Here's Why Your Pup Only Growls At Some People And Not Others!

Just when you think that your pup has started reacting more calmly to visitors and people they’ve never seen, suddenly, someone else new comes by and they’re growling like crazy. Why does this happen?

Most pups growl when they experience feelings of defensiveness or anxiety due to the new person, although sometimes it is caused by aggression. But why does your pup growl at some and not at others?

The main reason that this happens is due to your pup’s sharpest sense: smell. Dogs can smell up to 100,000 times better than humans, so we can only imagine what your pup is picking up with their nose. As such, pups receive a lot of information when they sniff someone or pick up a scent – sometimes it can be as detailed as where the person carrying that scent has been or who they have spent their time with. So if your pup growls at a visitor, it is likely because there is a scent on them that triggers a memory of something your pup does not like or has learned to consider bad due to experiences of their own.

Another possibility is that some people might appear more frightening to a pup. Pups also use facial recognition when communicating with other dogs, so they have their own ways of interpreting faces. Some people might simply have a feature that reminds a pup of something threatening they see in dogs.

So how do you get around this? If your pup growls at the same person, try teaching your pup that there is no reason to feel protective around them. When that person comes around next time, tell your pup a command they know well, such as “sit”, and reward them when they respond well. Then, ask the person to repeat this by issuing the command themselves and rewarding your pup in response.

Many people make the mistake of assuming that if a pup growls, it’s a sign of a person’s bad character. This isn’t true at all – it’s likely just their noses picking up on something faint! Like and share away, people!