We have a 5 month old chocolate lab. He is wonderful 90% of the time but then out of the clear will jump up on you and pull or bite your clothing or your hands and arms. At 55lbs it hurts and he is strong. He is teething terribly right now and has several teeth coming in. What is best method to stop the jumping and biting. Does the teething cause any of the biting issues? I sometimes put him in timeout for 2-3 minutes to calm down which takes care of it then but need to correct this behavior. Thanks
I have a 5 month old lab who does the same thing. While you are walking she will jump on you and try to get your hand/arm...or if you are carrying any clothes she thinks she just HAS to have it. It is quite common with the biting whether you are playing or their teeth just hurt in general. If he does bite when you are playing or while you are doing something try to give him a Kong or a hard bone to chew. It will distract them and it will help them gnaw out their aggression on their teeth hurting so bad. As for the jumping I have heard if you do a light knee to their chest and body block yourself from them that helps with the jumping and I have seen it become helpful with my pup. Good luck!
Hi there and welcome to the forum! You are experiencing something that pretty much all of have experienced, so don't worry, you are in good company. Teething can be part of the issue but basically your pup wants to play with you and this is a way that they think is fun to play. There are a couple of articles on the main site that might be useful for you, which I have linked below. http://www.thelabradorsite.com/no-more-jumping-up/ http://www.thelabradorsite.com/how-to-cope-with-an-overexcited-labrador-puppy/ I will just mention that the "knee in the chest" method to discourage jumping up isn't advised on this forum. Basically it can cause injury to you or your dog, and, generally it is not successful. Labs associate pushing and shoving with play, and so they are likely to see this not as a deterrent but rather an invitation to more jumping and nipping. Something that is much more successful is simply turning your back on your dog. He will get the idea that jumping up = no attention, and this will help to extinguish the behaviour. Make sure all your family members and visitors do the same. I hope this helps, please let us know how things go!!
Thanks for the info. I would never knee him but glad to know it is common. We will just keep working at his training. Love my lab.
Hi, my first posting on the forum! My little 15 week old pup is jumping and biting and pulling/ripping at clothes with incredible strength! So want to stop this as realise how much worse it will be as she gets bigger. I do a lot of standing up and turning away, I wear tight clothing in the home, definitely no woollens, wool seems to send her into a frenzy. No dressing gowns either. Living with the hope that things will improve a little.
Probably due to those molars erupting now. It should pass once in. Should jumping and biting continue past puppyhood you have a problem that needs intervention. In the U.S. biting dogs can be a serious liability issue for you as owner and sadly a short life for your dog.
This is very common behaviour with our puppies, and not just Labradors, as they try to engage our attention to play and when excited. The good news is that with consistency it soon stop. Best tips are always, always have a toy close to hand as puppy can't grab you with a toy in it's mouth ;-) . You may find that the biting can get worse before it gets better as you puppy tries even harder to engage you in play but it actually means that you are winning and the behaviour will soon disappear. There is a thread called something like "Will things ever get better" and it is a "Sticky Topic" so will appear in the first part of the list of threads, I think under Labrador Puppies.
Biting tends to peak at 3 to 4 months and is completely normal at this age. Here is a detailed guide for putting an end to it. http://www.thelabradorsite.com/labrador-puppies-biting/ When rough biting persists to 5 or 6 months and is accompanied by jumping up, grabbing at clothes etc, it is usually because the puppy is over excited, and is attempting to engage the owner in physical play. Lisa has given you a link which should help. But it is important to stop all physical play or rough-housing with a puppy that is behaving like this. This is another article that might be useful too http://www.thelabradorsite.com/how-to-play-safely-with-a-labrador/ Aggressive biting is usually caused by fear and is a very different issue. Most dogs that bite aggressively will exhibit warning signs first, including stiff body posture and growling. They tend to be fearful or nervous dogs rather than playful and excitable ones.
Teething - I share the view that teething produces little more than teeth and probably isn't responsible (in dogs or children ) for a fraction of the ailments and bad behavior we associate it with. Here is some information about teething http://www.thelabradorsite.com/teeth-and-puppy-teething-ages-and-stages/
