Growling or Purring?

[jimbo]

Hello, I've been searching for answers and tripped acrossed this page.
It looks very helpful and full of information. I have a 10mth old Rottie
pup by the name of Aries.
He's great, smart, and healthy. But sometimes
he tends to sound as if he's growling at me when i pet him. He never
shows signs of raising his lips or baring his teeth at me. Also while he
is chewing on a bone of his. He sometimes will growl when i go to pet
him. Now he knows I'm the boss. I made sure to enter him into classes
once he became 3mth old. The class was a basic sniff other puppies. No
training just a play ground for puppies to work on there social skills.
And after that he went onto the next class. I've made sure to read up as
much as possible and be informed. But I do want to approach this the
wrong way. My wife and I are going to have a baby soon. So I'm just a
little concerned. I've taken the bone away from him making sure he knows
that everything is mine and that i let him have it. But he seems
obsessed with food and bones.

[Rrowl]

Aren't we all? I sure love my food.
But, anyways, some Rotts can be quite vocal when you pet them. One of mine does, you can tell the difference between his.."oohhh, love the pats" growl, and the "Nick off and don't bother me" growl. Matter of fact, his tubby rub growl has become an elaborate game with my 3yr old daughter. She touches his tummy and tells him to "Stop it", then in great glee she yells, "GO!" and he rolls around on the floor barking and growling till she tells him to stop again. This can go on for up to 10mins with neither of them getting sick of it. (sure is noisy though). If you check some of the other forums you will find a fair bit of info. on the bone bit. My male, (the growly one), is a right pain with food and bones. I can take them off him, I can shove my hand in his bowl, but just don't touch HIM when he is eating. Been working on this for years with no progress, so I've given up the ghost and put it down to one of his behaviour quirks. I tried the nice bit with him, I tried the tough guy bit with him, this actually made him worse and I wasn't going to put myself in a position of no return. I consider it good enough that I can take the food and bones from him should I wish. (this guy is now 7yrs of age). I DO, however, make sure my daughter cannot get access to him when he is eating and I make sure she knows NEVER to go near the dogs when they are eating.

I've always wondered WHY we have this obsession with taking away our dogs tucker once we have given it to them, though?

[judy v]

rotts do seem to be talkers, at least that's what we call it here. jason really gets into it. he lays on his back and roars while you pet his tummy. stop, and he stops and nudges your hand w/his nose. to the casual observer it looks as though he's going to tear me apart. my puppy is now doing the same thing. i've asked rott owners and breeders around here about it, and many have experienced the same thing. at one point early on i tried to stop it, and was rewarded for my efforts with howling. now i don't worry about it.

[April]

My year and a half old Rotty, Jack, has always growled around his food. He doesn't like anyone to be around when he's eating - except for the cat. He's pretty good with bones, though. It's funny sometimes, when Jack is really, really tired, he gets cranky and I can't even pat his head without him growling. I just let him go back to sleep and plan how to tucker him out the next day!!!

[jimbo]

Thanks for all your input. It really helps knowing that I'm not the only one out there that has noticed this behavior. I know Aries
is a good boy. I guess I just have to learn to trust that he doesn't mean any thing by it.

[Codys ma]

My first rott was also a talker. He would put his head on my lap, and the more I got the "good spots" the more noise he would make. To the casual observer, I'm sure it would sound like he was going to attack, but he was just voicing his pleasure!

Kim

[Killfactor]

I have heard it referred to as a grumble, which is very common in rott's, Jade does it to get my attention when she wants to play, kind of a cross between a growl and howl, always preceeded by a play bow and bark. If anyone saw her do it they would think she's pissed, but she's not, Just ready to play.

[bearkat]

My Rotten is deaf, at he talks on command! My husband or I just take his head in our lap and say "Talk to me", and pet his head. I think he feels a "grumble" from us when we tell him to talk (especially my hubby!), and he goes "Urrrrgggg, grrrrrrr, urrggg, grrrr", and he will do this for as long as 5 minutes. Scares the heck out of people who don't know that he is "talking", too! We had one lady who petted Rotten in our truck, and she said " I thought I knew Rotten! Why is he growling at me??" Turns out, he was just saying "Oh, lady, that feels SO GOOD!!! DO IT SOME MORE, PLEASE???"

[Jen]

Mine grumbles as well. I have been working on the command "no talk" for the benefit of guests. They cannot tell a growl from a grumble. If the guests are petting him and he grumbles, we say "no talk." If he continues, then the guest ignores him. We keep doing this until the guest can pet him without any grumbles. He is also extra grumbly when he first wakes up in the morning...cranky. He is allowed to make all the noise he wants when we play. Just watch that the grumbles don't become growls. Watch his body language. If he stiffens, lowers his head, licks his lips or his hackles go up, then his grumble is becoming a growl. Ours when he gets excited will do this. Sometimes he does it as a dominance thing to guests. We will give him the "no talk" command and put him in a long down. At 10 months of age your male could start testing his boundaries and position in the pack.

[HuntersDaddy]

My pup Hunter, isnt very vocal at all, well that is until there is a knock at the door, or when dad rubs his face around the back of his ears, then its like a real low cat purring, hes 6 and a half months old, and I only discovered this spot about a week ago, so I wouldnt worry, everything Ive studied on Rots say that some do purr, if that be the name for it.....congradulations on the baby....

[Mom of Sophie]

Has your rottie by any chance been exposed to cats? I have 2 doberman/boxer crosses, one of whom used to scare the hell out of me with her growling. I finally started to look at the context - she was doing it when she found something pleasant, like petting or food. She'd growl like crazy, and it finally dawned on me that she was purring.

On the othr hand, my new rottie, Sophie, has not been exposed to cats, but she still growls when I do things like try to take stuff away from her. I think that's growling, not purring. But she's young enough that she won't push it. It's like "I don't like this, and I'm voicing my displeasure, but you're still the boss." Just make sure, I guess, that you work out those dominance issues before your dog is big enough that it *can* be the boss. The dog should know, at all times, that you can take anything away from it at any time and it better not complain. You don't have to be mean to achieve this - just shake the dog a bit, offer a firm "no," and the dog will understand. Don't worry about hurting the dog's feelings if you think it's just purring - it won't do any harm for the dog to think it can't purr under certain circumstances.