Hello everyone, this is my first time on here. And really need some advice! We have a 10 month old Labrador boy not neutered (are waiting until his is 1 year old). We have had him since he was 8 weeks old. For the best part he is a gentle loving dog, but there is an issue! Here is three recent examples of his behaviour: 1) When I take him out into our local field he is really well behaved for the best part. But suddenly for no reason he starts jumping and ripping my clothes (its really crazy behaviour) Usually it is the lead in my hand that he initially wants (which I end up dropping) but he still continues to jump at me..... eventually I manage to get him distracted and he stops but at this point I just end up putting him back on the lead and taking him home and our fun in the field is ruined. 2) The other day he was playing with myself, my partner and my 4 year old daughter in the field. Happily retrieving his favourite stick. Then again from nowhere he snaps, runs and launches at my daughter's hair, dragging her to the floor so he can take her hair band out of her braid!. When my partner goes over to help her up and pull him off her, he just jumps around going crazy, running round in circles barking and growling ... 3) Then today, we went out together for a lovely lead walk round the block (about 40 mins). then again out of nowhere he snaps, going crazy - suddenly he starts jumping at me and biting my clothes. He managed to take my bag and empty the contents on the pavement. Eventually I wrapped up the lead keeping him close and so that he could not jump up again and made my way home. I am becoming increasingly worried about this now. I have contacted a behaviourist and waiting for a call back. Does this happen with any of you? Any advice on how to handle this would be greatly received. He does not do this to my partner Liam I might add!
I have been through exactly this with my boy, he's now 16 months and still occasionally has these mad moments - in fact today we had an episode right at the end of our walk. I can remember how despairing I felt through the worst times and also how much support I had from the forum. I also had a behaviourist visit, she helped me with the biting episodes we had indoors and we instigated a zero tolerance policy where one bite meant Ripple went in his crate. Outdoors of course it was more difficult and I did have occasions on his early morning walk where I ended up tieing him to the play equipment in the rec until he calmed down. I had lots of ripped coats, bruises (and comments from people in the village). It did just seem to be extreme teenage behaviour which he is gradually growing out of, but I had never experienced this with my previous labs so found it quite frightening. I also think shortening the time that he is allowed to play or run and including moments where he has to stop and concentrate on me, including some quiet training such as 'watch me' or 'touch', have helped to stop these episodes. Hopefully you will get more advice from others on the forum as well. But you are definitely not alone in this.
Hi Karen,welcome to the Forum. I know you are probably feeling like you've been run over by a truck at the moment with him ,it certainly can feel like that,teenage Labradors can be exhausting and that is what you have on your hands now! The strength and size of an adult but the maturity and focus of a much younger dog. A lot of what you describe is overexitement...like how he's behaving well on a walk but then goes crazy after he's been exposed to a thrilling environment with games....,they get so they almost don't know what to do with themselves so they jut go stratospheric. It sounds like you have nice walking under control?what other training are you doing with him....mental excercise is as ,if not more important then physical excersise .... Training is so key at this age....it cements a bond and creates focus between you.An obedience class would be perfect ,even if you have been already.I went back to a second set of classes around this age....practice your sits,wait,leave and recall around the house and then take them out to practice on walks... The lead grabbing is a nuisance.....I never had it but there was a dog that did it in a training class I was at and the trainer said it could be overexcitement or a displacement behaviour.The dog is confused by something asked of them ,doesn't know what to do so just grabs the lead. The owner was advised to stand still ,completely ignore the dog until he stopped leaping ,which took some time at first , and then ask for a sit and reward this desirable behaviour heavily. What does your dog do during the day?How is he at home,does he have plenty to occupy him? If he hasn't that might be another reason he's so excited when he goes out on a walk with you .....
