growling

You are going to get alot of different opinions on this matter!!  Read them all and decide which will work for you.

I do not allow my dogs to growl at me.  I deal with alot of very "hard" working dogs.  From puppies all the way to fully trained Police Dogs.  I personally would put the food down and sit beside the puppy.  If he starts to growl, I would gently, but firmly, grab him by the scruff and tell him "no" in a firm voice.  If he stops, then praise him!!  I would spend time petting him while he is eating and getting used to the fact that you are allowed to be around his food.  I would also spend some time doing an exercise with toys or bones, where you ask him to give up what he has inexchange for what you will give him.  That way he doesn't feel like he is losing bc he gets something in return.  If you have any questions about this, please feel free to contact me with your questions.  Best of luck!

Dawn

You have to be pretty careful when you're scolding a dog for growling, because sometimes the dog will decide that if he's no longer allowed to growl, he'll just go straight to biting instead. You're also making you approaching his bowl be a scary and negative thing, and what you're eventually trying to do is make it be a positive experience.

Remember in "dog world" once a dog has something, it is his, no matter what his status in the pack. It's considered horribly bad behavior for a dog to attempt to take something that he considers is already in his possession.

firedogk9

I would also spend some time doing an exercise with toys or bones, where you ask him to give up what he has inexchange for what you will give him.  That way he doesn't feel like he is losing bc he gets something in return. 

Some people call this a "trade" or a "leave it" command, and it's a GREAT way to go! Basically you practice with your dog - give the dog something not terribly valuable, say, an old sock. Then when the dog "leaves it," you give him something even better, like a cookie. Then he learns to be happy about relinquishing things to you because when he does, he gets something even better!

Here's one way you can teach a "leave it" command: http://www.clickerlessons.com/leaveit.htm 

For now, I wouldn't bother him while he's eating. You don't want to teach him that you're untrustworthy, that you approaching his food leads to scolding, or that there's a reason for him to protect himself and his food. Just ignore him when he's growling, don't pay him any mind, and practice with the "trades" until he's getting really good with them. Then you can work up to him "trading" a little bit of kibble for, say, a piece of chicken. Then a slightly bigger pile of kibble for some chicken and a piece of cheese. Eventually you should be able to work up to asking him to "leave it" with his food, which he won't mind, because he knows he'll get rewarded for it instead of simply losing his meal :)

If you're feeling at all nervous about this, it wouldn't hurt to look into a professional trainer. This behavior is called "resource guarding" and can get worse if not corrected early. But it looks like you're well on your way to "fixing" it :) 

In my opinion, if you scruff your dog you may end up with a worse problem.  Get this book, read it, and put the protocol into practice now, and you should be able to solve this nicely, without making your puppy think you are unpleasant: http://www.dogwise.com/itemdetails.cfm?ID=DTB740

Seven weeks is a bit too young to be taken from a litter, so you may want to consider getting this pup into puppy kindergarten asap.  He needs exercise, and he needs exposure to other puppies, who can help him learn to inhibit his bite.  If you PM me your location, I'll be happy to try to recommend a trainer nearby if I can.
 

You have a young puppy who may not know “sit” yet so a patient wait in its place will be ok.  This is going to take some time, you must be patient and you must put the time in now.  For each and every feeding follow this regimen.

I don't allow my dogs to growl at me either. I would feed him by hand. If he knows that the food comes FROM you, he's less likely to be threatened by your presence. The food is yours, you're just letting him have some. That's the message I would want to get across. At 7 weeks, I'd get right on this problem. Especially with a stronger breed like a GSD. To this day, I still reach in all my dogs food bowls occasionally, and touch them while they're eating. But I have never dealt with this problem. It's good that you're doing something about this now.

luvmyswissy has what sounds to me like a great protocol. I tend to be more of the school that I set the rules and "allow" things. The dog does not "allow" me to do something. I allow the dog. So, depending on your own philosophy, I would advise the action she described, too.

Do not try to break your puppy of this growling; growling is a sign that they use to let people and other animals know when to back off. Dogs who have had the growling 'trained' out of them, then generally will just go to bite if they can't run away. Also, in my opinion and that of many experienced trainers, scruffing a dog is not a good thing to do...being aggressive to a dog teaches them aggression. Most especially, they would never recommend scruffing a 7 week old puppy.

At 7 weeks your puppy is too young to be taken from his litter mates; the time spent with his littermates and mother is part of what teaches him what's accepted behavior and what isn't; it also teaches him bite inhibition. Dogs taken from their litters too soon - before 8-12 weeks - will need more training in certain areas because of this. Your puppy growls because that's what he'd be doing if he was fighting his littermates for his mother's teats or for their food bowl...the other puppies, and especially the mother, would correct the dog for this. But now you'll have to do it, and you will need to be consistent, patient, and not use harsh methods.

To get him to stop growling when you go near his food, you have to do several things. First, never free feed; the food gets put down 3-4 times a day for 20 minutes; what he doesn't eat gets taken away. This will teach him to eat when you give it to him. Another thing you can do is put his bowl on the floor and then toss his kibble into it a little at a time. Gradually you can work up to getting closer to him, even to the point of sitting next to the bowl while adding the food.

