7 month choc lab acts like a wild biting lunging horse.. Help

Hi, just as I thought things were getting better....I had a really bad walk with my puppy last week. She was off the lead, spotted two older ladies with a small dog. She bolted over to them and as they bent over she bonged up. I rushed over and apologised. Next day they saw me and confronted me. One said my puppy went for her throat and the other lady said puppy bashed her head and she thought she would pass out. I explained she was a puppy not a vicious dog and very excitable. I apologised over and over and in the end burst into tears. So embarrassing but it was the last straw of a terrible week I'd had. Why does my puppy lunge up and worse still she bites as people's hands? I'm scared to take her off the lead now. She's always mouthed from 8 weeks. This dog has caused me so much stress! Why does she do it???

 

What kind and how many training classes did you do with her? She sounds completely normal, that's what puppies do. She and you need some training help. She's overly friendly, like a typical Lab, expresses her friendship in ways that other people, AND other dogs, do not appreciate.

How much exercise does she get as well? Off lead is good for joint sparing exercise but not where she's going to get into that kind of trouble. No places at all where she can run but not encounter other people? Does she have a doggy friend to play with, an older one who might help teach her some manners?

Please try some training classes and some mental work to engage her mind and tire her out that way. You won't like hearing this but I am sure I've read of more problems with 9 month olds than any other age. So that could mean worse is to come, the comparative teenage years for dogs.

 

Ah, so sorry to hear that it's distressing you. It is very, very normal with young Labradors though. They are bouncy, boisterous and just get into trouble. It's just how it is for lots of owners of young Labs.

The thing is, you often just can't do what you want to do with youngsters that can get into trouble like this. You have to chose your places to walk, or you have to have the dog on a line until your recall is good enough.

My 4 month old puppy is on a harness and a long line. The line isn't very long, about 3m. I'm really careful where I walk, and stay in open spaces where I can see people and other dogs coming. Or, in quiet woodland where I'm not going to meet anyone else and then I can take the line off for a bit. It's a right old pain. It takes a lot of the fun out of going for a walk because I really don't like messing with the line, and fussing about if it's getting caught and the restrictions it imposes on where I can walk. But, I know that if I don't do this now, then I'm in for many months of correcting the behaviour of dashing up to people and other dogs, because my puppy just came hard wired to want to do that.

Just try to work out a plan, and pick your battles, work through each issue step by step, and it'll come good. It also helps when they start growing up and bit and become less silly. Training gets easier then.

 

I have a 9 month old and it is the same. I don't have anything to add to the above, just some moral support! Jessie is awful around other dogs and people. I've been in total despare at various points. We have been at training class for months and are slowly getting there! But it is SLOW progress! We are really careful where we walk off lead and also have a long line. Otherwise it is on lead ( which i see as an opportunity to teach lead manners, so not all bad!)

I take heart from this board and hold the thought that things WILL get better.

 

Hi @vicvegas i was wondering how you are getting on our choc lab is now 8 months and still crazy too still bity and he got attacked last week while on his lead by another roaming dog so he is now a bit wary of other dogs too - how are the children and husband getting on with everything now? X

 

Hi guys, sorry for the delay in replying. I go out twice a day for about an hour. I go to puppy classes but have missed a few due to the holidays. I took puppy out on a long line (10M) earlier in the week and she went chasing after a crow. She shot off like a rocket and the line went so quick, I was left holding the end and literally suffered whip lash! I mainly take her out on her normal lead and she can walk to heel very well on her harness. I try to let her off to play with other doggie friends she knows but someone always seems to pop up and she'll excitedly lunge at them. I'm constantly apologising for people. I've started using a whistle which she's responding too quite well. I just don't know why she still bites peoples hands. I've even tried pet corrector spray and rattling a tin of coins which I know is old fashioned but I'm getting desperate. Kids say they love her and want to keep her but I do worry that she'll hurt them. My constant supervising is so tiring. I'm always in edge whilst walking her as never know what's going to happen!

