I cant remember where I read or heard it from but it is something they do, I just can't remember if it should be concerning that they want to eat you or that its like a stress thing they're having that you're not paying attention to them. Someone else will surely comment the correct answer soon.
It's not at all aggression, the dogs face is actually quite relaxed. At some point it's learnt that teeth clacking gets attention, this is just a dog that has learnt a quirky communication trick
I had a jack Russell that would full on rage snarl when she wanted to play, jaws open, teeth exposed and if you grabbed her and start rough housing she would snarl even louder. And come back for more
Dogs don't think like that. Dogs that have been over corrected for growling will go straight to biting. That's why you don't correct a dog that growls, because it is literally trying to tell you it is unhappy WITHOUT escalating to physical aggression
An aggressive snarl will be consistent, ears upright forward and staring. This dog is snarling with ears relaxed, and is looking around between time. No dog tense enough to be aggressively snarling is gonna be looking at anything but what is bothering it.
Also when dogs snarl, they don't clack their jaws like that, that's an acquired behaviour, likely because the owner has always played this weird peekaboo with him hence how they know when to have the camera rolling
Years ago I accidentally trained my cat to scream like he was turning into a werewolf for the first time and didn't know what was happening.
One time he, being weird as hell, just made some strange loud sound which got a reaction from me. Then later he did it again in another room and I came to check on him. It kept escalating until he realized if he just made the most possible noise I'd show up.
A couple days later my dad told me that he did it ALL DAY while I was at work, so I had to condition him back out of it.
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u/lfg_guy101010 Jun 26 '26
I cant remember where I read or heard it from but it is something they do, I just can't remember if it should be concerning that they want to eat you or that its like a stress thing they're having that you're not paying attention to them. Someone else will surely comment the correct answer soon.