In The “Growling is Good” Theory part 1 we learned that “growling is good” is really just a provocative way of saying “growling is less bad.” We also saw some examples of how going “viral” can make a good idea go off the rails. We also saw some quotes warning us that correcting dogs for growling can cause them to go straight to biting without any warning or start attacking unpredictably. Do you remember all that?
“Yes, I remember. Is it true?”
The short answer is that I have seen my share of dogs that bite with little to no warning but I have never seen a dog that started off giving good, clear, predictable warning growls turn into a dog that bit without warning or attacked unpredictably due to being corrected for growling. But, seeing as how this theory has gone so super-mega-viral, I am going to assume it must have happened to someone, somewhere, at some time. So, with respect to the fact that it is in the realm of possibility, I invite you to explore a much longer answer. Ok, let’s get into it.
Certainty vs Possibility
In theory, it makes sense that correcting a dog for growling could possibly suppress the growl to such a thorough extent that the dog stops giving any warning signals and then bites without warning. Again, maybe, in theory, this might happen. However, just because there’s a possibility that it could happen does NOT mean there is any certainty that it will happen. For that matter, it doesn’t even mean it’s likely to happen and it could even be un-likely to happen. There are also details and protocols involved with truly balanced dog training that make it nearly impossible for biting without warning to be the outcome of fairly applied corrections used in combination with reward-based strategies. But, going along with the concerns that it is possible, there’s still a lot to unpack, so let’s keep going.
A True Story
In first grade there was a kid chasing all the other kids around and threatening to stab them with a pencil. I tackled him, took the pencil and punched him. (I learned these moves by watching Batman. Kapow!) We both got sent to the principal’s office. I don’t remember exactly what the punishment was, I think they called our parents or something like that. In the end, all I remember is that he stopped threatening other kids with a pencil and never stabbed anyone. So, the theory that punishment will only suppress the warning signs didn’t play out in this case.
“Yeah but that’s just kids being kids, it doesn’t have anything to do with dogs!”
Ok, fair enough, but here’s another true story that is about dogs.
The Facebook Post
The post that contained all the comment section quotes I shared in part 1 was from a woman who was looking to rehome her dog due to his aggressive growling towards her five year old daughter.
For reference, here are the quotes again:
“Growling is a dog’s way of warning that he is not happy and to discourage it is to risk a seemingly unprovoked bite/attack.”
“No savvy trainer would ever advise disciplining a dog for growling.”
“The growl is good, it is a warning that gives you all time to react and de-escalate.”
“Never ever train a dog to not growl as a warning.”
“Dogs who are trained not to growl and snap as a warning will go straight to biting!”
“Don’t correct the growl, it will make him unpredictable.”
“A growl means ‘uh oh’, give him space and then gently get him to a safe space and give lots of praise for communicating well.”
The woman’s saga was that, after two years of “correcting every growl” and a single consultation with a professional dog trainer, she was “at the end of her rope” because the dog was still growling at her daughter.
If you’re thinking that one consultation is not enough to warrant being at the end of your rope, I agree. If you’re also thinking that correcting every growl was probably the wrong thing to do, I agree but she was not looking for training advice, she was looking for help rehoming her dog. She also confessed that the professional trainer she consulted with did NOT tell her to correct every growl, she did that despite the trainer’s advice, but that’s not the point.
The point is that the dog had NOT bitten the child, even after two years of correcting every growl. The corrections did NOT suppress the growl and they did NOT lead to biting without growling. The corrections didn’t lead to biting at all, with or without warning. In fact, even though the corrections did not solve the issue, it is possible that the corrections were the only thing that kept the dog from biting for the last two years.
Just to be clear, this does not disprove the theory that biting without warning might result from corrections but it absolutely, one million percent, destroys the theory that it will happen. But let’s continue, we have only scratched the surface of this topic.
Dogmatic Blindness
All of the comments chastising this woman about how correcting the dog for growling was going to make him go straight to biting her child were literally being posted in the middle of evidence to the contrary. Their theory was being disproved right before their eyes but they were so blinded by their dogmatic beliefs that they simply couldn’t see it.
Don’t you find that fascinating?
I call this phenomenon Dogmatic Blindness but I don’t know if that’s actually a thing. Maybe it’s confirmation bias combined with a dash of The Dunning Kruger Effect but what do I know? I’m not a psychologist, I’m just a curious observer of human behavior.
“Yeah but that’s just one example, it could be a fluke.”
That’s a really good point. Maybe we need a few more examples.
Millions of Cases
On top of the fact that I’ve never seen this theory play out with any of my clients, there are literally millions of people all over the world correcting dogs for growling and very few of them turn into unpredictable biters. Millions of examples is pretty strong evidence that corrections don’t necessarily cause unpredictable attacks or biting without warning.