 

I feel for you as you sound exhausted, but if you can hang in there things will improve.
Do you have any woods /forest you can walk in? I found this was much better than open parkland when Molly was young. In a wood there's lots to sniff, you can keep changing direction and going out of sight and your dog doesn't see people in the distance so doesn't tend to run off at speed.
Try to play games with her when you're out so that she learns to see you as more fun than other people - when Molly was young I always had a toy in my pocket and at one stage I used to carry a rucksack full! It's important that you initiate the games ( keep each one short and exciting) rather than waiting till she's distracted to bring out a toy.
If you can keep going you'll have a dog you can enjoy by this time next year - and I know that sounds a long time, but it will pass.

 

Yes I do have woods to walk in but shes sooo desperate to see people. Everyone within a 2 mile radius of my house knows us. Its getting embarrassing! Ill try taking a toy. Im trying to get her interested in a tennis ball but she wont play with it outside the garden. Im so fed up with people telling me I need to train her, I AM YOU FOOLS!

 

Try a tug toy instead of a ball. Molly's a bit 'so what' about balls but loves a length of rope.

 

Ah, look, you know you don't have to do an hour of walking. Indeed, you don't have to do any walking at all. When Charlie was at his worst, I didn't walk him. I took him out, to the quietest places I could find, and that was not all that quiet on Wimbledon Common, and I just worked on training, and connection, and building up the value of games. You do have to build up the value of games, it's not like they just come ready made to be enthusiastic. You've got to build it up, bit by bit.

I'd go out, but I wouldn't walk far. I'd make a list in advance of things I would do, and things I would work on, and I'd stay more or less in the same area, just working on those things. Then, it got a bit better, and I'd start moving from place to place.

I do this now with my new puppy. She spends 90% of her walk time interacting with me, often with me sat on the floor and us doing nothing, learning to chill, and just 10% of her time facing distractions. This is because I want, overwhelmingly, her history of reinforcement to be about her interacting with me.

Not walking will do your pup no harm, and probably an awful lot of good. Inactivity is bad, but not walking is fine.

And skip the corrector spray and rattle bottle - that's not helping, is it? Are your problems over because you've used them? No. So just give them a miss.

 

Take care with the long line - you shouldn't be using it in a way that can jerk you - or the dog. As you've found out, that can be unpleasant, and even dangerous. So, try practicing coiling it and uncoiling it as you're walking (if you have a child or partner who will hold the end of the lead and run around while you practice this, it would be useful, if a little amusing to watch) so that there's never enough to cause that jerk if she suddenly runs.

Other than that, I'd be skipping the play time with other dogs for now, and working entirely on her focus on you. She can learn that other dogs and people being around doesn't mean she gets to interact with them. If she struggles, move farther away from the dogs or people. If you have to, shout at them to stay away. Be very firm and don't feel you have to explain yourself.

 

I completely agree with snowshoe it's typical puppy behaviour to stop her nibbling peoples hands don't give her treats or carry treats when out wait until you get home to reward her if she lunges on the lead be more forceful your the top dog in your house not your dog the more effort you put in the better dog she will become as for walking her try and go where it's quiet to help you feel more confident you just met a pair of idiots don't get upset just laugh about it you or your dog did nothing wrong enjoy her there not puppies forever

 

Sorry, this is nonsense! Waiting till you get home to reward her? What good is that going to do. Dogs need to be rewarded (or punished) within a couple of seconds of an event in order to make an association. And treating does not cause puppy nibbling, being a puppy does.

It might help make your posts easier to read if you use a bit of punctuation. It really is hard to work out what you mean sometimes!

 

I apologise, that was probably a little more blunt than I could have been. I should have said, if you break up your post into sentences and use line breaks where appropriate, it will make it much easier for members to understand. None of us is perfect.

 

My Tatze is three and I can only just trust her greeting people!

I started by having her on the lead whenever we passed people who didn't have dogs (if they had dogs she was fine as she just would play with the dogs and ignore the people)

I started by using treats to lure her past people on lead. Now I can do this with her off lead and 90% of the time all is well. If the person starts speaking to her in a squeaky, excited voice all bets are off! Then I just say 'one kind word and she's yours!' hinting that they brought the mud smears all over their coats on themselves by encouraging her!

