it! He's usually fairly respectful of my alpha status (does commands when I tell him to, walks BEHIND me when we go for walks which is not something I taught him, etc), and the recall thing was definitely my fault for not working on earlier. That's why it's so shocking to me that he's been lashing out this week...

From this moment on: working on bonding, recalling, more positive reinforcement, and more controlled socialization with other dogs/puppy classes. I really appreciate all your guys' help, so much! Any more advice/articles/anything is also greatly appreciated! I feel so foolish and can only be grateful that my boy is still so young that hopefully these things will be fairly easy to correct with effort, time, and lots of love.

[debbiebrown]

most dogs will give an indication they are uncomfortable or stressed before they bite...........may not be a growl, but some other indication.........learning dog body lauguage can help you indicate and predict how he's feeling......

and i totally agree to can the dog park........if the dog is truely fear aggressive putting him in unpredicatable situations is going to make things worse...........as far as his baths and you, it sounds like he does not trust you, so i would work on building his trust through obedience and professional help.......continueing to force anything on him that he dislikes without positive slow conditioning won't get you to a better place..........he's still young, so if you dedicate yourself to working with him he will come around.....

[Rexy]

Originally Posted by AbbyK9

Stop going to the dog park. Obviously, your dog is not getting any exercise at the dog park if he spends most of his time being "glued to your side" and "watching the other dogs play from afar." He is not interested in this environment and continuing to take him will just continue to make him more uncomfortable and stressed.

Don't let your dog outside without a leash if you can't recall him or keep him from going to the neighbor's property. You also should think about working on positive recalls. It's no fun for a dog if the only time they're recalled, they get grabbed by the neck (collar) and drug into the house. Every time you do this, you make him less and less likely to want to come to you and you're teaching him that coming has a negative association (being grabbed and drug inside).

I don't think you and your dog currently have a very good relationship. It sounds like there's a lot of "forcing him" to do things that are uncomfortable for him, like going to the dog park and having forced baths. Have you ever tried building positive associations with the bath tub by just having him get in and giving him treats or other rewards for that? And building up from that in little steps?

I agree with this post, it appears the pup doesn't trust you and feels the need to defend himself in fear. You need to start over with this pup and develop a bond, best seek an experienced trainer to teach you how to raise and train a pup properly, what ever you have done with pup is to date is wrong.