“Yeah, but that doesn’t mean it never happens.”
That’s true, it’s still in the realm of possibility, so let’s continue.
The Aggressive Sequence
Let’s start by going back to a point I made in part 1, which is that a threatening growl is a warning, a precursor to a bite or the beginning of an aggressive sequence. By correcting the dog at the moment of the growl, we are interrupting the aggressive sequence before it escalates. There are many factors that will determine whether such a corrective interruption will be con-structive or de-structive in the long run but it commonly serves to avoid escalation into a bite, at least for the moment.
Ideally, corrective interruptions should be used in concert with holistic and reward-based approaches for improving the dog’s association with whatever stimulus is triggering the growling. However, even in the absence of a holistic approach, it’s important to realize that a corrective interruption will do more than simply suppress the growl. It will break the dog’s focus, at least momentarily, allowing him the opportunity to choose an action other than biting, such as walking away, focusing on his owner or perhaps simply relaxing a little bit and reevaluating the situation.
Mother Nature
Much like growling, corrections are a perfectly normal part of the canine communication system. Dogs will naturally correct each other simply because Mother Nature made it so. A mother will correct her pups, the pups will correct each other and this form of communication carries on throughout the entire life cycle of dogs. Dogs will also correct human beings, including children. Therefore, it’s a safe bet that most dogs can understand and accept fair and reasonable corrections from a human without turning into a socially inept menace who attacks unpredictably and bites without warning.
The Balancing Act
With balanced dog training, the momentary interruption created by a fair and reasonable correction can create an opening for the dog to switch gears into a state of mind that is more curious and less defensive. This allows us to use various rewards and redirection tactics.
Something that is often unknown, or overlooked, is that sometimes reward-based tactics won’t be available to us without the use of a corrective interruption because, when a dog is locked into a defensive or aggressive state, they will be unresponsive to rewards.
“In that case, it means you are working beyond the dog’s threshold, you shouldn’t do that.”
I am very aware of that argument and, in some cases, I agree with it. However, it falls into the “perfect world” category and the real world is rarely perfect. The real world is rarely aligned with dog training idealism. I wish it was but it isn’t and wishing won’t make it so.
The reality with pet dog training is that most dog owners are not dog training enthusiasts, like not even a little bit. They tend to “kick the can down the road” until they are desperate. At the point of desperation, they are looking for fast results, not lecturing and virtue signaling from “positive” trainers who simply can’t deliver the goods within a reasonable timeline, if at all. I’m sorry but everyone needs to realize that some of the recommended “force-free” processes are so slow that dogs literally don’t live long enough for them to work. I wish that was a joke but it’s not, it’s a fact. Remember, we are talking about rehabilitating aggressive dogs here, not teaching fluffy to rollover.
Many times, in the real world, working “below threshold” is simply not an option. We often don’t have the ability to create enough distance or we can’t manage the environment consistently or we simply don’t have the luxury of time to build the dog’s drive for rewards or whatever else might be required to baby step our way to success.
If you have plenty of time, patience and money, great, but, when time is of the essence, the constructive use of corrections can often allow us to push through thresholds and get the job done before the dog ends up at the shelter or euthanized.
There is nothing “positive” about training that doesn’t work, especially when lives are at stake.
Corrective Cautions
Just to be clear, I am not condoning the ignorant, abusive, destructive use of punishment. There are legitimate concerns to consider when correcting a dog for growling. The corrections can possibly cause a dog to become more stressed, fearful or defensive. However, if that happens it means a mistake has been made. Yes, the mistake may have been that using a correction was the wrong thing to do in that particular situation but it could be that the correction was the wrong type, the wrong intensity, poorly timed, etc. It could also be that there was no prerequisite conditioning done to teach the dog to yield to corrections. There are definitely mistakes to beware of when using corrections and there are many factors that need to be considered before deciding to use corrections in dog training. (see: Top 8 Punishment Mistakes in Dog Training)
Are you still with me? Ok, let’s keep going.
Suppression is Harder Than You Think
It is actually pretty hard to suppress the growl of a dog that naturally growls a lot. I’ve actually never seen it happen with any of my clients but, in theory, it would require severely harsh punishment to make a dog completely stop growling. Not only that, it would also need to be applied extremely consistently, as in every single time, without fail. Both of those things are highly unlikely to happen because most pet dog owners feel like they are being “mean” when using even the mildest of corrections and, let’s face it, we all struggle with being 100% consistent.
Suppression Should Never Be the Goal
The suppression of emotions does not resolve them, it cages them, which only fuels them.
With that in mind, I hope we can all agree that suppression of the growl without resolving the underlying issue should never be our goal.
