Sadie is generally not an aggressive or growly dog, except in one specific circumstance: when she wants to do something she knows is bad. This usually involves her having a stuffed toy, pair of socks, or some other item made of fabric that she wants to chew up and eat, even though she knows this is not allowed. So Sadie tries to employ a technique I call the preemptive growl to get her way. In the photo above Sadie clearly has the ‘about to growl’ look on her face.
This is because she intends to chew off the ends of her rope toy and swallow them. She knows I don’t allow that behavior, so she tries to keep me from taking her toy with the preemptive growl. I always supervise Sadie when she plays with toys that I think she might try to eat. If she stops playing and settles down to start breaking pieces off of a toy, I start watching her very closely. This is when Sadie starts giving me the look pictured above. If I get closer to her at this point, she begins to growl softly, asking me to stay away from her toy. If I move even closer she begins to whine, begging me to please let her keep the toy. At this point if I touch her or the toy she will start loudly snarling at me. But it’s all for show. I can easily take the toy away or pick her up or even put my hand right in her mouth and she will do nothing. Sadie has no desire to hurt me at all, she just thinks she might be able to scare me into leaving her alone with the toy. I actually feel bad for her when I have to take a toy away, because she clearly wants it so badly, but I only take it away when it’s for her own safety. If only dogs could understand it when we have to do something that’s for their own good…

Today is National Dog Fighting Awareness Day. Please discuss this serious issue with others in your community and do your part to try and eradicate this horrible practice.

This post is part of the Blogging From A to Z April Challenge.

Check out Slimdoggy‘s blog hop below to find other great pet blogs taking the challenge with me!

This post is part of the special edition Tuesday’s Tails blog hop in support of National Dog Fighting Awareness Day.

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