[ShannonKk]

Hi guys this is my first time on this forum!
I have a 14 1/2 week old cockapoo puppy that is really great and very sweet most of the time. But when I put her on leash and we’re outside in the backyard and I’m trying to get her to go potty or we’re on a walk she will just out of nowhere start growling, jumping around, biting and pulling on the leash. It’s like she has the zoomies plus all the behaviours I listed above. I am not sure if she’s just playing around and thinks it’s a game or if she’s actually upset and is showing signs of aggression or something else. I notice that she mostly does this when I’m walking in the opposite direction that she wants to go. It’s almost as if she’s throwing a temper tantrum.
The other day I was at a park and was introducing her, at a distance, from my friends puppy. They didn’t have all their shots yet so I couldn’t let them actually interact how she normally would with other dogs that do have all their shots. So I guess she found it upsetting that I wouldn’t let her go play around with this other puppy so she started growling and barking and pulling and when I would kneel down to try and calm her down she would just continue to do this and then bit me as I was picking her up. It’s like she just went ballistic...
I didn’t have these problems the first 2-3 weeks I had her, it only really started about 1 1/2 to 2 weeks ago.
I should note that she does growl quite a bit during playtime, especially during tug of war.
Has anyone else had to deal with this with their puppy? I’ve owned German shepherds before and as puppies they would never growl and start biting and pulling the leash or go ballistic like my cockapoo puppy does.
Any advice would be great.
I just really want to know if anyone else has had this problem with their cockapoo puppy and if they ended up growing out of it.
Thank you!

 

[Lena11]

That's not usual something a dog grows out of. Have you started puppy classes with her?

 

[2ndhandgal]

She sounds like she got really frustrated - imagine taking a small child to a play date with other children, then letting them watch for a while and then picking child up and trying to take them home - they would most likely throw a huge tantrum and sounds like this is what your pup effectively did as she could not communicate how frustrated she was. Do you have a fenced area of the garden so she can be off the leash for toileting as this would also reduce frustration as some pups can get frustrated at not being able to run and play.

Growling when playing is something some pups do more than other and has nothing to do with aggression - self control needs to be learned and built up - definitely would be good to start some classes with her with a good reward based trainer.

 

[Evelyn_New_Jersey]

Sounds like a play-growling type of vocalization. My dog grabs the leash and wants to play tug of war, growls etc. He also growls when playing with other dogs. It's completely non-aggressive, even though it sounds aggressive. It's just a vocalization that says, "I'm feeling playful!" Try playing back when your dog does this, and your dog will be so happy that you've finally caught on. Granted it can be annoying when your dog is jumping around and you want to get walking, but hey, it's just a little bit of fun.