Well the fun just never stops around here. We had more drama with Ranger last night - he was a very BAD boy and growled at his Daddy!
Here is what happened. I was in the bedroom laying on the bed and Ranger was laying on his dog bed beside my side of the bed. Scott came into the room and wanted all dogs to leave so that Mommy and Daddy could...um, discuss household finances... Ranger hates these instances of being baby-gated out of the room, but usually doesn't fuss about it too much.
Scott came to the foot of the bed and called to Ranger to come to him. Ranger tried to hide from him, so Scott came up to Ranger and nudged him with his foot to get him to stand up. Ranger got up and slunk past Scott, but instead of going out of the room, he ran around the bed to the other side and hid there. Scott went over there and made him move again, and Ranger ran back to my side of the bed and laid down. Scott came back over one more time, and stood over him and spoke sternly to him and nudged him with his foot again. Ranger then growled at him, and jumped onto the bed and curled against me, cowering and growling up at Scott. At this point, Scott was standing, kind of bending forward and looming over Ranger and I pointed out his body posture and suggested that he take a step back. He did and extended his hand to Ranger, who stopped growling and sniffed and licked Scott's hand. As soon as he stepped forward and bent over him again, Ranger cowered and growled again. Scott stepped back again and told Ranger to get off the bed. Ranger did. Then we both left the room and called Ranger to leave as well, which he did. In the living room, I had Scott put him through a couple quick obedience commands and then they made up.
So, obviously I am concerned that he growled at one of us, but I truly think he was afraid that Scott was going to hit or punish him. We don't know his history, and he has always been much more fearful of quick movements and such from Scott than he has been from me. That being said, he has however always let Scott do such things as confine him, handle any part of his body, hold him close, etc. But there have certainly been times when Scott will move in a certain way, and Ranger will get up and bolt from the room to hide on his bed.
When he was growling, his whole body was showing fear rather than "real" agression. He really wasn't acting like "NO, I am the boss and I don't have to do what you say, so I will growl out a challenge to you", he was acting like "Please don't hurt me - I am really afraid and want you to go away and stop scaring me."
Granted, I am NOT pleased about this, but I do understand that a growl is a natural way for a dog to communicate that they are uncomfortable with a situation, and is a "polite" thing to do before resorting to a snap or bite.... Which he could have done. But didn't. He didn't lip lift, snarl, snap or bite. I don't want him growling at either of us, but I also don't think it would have been fair to punish him for warning us that he was uncomfortable. We made him do what we wanted him to do, and showed him that he was not the boss, but he didn't "get in trouble" as it were.
I think the combination of his past history, plus Scott doing what basically amounted to chasing him around the bed in a threatening manner, made Ranger feel as though he was going to be hurt and he had a fear-based aggressive reaction.
Obviously I don't want to be naive about this, and we will watch him carefully, and work his NILIF a little harder, to make sure he knows who is in charge, but I also don't want to overreact and cry every night thinking that my dog is time-bomb and that I will eventually have to have him put to sleep for being unpredictable. Cause I think that, although serious, this was a one-time thing...
Any thoughts?
