[Bryansgirl]

Bella is a 14 week old mixed breed puppy, we were at the vet yesterday and she was fine with 15-20 people in the waiting room, we go back and shes fine with 2 vet techs and the vet but a vet tech came in just to talk to her while she was laying under my feet she gets up growls and barks the woman gave her a treat to try and get her to see shes not a bad person she takes it eats it and continues to growl. No snapping No lunging and no Biting just growling. Later on a 3rd vet tech and the vet came in and she did fine with them. Today my aunt came into my room while I was laying down and she started growling and barking at her.. again No biting, snapping or lunging. she is fine if we go for a walk, at petsmart, and around most people but everytime someone has came up to me and her while she was laying down near me she growls and barks. Should I be worried will this get worse she is so friendly any other time. Once I sat up in the bed she stopped growling and stopped the barking. Is she just being protective. She does really good around my 2 year old cousin playing with him and everything...

 

[Bryansgirl]

Any advise all these people reading no replies

 

[Rain]

You need to work on socializing her. Introduce her slowly to different types of people. Make sure the people wear a variety of different things since there's no telling what a puppy may decide is frightening. Hats, hoods, dark glasses, scarves, skirts, pants, boots, facial hair, long hair, short hair, pony tails, canes, mobility problems, your goal is to make sure she's exposed to as many different people as possible BUT the experiences HAVE to be positive ones. If she's acting scared as she's exposed to the person (like she was at the vet) then it's not doing her any good but may very well be teaching her to fear. When she's afraid try and back away far enough that she's comfortable and start feeding her treats and making the experience fun, then try and move closer to what she's afraid of, but not so close that she's afraid, and again start feeding her some treats. I know you couldn't do that at the vets, and it was great that the tech at least tried to relax your pup, many don't even bother to do that.

Check out these articles.
Puppy Socialization: Stop Fear Before it Starts | Animal Behavior and Medicine Blog | Dr. Sophia Yin, DVM, MS
How to Socialize Your Puppy | Karen Pryor Clicker Training
Don’t Socialize the Dog! | Karen Pryor Clicker Training

 

[Bryansgirl]

I've been socializing her since the day I got her walking around the neighborhood going to petsmart having people come to the house. She seems to only growl when someone comes in while she is laying down if she is standing up she is fine

 

[Rain]

It works the same way. You have to make people coming up to her, while she is laying down, a positive thing. Right now she finds it scary, it's your job to change that and to make it something that causes good things to happen to her.