Good morning all, My 8 year old chocolate Lab Ranger constantly stays by my side. He is well mannered and trained but recently showed signs of aggression and growled at my 12 year old daughter this morning. Any thoughts on this matter? V/R Gary
Aggression towards people or dogs? If it is a new behavior I would probably start with a trip to the vet. None of our Labs have ever been aggressive. except that Cooper takes exception to skate boarders and dogs on television. My Malamute was aggressive or perhaps defensive towards us at one point in his life. I think he was hurting from something and the issue went away in a month or so. The vet didn't have a clue.
I'm curious, if you don't mind, can you go into detail about what exactly was happening when the growl occurred?
Dogs growl because they feel threatened. If a dog that has never growled before growls today, it's either because something is lowering the dog's tolerance (often pain will do this - or feeling unwell) or because someone has behaved towards the dog in a way that is unusual. Occasionally cognitive disfunction due to aging can make a dog grumpy and depending on the circumstances of the growl (ie what triggered the growl) this or an undiagnosed health issue is the most likely explanation. Either way, a trip to the vet and a health exam is likely to be your next step.
