06/12/2026
Otis and dogs and dogs on TV have been a āproblemā.
I swear dogs know when youāre setting them up because he didnāt bark as much as his parents said he would but also, his overall picture has changed here so itās not uncommon to see different behaviours.
In the first clip, we caught a bit of barking, and then today on a big screen, he was very avoidant and instead of barking, he out a couple of growls.
Going from barking to growling = feedback.
Barking in his case = fear, I donāt trust anyone so I have to make my feelings go away!
Growling = Iām feeling comfortable enough to let my real emotions show now and give feedback
Otis has been with us for over a month now and has been attacked several times by another dog. This is why building a solid relation with him has been so important to make him feel safe because all behaviours is some form of feedback.
Otis is often avoidant in nature and with that kind of body language, youād think heās had harsh corrections in the past, but he hasnāt. Thereās no need for heavy corrections here. Corrections have to match the severity of the situation, and this isnāt a dog attacking a screen, itās just a dog processing what heās seeing.
And the interesting partā¦ he doesnāt stay fixed on all dogs. He only starts to growl at a specific dogs, and it reads much more like alerting/concern than anything else,
āI see that dog, Iām watching it.ā
People often ask why their dogs reacts to specific dogs and not others. It usually comes down to the energy coming from the other dog. Some dogs project uncertain or unstable energy, and that can draw concern or attention from the dog watching.
Itās rarely a good idea to punish a growl, because the growl is communication, not defiance but itās important to be aware and listen to it.
A growl is usually the dog saying: āIām uncomfortable, Iām unsure, Iām concerned, or I need space.ā If you punish it, you donāt actually change the underlying emotion, you often just remove the warning signal.
When that happens, a few things tend to follow:
* The dog learns not to warn anymore
* The behavior can shift from growling.
* bigger, quieter reactions (snapping, lunging, or shutdown)
* You lose information about what the dog is actually feeling in that moment
In cases like Otis, the growl is especially valuable because itās not escalation, itās awareness and processing. Heās basically saying, āI see it, Iām thinking about it,ā not āIām about to attack.ā
So the goal isnāt to suppress that communication.
So in his case itās managing unstable dogās energy consistently in real life so he knows he doesnāt need to escalate it in the first place so it doesnāt become a trigger in real life or on the TV.
Thatās why you work with the growl as feedback, not against it as a problem.