My old dog use to do this when was about 18 months He always did it when were on the way home from the park. He was tired and a bit over excited. He did it 3 times and I kept turning away and ignoring him and would put him on his lead and walk him calmly if I thought he was becoming a bit silly. It just seemed to be a silly adolescent stressing thing with him so I just worked out what and when made it happened and avoided not before he'd ripped a jumper from my back. He was about 36 kg at the time and it was like get hit by a sack of spuds. He did in stressful situations jump up and lick my ear. I think it was the same type of displacement activitiy but I didn't mind And just used it as a way to help him manage stressful situations better. He always did it on the way to the vets so I would Just used talk calmly to him and take our time . Got to go Moo is try to let me know in a very subtle lab way it dinner time
She stamps her feet and hurmpfs then it gets to louder stamps and squeeling and then the STARE then she gets stuffed rat toy and tries to tease me with it
Thank you for all replying to me! I guess it does seem like it is an age thing and overexcitement. I am going to go doggy training tonight and perhaps ask for some 1 2 1 lessons on how to stop him getting over excited - like some of you said, do some training on our walks to calm him down ... ect. Makes me feel better that its not just my dog then!!! Today I have taken him out twice. A short walk round the field and a few sits, watch me and downs. He was fine. Then we went for a short walk round the block doing the same training exercises and he was fine. (for now haha) I will start also start doing more mental games with him during the day. Thanks for the advice everyone I'll let you know how we progress
We're at 18 months and just getting to the other side of this type of behaviour, I've been bruise free for several weeks now. Interestingly he only seems to do this now when, if we are training ( have started gundog training with him) he doesn't understand what I'm asking him to do, his default is this type of behaviour, I suppose at least I know the trigger now. Good luck it will,get better.
@Samphire it may be worth thinking a bit more about the issues surrounding this behaviour - I only say this because of my experience with my girl, Willow. I've learnt so much from her, and the subtleties of dog body language. I will never be fluent, but, I'm getting better. Anyway, to keep a very long topic as short as I can, she has very strong displacement behaviours. I used to think she was more interested in the environment than in training, but I've since realised that she's just trying to cope with being stressed. I had no idea she was stressed; I train with force-free methods, so what's there to be stressed about?! Yet, she is so sensitive that even the slightest hint that she's got it wrong (which, with a positive reinforcement approach means no more than she doesn't get her bit of sausage) can send her into a place where she is throwing me stress signals. Sometimes, that's disengaging from me, and sometimes it's frantic leaping. She does the same thing when she's been scared or over-excited. It can be hard to deal with in the moment, when you have a big dog launching towards your nose, but now I know it's all borne from one kind of stress or another, I can immediately deal with it (squished nose or not), by getting her at heel and walking in soothing patterns until she calms down. The more we do this, the better she becomes at not only coming "down" after the trigger, but also managing her stress levels in the first place. It's so difficult, because to the uninitiated, it looks like she goes from being normal to Oh.My.God in a heartbeat, but I'm getting there with noticing the very subtle signals than mean something is building.
Very interesting @snowbunny - I wonder whether Ripple is affected by stress? He is very sensitive to any atmosphere between me and OH, and reacts by jumping, barking and biting (mostly all directed at me).
It's possible, certainly. Willow certainly isn't like that. She's pretty ambivalent to anything that doesn't directly involve her - duchess that she is
I definately think stress and over excitement is the key my old dog did it just as we approached the vets i would stop for a bit and calm him. With Rory i just stop the thing which is too much and either do it a different way or just find a way to change The situation for him.
I really hope Stryker never does any of the above mentioned. His biggest thing which I've tried many of suggestions is he growls while eating. The other day nobody was near him and he just started growling at nothing. He even took his little bowl and tried eating it. I'll have to get pictures of it. He pretty much destroyed that and his water bowl so at some point I need to go replace them with metal bowls. Anyway, good luck with your pup.
I agree completely, I probably should have put more detail into my post but as you say it is a very long topic, it is most certainly a coping mechanism and the start of this behaviour was what triggered me to seek the help of Pippa Williams, where we have in effect gone right back to the beginning with our Gundog training and he is responding wonderfully to it - she immediately identified it as you describe (super sensitive), the slightest hint that he had got an exercise wrong would trigger it. And yes over excitement can also trigger it. Whatever has triggered it taking a step back and performing some calm easy exercises ie sitting, walking to heel, work well with him.
