4 Month Old--Blowing Jowls?

[helen4709]

Not sure if I can describe this right, but our little guy was blowing air through his jowls the other day at my brother-in-law. You know, kind of a huffing/ puffing action. How can I construe this? Is it playful or annoyance? I've looked through different behaviors, but haven't really seen this one before.

BIL was in the backyard (our guy's "territory"), where he hasn't really been before. He was hiding Easter eggs, and Thor (the 4-month-old), was running around, jumping at him, growling/barking/pouncing and this new flapping his jowls purposefully. He often pounces and bounds around when he plays and only barks when speaking to us (to say he wants water or wants to go out) OR if he's playing with our older dog. Any ideas would be appreciated!

[hokisteph5]

I think I've seen what your describing in Gretchen, when she's playing with Samson.

[rottcrazed]

He is a puppy, so he CANNOT just being trying to deliberately annoy anyone. That is a human behavior, not a canine behavior.

He is a puppy, being a puppy. He is playing. If you find the behavior annoying, try to distract him with other play to make him stop. It may not, this may be his behavior when he is excited; no big deal either way.

Kristi

[helen4709]

I apologize...I didn't mean to say he was annoying ME, I meant to say was it HIS way of saying he's annoyed. It's actually kind of cute and playful. I just wanted to be aware of his feelings, as well. Nothing worse than thinking how cute and fun it is, then a few years later, he's blowing up in frustration because his owners just thought he was so darn cute and not reading warning signs. Overall, he's a very well-adjusted pup...the vets love him to death and say they are so glad to see a well-socialized young rottweiler, so I think it's just playing. Thank you for your help!! I love hearing the different views!

[LauraL]

Hi there

Dont know if this helps or not but i couldnt help but add my bit

Kiera our 14month old Rottie does this alot especially at the Hoover
we think she does it through fun and play, there's never any aggresion with it as her whole back end is swinging from side to side ,

sometime i wonder if it's a Bull in disguise we got

[Ayoka]

Originally Posted by helen4709

I apologize...I didn't mean to say he was annoying ME, I meant to say was it HIS way of saying he's annoyed. It's actually kind of cute and playful. I just wanted to be aware of his feelings, as well. Nothing worse than thinking how cute and fun it is, then a few years later, he's blowing up in frustration because his owners just thought he was so darn cute and not reading warning signs. Overall, he's a very well-adjusted pup...the vets love him to death and say they are so glad to see a well-socialized young rottweiler, so I think it's just playing. Thank you for your help!! I love hearing the different views!

I thinkyou mean his way of expressing frustration...lost of dogs express this differently...in general, Bear will bark at me in agility when I move to slow or make him redo something - if things escalate he'll also nip at my heels. He will also bark when I withold treats during training for not doing somehting right.

This is really annoying to ME so when he starts vocalising (before things escalate) I just stop, put my arms under my armpits, say "sorry" and walk away until he calms down.

This signals to him that his demanding and bossy behaviour gets him no where and I can't say that I have to do very often at all.

[scalewoodman]

IMHO body language for Rott is very easy to detect; other than the jowls you would have lots of clues as to what's going on in that big black noggin'. If you blow in her face, ours does this... but then she crouches in the play position; tail wags; eye contact, etc...

They are easier to read than most humans I know! Unless you have a reason to believe it is aggressive (again, an easy read) it's probably one of those amusing endearing little quirks.

We used to have a cat that sucked the end of her tail; in the winter it'd be frozen...

[AristaStar]

I've seen Osa do this. She was trying to play with my old cat, who was under a chair, got down with butt in the air, huffed and puffed at the cat, barked a little, and had that nubbins going so fast I thought it was gonna come off.

I've also see Hope do this with Osa when they're in the backyard wrestling. Most of the time it's when she's trying to convince Osa to play. It's usually followed by some barking in Osa's ear (poor thing).

[Ninasmom]

My Nina does this especially when DH is playing with her. It's part of the game. Again, like above, they are easy to read - just look at the whole body as opposed to just one or two things. For example, in Nina's case, she never growled at 'danger' until about 2 years ago. For the longest time, she'd only growl with a ball in her mouth. Her desire? To go play catch with DH or me. Why? Because that's what DH used to do with her when she was a puppy for some odd reason. Her butt wiggling and her ears relaxed while the soft growl with the football in her mouth is one of my favority things.