Koa growled at a person for the first time

[KOAandME]

Recently Koa has been growling more when he hears noises outside and we thought it wasn't a big deal. We'd laugh a little bit and tell him to go back to what he was doing.

This morning on our walk, a lady kind of appeared out of no where and somewhat startled me because I wasn't expecting it. that's when koa started to growl at her. First time ever seeing someone or something and growling in a non-playful way. (a little background: this lady has a small yappy dog that she walks without a leash, and she came up to Koa the other day barking and growling while Koa just watched..like a good boy.)

Is this something I should be concerned about? Do you think Koa associated the lady with her yappy dog? Any suggestions on corrections?

[TwoDogs]

It was probably more that she appeared out of no where and startled him and that you were startled too. Once you realized who she was, how quickly did Koa relax? Did he continue to be wary or growl at her?

[KOAandME]

the whole thing happened pretty quickly. as soon as i heard him growl, i corrected him, had him lay down and i stood between him and the lady. i cant recall if he was still alert at that point.

[LILYLARUE]

Next time, don't lay him down. This puts an already fearful dog into a more fearful submissive position. The best thing to do is redirect and walk the opposite direction. Once the growl starts, the dog is already in a heightened state. So no need to give him any more opportunity to keep him in it or to have it rise. Removing him allows him to learn to trust you that you will control any situation and he won't have to revert to his own devices.

When you walk away, after a minute or two, and no further reactions from him, praise him for calming down and "shaking it off". You will get much better results and see a lesser reaction time to recovery at calm.