Why is your 5 month old puppy growling at strangers? You’re out for a walk with your adorable 5-month-old puppy, enjoying the fresh air; life is all good. Suddenly, a stranger pops around the corner. Your fur baby starts growling at them, something that you’ve never seen them do before.
You’re standing there a little embarrassed and puzzled thinking, “Why is my puppy growling at strangers, is this normal, or should I be worried?” If it sounds familiar, don’t worry; this isn’t an isolated case. Many first-time puppy owners get caught off guard when their otherwise friendly puppy starts growling at people they don’t know.
This behavior might be rather bothersome, especially if you had plans to raise your furry best buddy to be a social butterfly. Let’s get down to the bottom of what’s really happening here.
Understanding the Growl – What’s Behind It?
First thing’s first, let’s discuss what a growl actually means. Contrary to popular belief, growling doesn’t always indicate aggression. In puppies, it’s a form of expression. It says, “I don’t know if this is good,” or “Hey! Back off a little bit.”
At five months, your pup is still fresh with their learning experience. Developmentally, he’s going through a curious phase of life, getting exposure to, and learning about, new sights, sounds, and smells. So, it’s understandable that it could all be a little overwhelming for them.
So, when a stranger approaches them, your puppy may not be growling out of anger but rather uncertainty or fear. Puppies are curious but also somewhat wary regarding strangers. A stranger smells different, sounds different and moves differently to you.
When the stranger’s behavior is outside what your puppy is used to dealing with, it makes them uncertain and fearful, resulting in growling behavior.
The Importance of Socializing Your Dog
Socialization is a big part of raising a dog. By socializing the puppy, you’re giving it a positive life experience by introducing it to other people, animals, and environments. This strategy makes your pup feel comfortable and confident in any situation. Let’s stop your 5 month old puppy growling at strangers together.
Socializing the pup also gives them controlled exposure to positively reinforced experiences with strangers. So, it’s less likely they’ll growl when confronted by a person they don’t know. Every mentally and physically healthy animal, including puppies, needs to be socialized, but in stages to make every new experience positive.
When you first take your dog with you to get to know new people, go at their speed. If a person talks softly to them and offers them a treat, your dog will feel relaxed. Over time, your puppy will learn to reduce the growling behavior as it has more positive interactions with strangers.
Fear and Anxiety Problems – The Usual Suspects
Two of the most common reasons a puppy may growl at strangers are fear and anxiety. At five months old, your puppy is just a baby. Much like human babies; they get overwhelmed by new experiences quite easily. Even the friendliest of strangers could appear to be a big, scary unknown monster to your puppy.
Sometimes a fear of strangers can be attached to particular experiences. A stranger might have stepped on their paw by mistake, or the dog might have seen them make a loud noise that scared them. Now, they associate all strangers with that frightening moment.
Also consider that some puppies are just naturally anxious. Like human beings, dogs have different personality types, where some are more prone to nervousness. If your puppy is a bag of nerves, it’s likely they’ll be more predisposed to growling at strange people.
Curbing the Aggressive Instinct – Starting Young
Five months is around the time when puppies start exhibiting defensive and protective behavior. If your puppy becomes attached to emotionally, or to other family members, they might growl at strangers to protect you.
Breeds typically used for guarding are more likely to display protective instincts. While the behavior isn’t something we want to encourage, a growling puppy could end up not wanting to leave your side, guarding you from everything or everyone, leading to bigger behavioral issues later in life.
Instead of encouraging protective growling, teach your puppy that strangers aren’t a threat. Positive socialization is the best prevention strategy against protective growling to prevent it from becoming a behavior-based habit.
What to Do When Your Puppy Growls at You or Strangers
What should you do if your puppy growls at someone? First, stay calm. Don’t reprimand your puppy for growling; that escalates the situation. Bear in mind, growling is a way of communication, and punishing the dog could lead to an act of aggression, such as a bite.
Try to build some distance between the puppy and the stranger. This works to reduce the puppy’s anxiety and calms them. Try re-presenting the stranger calmly once the puppy relaxes, perhaps with the stranger sitting and offering the pup a treat.
The Importance of Consistency and Patience
Training the fear of strangers out of your puppy takes a while – you can’t expect overnight results. But your hard work is worth it in the end when your puppy becomes a well-adjusted addition to your household.
Work on socialization in a step-by-step manner and provide opportunities to interact in a safe space with strangers. The more positively reinforcing experiences the puppy has with strangers, the sooner they’ll stop the behavior and eliminate their anxiety of being around strangers in the future.
Consistency is key; everyone in your family should be on the same page with the puppy’s training and socialization. Otherwise, it sends mixed messages, confusing your puppy, prolonging the adjustment and training process.
Remember to be patient. It can be exhausting at times when your puppy doesn’t immediately warm up to strangers. But in time and with positive reinforcement, they’ll learn that new people are nothing to worry about.
Conclusion – The Value to Online Dog Training
Internet-based dog training is an effective tool for eliminating your puppy’s growling behavior at strangers. These sites have on-demand training programs guiding you through training modules in a step-by-step format, until you train the social anxiety out of your pup.
Whether it’s learning to introduce your puppy to new people, training about attention commands, or how to mitigate the underlying causes of their anxiety, online training provides the tools you need to help your puppy become a well-adjusted adult dog.
In essence, the investment you make into online dog training along with some patience, consistency, brings your puppy into the outside world feeling more secure and confident around strangers. I want to help with your 5 month old puppy growling at strangers.
In turn, your puppy grows up into the friendly, well-mannered companion of your dreams. Good luck with the training, we wish you the greatest success! Let us know about your training experience in the comments, we’d love to hear about it!