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puppy growling when i lay on him

17K views 46 replies 28 participants last post by  MMcCown 
#1 ·
hi all. i just got a 5 month old blue doberman who is just about perfect in every way. really even keel, mild manners, pays well attention to commands (for his age anyway) and isnt too rambunctuous. he is very affectionate and likes to cuddle on my bed, lays on me and sometimes cosies up and sleeps on me. however, we have a slight issue that if i get on him and put my face on his (if he's laying down) he'll start to growl. i can be over him in a dominating way and hold him down or anything else, but if i lay over him like in a spoons like of way and put my face on his neck and head the growling starts.

i've gotten to where a loud voice and telling him "NO" when it starts makes him stop. i think it's a feeling of confinement he hates, but also it seems to be a dominance thing. my worries are it's just a cuddling position that most people would cuddle a dog, and the other night at my brother's (who had several people over and several dogs) Doug (my doberman) was REALLY aggressive in this way when i put my face near his. i dont think he'd bite but he made me think he was sure capable of it.

so. do i just break it the hard way or is there a deeper issue at play here?

thanks.
 
#38 ·
My 8 year old chocolate Lab Copper freaks the eff out if my Dobe pup Xero lays his head and neck across the Lab's head and neck. It starts as a growl and then turns to a snarl and he knocks him down. Even before reading your thread I have wondered if this particular movement, exposing and laying his throat across another dog's neck, was a common way to establish dominance. Copper will put up with anything else he dishes out except for this move, and it is something Xero tries often and something that Copper will immediately follow up with after knocking him off his feet. In about 6 months there will be nothing Copper will be able to do though, despite being 96 pounds of snot machine.
 
#40 ·
chatty,

the retort was directed at all the nonsense leading up to my comment of "no that's not me."

i'm noticing there's a little 'clique' of folks on this forum who have a bit of a persnickety, sententious attitude againsts newcomers (like moi).

i guess i dont get why you might see all the un-solicited moralizing that was thrown at me, the blatant disregard of pertinent info, and the more-or-less attack bestowed on me. you missed all that, then say i "lied" because i treated all that nonsense as a joke and said something smart allecky...

s'all i'm saying...
 
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