Any correction of a growl should be thought of as an interruption rather than a form of suppression and alternatives should be considered before using a correction in the first place.
The Trapping Effect
Yet another thing to consider is that, in order for the correction to make the dog skip the growl and go straight to the bite, there would have to be no other option for the dog, such as no ability to move away. Examples of this could be someone sticking their hand in a dog’s crate or petting a dog while it’s being restrained in the owner’s arms or held tightly on a leash. Otherwise, if the dog was so terrified of being disciplined that he completely stopped growling, he would likely be even more afraid of what would happen to him if he bit. A dog with this sort of suppressed mental state would have to feel so trapped that he had no other way out before he would choose to bite. Again, anything could happen, I’m just thinking in terms of what’s likely to happen.
Skill and Ignorance
For correcting the growl to cause unpredictable biting without any warning, it would require a complete failure to have any other training plans in place, such as management, redirection, desensitization, counterconditioning and extinction protocols. In such a case, the biting should not be blamed on the use of corrections, it should be blamed on the lack of balance. Or, we could simply call it bad dog training.
So, I guess what I’m saying is that, to make a dog go from growling predictably to biting unpredictable and without warning, it would require an exceptionally bad training plan to be executed with the precision and consistency of a truly gifted dog trainer. The only likely perpetrator of this would be a professional trainer with an unusual combination of skill and ignorance. So, it’s unlikely but, yes, it could happen.
Genetics
This conversation wouldn’t be complete without taking into account the fact that there are dogs that are quick to bite simply because of their genetics. There are also dogs that, due to their genetics, simply will not bite no matter how much they are provoked. Then, of course, there are the majority of dogs which fall somewhere between these two extremes.
We all need to be keenly aware of confirmation bias when working with dogs that bite with no warning. It’s easy to blame it on the owner or the trainer or this or that but, unless we know with 100% certainty that the dog originally gave lots of warning growls and then someone used an intervention and now the dog bites without warning, we need to consider that their might simply be a genetic component that is causing the dog to be quick to bite.
To be clear, I’m not saying genetics control everything, there are still plenty of ways to modify behavior. All I’m saying is that genetics are very powerful and we would all do well not to forget that.
All dogs can be behaviorally molded to a great extent but no trainer or behaviorist, not even the best of the best of the best, can give a dog a personality transplant. We can only mold the clay that Mother Nature has given us.
Morality vs Reality
The theory that we should consider alternatives before jumping right into punishing the dog for growling is widely accepted by the majority of modern dog trainers. This was discussed in Growling is Good part 1 and the logic is pretty hard to argue with it.
On the other hand, the theory that we should never correct a dog for growling originated from the same people who brought us the theory that dogs should never be corrected for anything. Growling, barking, biting, pulling on the leash, jumping on people, counter surfing, chasing cars, killing animals…you name it and they will concoct some justification for why we should never discourage a dog from doing it. They will insist that, instead of discouraging the unwanted behavior, we should only reward the dog for an incompatible alternative behavior. This may sound good at first glance but, upon further investigation, one begins to realize that they do not insist that these interventions actually eliminate the problem behavior. In other words, they insist on meeting their “ethical” criteria, whether it solves the behavioral issue or not. Clearly, this theory is moralistic, not realistic.
Conclusion
The phrase “growing is good” is nothing more than a provocative way to say that a threatening growl is better than a bite that comes without warning. It does not mean that growling in a threatening way is actually a behavior that should be rewarded. To avoid any misunderstandings, simply replace the phrase “growling is good” with the phrase “growling is less bad.”
At the end of the day, growling is not the problem, it is the symptom of a problem and getting to the root of the problem is the key to long term success…with or without the use of corrections or what I prefer to call corrective interruptions.
If the job can be done without corrections, that’s fantastic but the truth of the matter is that this simply is not always the case.
All of that being said, it should be obvious that I am not advocating for the use of harsh punishments intended to do nothing but suppress the growl. That would be the complete opposite of the balanced version of the “growling is good” message outlined in part 1, which the reader is welcome to go back and read again.
Peace!
PS: Congratulations for reading the whole thing! You are an exceptional human being and, whether you agree with me or not, I appreciate your commitment.
Chad Culp – Certified Dog Trainer, Canine Behavior Consultant, Owner of Thriving Canine.
© Thriving Canine 2025
We offer in-person training in the San Francisco Bay Area as well as virtual consults anywhere in the world.
Thriving Canine University private Facebook group. (please read the rules before joining)
Related Topics
The “Growling is Good” Theory part 1
Balanced Dog Training: Best of Both Worlds
Video: The Submissive Grin: Smiling vs Snarling
