New behavior

Hi! Charlie is 4 months and his teeth have begun to fall out so he is teething. It was yesterday when he started to act differently. As he was asleep I came and sat next to him and started to pet him softly on body then on his head. He started growling at me and showing me teeth! And again this morning when he was asleep. Maybe its my wrong doing because I'm bugging him but any other dog that I've known didn't care. Could this be because his teeth hurt?

Also he does growl a little bit when he's eating his food but I'm trying to work on that by making him do commands before he eats and giving him alone time so I'm not constantly hovering him.

On a side note, he is in puppy classes right now so maybe that might help.

I just want Charlie to be comfortable.

*UPDATE*: Thank you everyone for the input I really appreciate it. As I was petting Charlie today and took Joanna advice by making sure was awake but as I was petting him he BIT me! What can I do now??

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Permalink Reply by Alexsandra Papoban on June 27, 2010 at 11:33pm

Thinking that my update would let you all know what's happening, I guess that didn't work!

Well I listened to Joanna advice about waking him up before petting him, and I did but he showed me teeth and bit me! He might of been shocked himself when he plopped up, gave me puppy eyes as I was giving him a stern "no!". Anyone else had the same problem?

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Permalink Reply by Carla on June 28, 2010 at 10:11am

I'll preface what I'm going to say with the following:

1) I don't know you or your dog, so what works for me may or may not work for you. Only you know your dog.

2) Casey (my pup) has a naturally submissive personality, and I have a fairly dominant/aggressive personality. I am also a very physical person in terms of how I interact with my dog on a daily basis (ie - I rarely if ever use verbal commands; 99% of the time I use body language, hand movements or physical space to get my point across; I also physically enforce commands not followed, so my dog is very used to me being in her space and being touched regularly in a variety of ways;). Because of this, she does not take "touches" as personally as, say, a dog who is not regularly engaged in that sort of way. She accepts a correction or enforcement (which happen irregularly at this point in time, because she is very well behaved), and moves on with her day

That said, the one and only time something like this happened with Casey (when she was younger and trying to figure out her place in our world) she received a scruff grab, and a quick growl followed by several firm "NO's". She then spent the next minute or so "appeasing me" (ie - licking my hands/legs, head bowed, etc). We then recreated that same situation and this time, when given what I deemed the appropriate response, she received tons of praise and a reward. I have never since had that problem.

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Permalink Reply by Bev Levy on June 28, 2010 at 12:24pm

Again classes will help. A bite in that circumstance in my house would cause a very dramatic (sky is falling) noise and a time out in the kitchen for about 5 or 10 minutes. Then I would do it over and over (every time he settles down) until he figures out all hell will break loose if he bites me.