There are several good books by Patricia McConnell, Victoria Stilwell, Ian Dunbar, Karen Pryor and other trainers/behaviorists that you should read which will help you to ensure you have a happy puppy and a wonderful relationship together. You should also get enrolled in a good puppy class with a reputable teacher who uses positive training methods, such as clicker training.

Your dog was never taught to obey commands and learned he could get his way by growling. Dogs do what works. He figured out if he growls he keeps the rawhide. He growls and he gets to stay on the bed. He growls and his play is not interrupted. You do need to change him ASAP, because the growling will become biting.

Enroll him in an obedience class where you will learn how to train him. He needs to learn how to TAKE commands and not just give them.
He needs to learn that all things good come from you, but you can take these things away.

The puppy is 7 *weeks* old and hasn't learned much yet because he was taken too young from his mother and littermates. He's also too young to go into *any* class right now because he has to get his shots finished before he should be exposed to anyone or anything that could make him sick. Getting a trainer to come to the home would be safer for the puppy; then when he's a few weeks old (10-12) he can join a puppy class.

I totally disagree with the 'learn to TAKE commands' phrasing...dogs should be trained as to what's allowed and not allowed, but trying to make anyone TAKE commands smacks of one giving military orders and expecting them to jump to obey; we're not drill instructors...Command make it sound like a form of slavery to me. Dogs, just like anyone else, need to learn that nothing in life is free, but it can be done in a positive way; the feeding methods that have been suggested are one good way to start.

Also, growling is the way a dogs warns you that if you don't stop what you're doing he may bite you - this can be caused by fear (most times it is), resource guarding, or aggression (more rarely, though most people jump to the incorrect conclusion that any dogs who bites is aggressive). Dogs have three responses - flight, freeze, or fight...most dogs would rather run from confrontations but if they can't do that, they'll freeze and hope whatever's bothering them will stop or go away. When they can't run and the freeze doesn't work, then they may fight (bite)...some go to bite but don't, while others go to bite a little and the one pulling away gets hurt because they pulled away, and rarely a dog goes into full fight mode unless they feel pushed into it. This does not include those exceptions where a dog has been raised to be aggressive or been abused (and had the growl beaten out of them) and finds that aggression works for them.

cuddlybabe

hi i've got a 7 week old german shepherd, he growls at us when we go near his food, how can i stop this

Many things have been touched on in this thread.  There's also been alot of good advice given as well.

First things first:  Buy the book "Mine: A practical guide to resource guarding" and employ the protocols in that book to minimize and eliminate any and all resource guarding issues.

Luvmyswissy said it best, IMO.  "Be the giver, not the taker."  Let your dog associate you with providing resources, not taking them away.  

Spiritdogs also gave some great advice in that you need to get your pup into a puppy class as soon as possible.  This is hugely important.  The development of a puppy between 4-8 weeks imprints several things behaviorally into their psyche, among them being canine body language, canine etiquette, bite inhibition, and other things.  Having your dog around other puppies will aid him in learning these things.

I don't agree with scruffing a pup.  I've never seen a mother grab a pup by the scruff unless it is to move him from one place to another.  I also don't believe that using any type of compulsion with a pup is a good idea.  Use positive methods to earn the pups trust and you'll soon start to see  resource guarding behaviors wane. 

I hope this doesn't sound silly, but are you feeding the puppy enough food and often enough?  Explore the possible reasons why the puppy is resource guarding food.  Is someone teasing the dog with food?  Is the type of food you are feeding the pup too much of a high prize?   

My positive suggestion to help the op is NOT to let the dog to growl AT ANY time, if you let your dog growl you are giving him permission to become aggressive, in MY OWN personal experience, i have always stop the growling from several dogs that are not mine and in MY OWN personal experience the dog has never gone "only for the bite", so for me that never happens, stop the growl and you stop the behavior, i suggest the op to read more about dog psychology since dog training only is not the same in my opinion

So stop the growl and you will be teaching your dog that aggression behavior is not allowed, i hope this tips help you with your problem 

i havent read all the responses, so i'm not sure if someone sugested this already. i would implement NILIF (=nothing in life is free) it is an extremely safe training method, which requires almost no extra time to implement, it has (as far as i can tell) NO negative effects and it can help with a multitude of problems. just google NILIF and you will find a wide range of good instructions.

Growling when someone approaches an eating dog is a perfectly normal, but undesirable, dog behavior called resource guarding. Best way to nip it in the bud is to teach the dog that having humans approach while the dog is eating leads to lots of good things for the dog. People who do things like forcibly remove food from dogs, or punish them for resource guarding, usually make the problem worse. We acquired a rescue dog who had been repeatedly punished for resource guarding, and she had escalated her guarding to the point where she would violently attack anyone who entered the room when she was eating, without any warning. McConnell has a story in the Other end of the leash about a golden retriever pup who was turned into a serious resource guarder and ended up being euthanised because the owners tried to correct the problem using punishment and violence.

The thing about growling--  growling isn't a problem in and of itself, it just informs you that there IS a problem; and that you need to work on the problem. And the growling will stop when you fix the underlying problem. You can suppress the growl, but it won't eliminate the real problem.