I have a 3 year old husky (Brick). He is an angel in the morning and listens to me very well. He always does his tricks and comes when called. However, he growls during several different instances:

-He will come to you and lean on you, but when you start petting him, he will growl
-If you put anything on him (when we're drying him off with a towel; he's also scared of the flea and tick serum even though I apply that every month)
-Basically anytime at night

Sometimes, if I ask him to do a trick, such as "paw", he will do it and growl as he's doing it. He will very rarely bite. Any suggestions?

Let's see if we're talking about the same thing. Sky, the newest member of my pack, sorta does the same thing. She'll take Avalanches spot beside my bed sometimes, and when I reach down to pet her, I get a rumble. It's definitely not a growl - it's a rumble. If she were a cat, I'd say she's purring.

Would you say that this is what you're hearing or are you content that is in fact a true growl?

Are you sure it's really a growl?

Huskies and other northern breeds are known to be talky. They make growling or woo-woo noises--rather than barking--All. The. Time. When it's time to go out, when you stop petting, when they see their favorite toy, etc.

I know it can be off-putting for people not used to it. New people at the dog park are always convinced my dog is vicious because she "talks" as she enters, but she's being completely friendly--she's just very noisy.

You might want to check out videos on YouTube of huskies talking to see if it's what you're hearing.

My girl will grunt sometimes if you pet her. By "rarely will he bite" I have to assume he does at times actually growl. Under what circumstance has he bitten in the past?

Is this a new behavior? If so I would have a vet visit to make sure your dog does not have an injury. Otherwise, if this is something that your dog has always done, I agree with everyone else, just a husky thing.

It is not a new behavior. He has been doing this since I adopted him at 6 months old. He bears his teeth and his ears are pulled back.

There was an instance when I was wiping some dirt off his snout and he was growling and then bit me.

This isn't him, but this is basically how his face looks when he does growl so you tell me if that's a true growl or just a husky thing:

Do you know much about his life prior to you getting him? My thought is that he was taken too young as a pup and then completely neglected by the previous people so he has no proper socialization. He is sensitive to his face, maybe from someone hitting him on the nose for misbehavior. You will have to work slow and build trust in that area. The growling the rest of the time is likely nerves. He has adopted this reaction as appropriate when it isn't.

Some dogs do "smile" where they grunt and bare teeth. I had a pitt mix that did it but his body was relaxed and tail wagged. If he is tense then this is not what he is doing.

Unfortunately, I don't know much about his prior life. I know he traveled quite a bit though as he was originally from Puerto Rico and then moved to at least two other owners before landing in my lap.

He's completely fine with me petting his snout and face and anywhere in the morning though. He is mainly grumpy at night and moreso with other people.

What I'm mainly confused about is that if he doesn't want people to touch him, why doesn't he move away? Most dogs would just shift and move away from whatever is bothering them. He will just stay there and growl about it.

Also, would you suggest that I continue petting him/ praising him if he is growling? Or would that promote the behavior?

I'll accept your word that the picture is similar to what you're seeing - er that's not sounding right. But that is indeed a "I'm going to eat you up if you don't get out of my space!"

Reasons: As Jenn (@TwisterII) said, my inference, this dog has no idea how to behave truly socially.  It's a learned response - and it's the wrong learned response.  I think what I'd do is to excessively praise the correct responses and ignore (back off) from the growls - *you* need to teach him the correct response that he never learned.  This assumes that you've had him checked out well by a good vet and there are no physical problems.

Something clicked with me and I've gone back over your earlier messages. This is a replay of problems you've been having with him since you got him in 2013. Given that this is not new and is continuing, I'd suggest that you stop trying to handle it yourself and locate a trainer who has more experience and can provide on site, situational help.

With a long term response that isn't improving, it's going to be impossible for us to provide real guidance. Others opinions may vary, but you've talked about Brick and growling / snapping sine you joined in Dec of 2013 and *I* don't feel comfortable offering suggestions since you've seen such little change over 3 years.

Clothing.....yep that pic is a pic of a reactive dog. And I have to agree you probably need some intervention as far as a professional to work with you, especially since working with him thus far hasn't made any improvements. praising or petting him is indeed promoting the bad behavior. Is there anything else besides at night that triggers this response? Reactive dogs can be hard to pin point, because it could be fear based, aggression based, injury based, the end result can be the same tho, growling, teeth baring, normally will result in the inevitable biting, not saying he would definitely bite you, but he could end up biting someone else. I would probably start with a vet visit to rule out anything medical. If you haven't already done so, I would train him to use a basket muzzle, there are many out there. If you need help at locating someone to help you, please if you can, give us a general location of where you live so that we can give you some suggestions on where to take him for a behavior/training eval. I am so sorry you are going thru this, but with some help I am pretty confident you and your dog can work thru this.

@MiyasMomma - she's said that she's from NYC - which, like Houston, covers a *lot* of territory.

Thanks Al didn't see or know that. At least in NYC there should be some good trainers to find.

Crap - lost my response.  OK - I agree with the others.  Professional training is indicated at this point as, I see aggressive growling.  A former member here now works as a trainer at Dream Come True K9 in NYC, Jen.  http://www.dctk9.com/

They do all sorts of work with supposedly "untrainable" dogs and reactive dogs with very good results.

I agree with the other people here and suggest you get some help from a trainer.

I have a husky that growls when you pet him but his face is loose and relaxed he is leaning in for pets and normally a happy lazy wag of the tail. This is kind of "the husky pur" that some of them do where they are very vocal all the time. The big things to look at are what he is saying with his body.

Simon might be growling but he doesn't show teeth if anything his mouth is in a O shape and if I stop he will move closer for more.

Now Simon will growl growl sometimes when I am cutting his nails but good news for me is that he is mostly just throwing a fit and doesn't do anything other than complain.

Hope you can make some progress but I am afraid I agree with the general tone of the comments.  If the dog is like that picture then i suspect he is very likely to bite someone - most likely someone who doesn't read the signs (although fairly obvious) or moves in an unpredictable way.

I had a similar situation with a collie who was only 5 weeks when I got him (it was either take him or he goes in the bucket of water).  His behavior was very strange - he would come up to you wagging his tail and licking etc then the nasty stuff would start.  Similar to the picture but much worse.


Never could train it out of him but never gave up on him and he was my best friend for 15 years even though I could never give him a hug until he passed away and in all that time he never bit anyone (but me once).