 

Ok, I'll try going somewhere quieter today with her favourite toy and get her to focus on me. Everyone says you should socialise and let her off the lead to play with other dogs but that's not really worked! I don't think pet corrector or shaking a tin is the solution either! What do I do if she jumps up? A lot of people have said say 'ah, ah' firmly and put the your hand up to her. That doesn't seem to work either. Any ideas? I'm not sure I could ever chance going out with out treats!

One more thing I was worried about, yesterday I was playing with her and flipped her over and was rubbing her chest. She was all relaxed then suddenly bit my arm. Not a nip, a bite and she held on and bruised me. I'm so worried she will do this to my kids. I really wonder if she is a bit evil. What do you think???!

 

You want to stop her jumping up if possible. Jumping in itself can be reinforcing for the dog, so you need to break the habit that's already ingrained. My Willow was a terrible jumper, but I fixed it by simply making it impossible for her to do it. So, when we were out and about and I saw someone approach who I knew we couldn't avoid, I'd stand on her lead. I have a long (2m), double-ended lead, which I have doubled up for day to day walking, so I just dropped one half of the loop, stood on it and still held onto the top half of the loop. You want to have the lead so it's not putting any pressure on her neck, but with little enough slack so she can't jump up and jerk herself. Then, have a conversation with the person - I was firm with them not to engage with my dog, as she had to learn that not everyone is there to play with her and no greeting was the norm when meeting people - and she very quickly got the idea that trying to jump was pointless.

You need to have the lead attached to a flat collar for this, so if you use a harness, you could have one end of the lead attached to that and the other to the collar, working it so that the bit preventing her from jumping is the bit attached to her collar. Or you could unclip the lead from the harness and attach it to the collar when someone approaches. It's very important that you don't use this technique with any sort of slip lead, choke/check chain or similar, as that would be punishing for your dog, and all you want it to prevent her from jumping, not punish her for trying.

It just sounds like she got a bit over-excited and forgot herself. Some dogs do mouth when you're rubbing their tummies, and it's up to you to teach them what you believe is appropriate. That's either no mouthing whatsoever, or allowing mouthing but with absolutely zero pressure. You achieve this by using the same methods you do for teaching a puppy bite inhibition. http://www.thelabradorsite.com/labrador-puppies-biting/

 

To add, both my dogs, at two years of age, play with their mouths when they're having tummy rubs, but they don't put their mouths around me. They just open them wide (often looking absolutely ferocious), and wave them around. I do the same with my hand, and we gently bump open hand against open mouth in a safe version of "bitey face" that dogs play with each other. It's often accompanied by lots of play growling/groaning, which can sound a bit startling to people who don't know what's going on. It's not surprising that it can put new Lab owners off, and make them think it's aggression, but it's really just play. She just needs to learn your rules for playing

 

@snowbunny I do the stand on the lead, but she still gets up after I have got her to sit, ie: starts to flip etc. She can't jump, but tries which then causes a flip or move aroind with the slack of the lead from her collar to.the pavement. The only way I can get her to sit is if I am down and stroking her chest. This obviously makes it hard talking to people in a normal way. Currently I ask them to walk past. Any advise on how to stop the behaviour? She gets C&T a plenty....

@vicvegas sorry to hijack ta question...

 

It's not nonsense at all firstly why would you want to punish a puppy you always encourage not discourage bad behaviour should be ignored not punished and you can give a dog in training treats at anytime if the said pup is mouthing hands it's obviously looking for food as it would any area your treats are kept pockets etc.if you have a good training session then reward but after not during make them work for it.the dogs I train are competition dogs,trials etc they are trained to a very high standard I've never had a bad one only winners ,I never punish I train with care there is a major difference what people expect from there pet my dogs work,hunt,save lives the labrador as a breed are far more capable than people give them credit for. ASK of them and they will give.