Hello All Can you help? I am feeling really despondent..... Our lovely dog Luna is well and truly into adolescent phase. The biggest issue I have with her is when she spots another dog on a walk. An example from this week.... we were at the park - one where lots of dogs go. 90% of the time was great fun, lots of recall practice, ball fetching, basically all working at keeping her attention on me, also some nice interactions with dogs and coming back to me when told to .... All going swimmingly well...... Until she spotted a small dog on a lead on the far side of the field. And then she legged off towards it. What followed was an upsetting situation where Luna was prancing around the little dog, loads of play bows and growls. Things got more chaotic as the elderly owner was frantically trying to wave Luna away and shouting at her and the little dog was yapping zealously. I was trying to call Luna away. She totally ignored me, and darted away as I tried to grab her collar. Energy levels through the roof as you can imagine! Eventually I called her away and settled her down. Lead on and that was the end of the walk. Horrible. She seems to be more excitable with little dogs and less easy to control. Big dogs - she gets excited with but will come away when told... most of the time. Today we went for a walk with another dog (a 12 year old very sedate lab) and Luna was ok-ish, but a couple of times tried out the play bowing and growling routine. This really bothered the owner. Which I totally understand as I don't think it's good "polite" canine behaviour when the older lab has made her feelings known - "I am not interested", and Luna persists. My question is, how much of this is "just" play? Or how much is actually a problem. My instinct is to dive in to stop her. My friend today said I have a real issue and should think about muzzling her? We have some dog walks with friends booked in over the next week or so (usual for us), these other dogs and their owners are very laid back with the odd burst of silly growly behaviour and don't seem to be concerned about it. Should I be? With the conflicting advice and reactions of other dog owners my confidence has been knocked. The last thing I want is for Luna to cause another dog anxiety or injury. She has certainly never actually "gone" for another dog. Just been very silly and over excited. We have a one to one session booked with a trainer - but thats not for a couple of weeks... Any advice in the meantime?
It sounds to me that she just wants to play. It doesn't sound like there's any aggression. I have a 10 month lab and if he's off the lead I have to be so vigilant for other dogs because if he sees one he would be straight over. Saying hello, bouncing around etc. People don't always like it which is why I always keep my eyes peeled and try and put him on his lead first. If they say he can play then I let him back off, if not unfortunately a bit of training or tuggy with me will have to do for him at that time. I wouldn't take Stanley for a walk with a dog that didn't want to play. I think it would be too hard for him to cope and too hard for me to manage. My friend has a 9 year old staff, lovely dog but she's too old to want to play - so we've never gone on a walk together. It wouldn't be fair on Stanley or my friends dog. Two of my other friends have a Labrador and a springador who love to play. So we regularly go for walks and the dogs have a great time. I'd just work on your recall and training and be extra vigilant. I wouldn't put a muzzle on her - she doesn't even sound slightly aggressive to me from what you've said and it won't stop her going running over to play. She's just a typical over friendly boisterous lab
Hello and welcome to the forum. I have a Luna, too, who is 17 weeks old, and very excited by people and other dogs. I know that this will be a real problem as she grows and people become less excited about having an overgrown puppy launching herself at them and their dogs, so I'm trying to nip it in the bud now. First thing is to ensure she never gets to self-reward. This means she can't be in the situation where she gets to run over to other dogs unless you have released her to do so. So, when there are other dogs around, she is on a lead until I verbally release her to "go play". Secondly, we're working on a technique called "Look At That!" which gets her to be able to relax around the things she finds exciting (or scary, which is what I've used the technique for before, with my other dogs), and to orient herself to me. It's described in more detail in the book Control Unleashed - I would definitely recommend you read that, as I think it would benefit you enormously. It doesn't sound like aggressive behaviour in the slightest, but you don't want to let her rehearse unwanted behaviour, so that mans managing her while you do the training. For recall, you have two issues. Firstly, you need to proof it so it does work around such high-value distractions - I'd recommend the programme in Total Recall for this. But, most importantly, you need to understand that using the recall to call her away from other dogs is a sure-fire way to completely break your recall if you do it too much. So, prevention - that is, stopping her running up to them in the first place - is far preferable.
Unfortunately without seeing what Luna is actually doing, being able to see the body language, hear the growling, etc etc it's just not possible to say whether it is 'just' play or not. Being a young dog it most likely is intended to be play but from your comments it would seem that Luna's doggy manners are a little lacking if she pays no attention to other dogs responses to her. Your friend's comments are just a little OTT regarding the muzzle, although I would guess she was annoyed for her own elderly dog being on the receiving end of puppy bad manners. Walking with other dogs can be great training for a young dog as long as it doesn't just entail them running around and playing with the other dogs but also includes some good loose lead walking periods. The risk is that a dog running around and playing with other dogs on a walk, getting hugely internally rewarded for having fun, will repeat that behaviour whenever possible. One phrase I hold onto is "What gets rewarded, gets repeated" and that doesn't just mean a food reward, or a game with us. As @snowbunny says it is important not to let Luna self-reward by being able to run off to other dogs and try to initiate play, so unfortunately there is an extra level of vigilance needed. If in any doubt pop the lead on for a few minutes and then release again if the coast is clear. Is your trainer aware of your concerns regarding Luna's 'play' behaviour? There's lots of help and advice a trainer can give to help you with these behaviours. Any chance of re-scheduling your 121 for an earlier date?
Definitely sounds like an excited puppy to me. And if you go back and read your post, you will see that her energy level was likely pretty ramped up due to the all the interaction she was getting. Not that you shouldn't be doing that, but sometimes the best thing is to leave on a high note, before you think you want to, in other words. Usually we stay too long at the dog park watching our dogs have fun and that is when it all goes south, it seems, as the dogs get too silly and overstimulated, especially puppies. I wouldn't worry too much about it. You need to have her under control, for sure, but as the others have said, not giving her opportunity to self-reward is the key. They have given you some good advice about that, but maybe, as I've said, just leaving the park sooner might help too.
Yes, sounds like a very excited lab! Maisie was awful for making boisterous play, growling and snarling sounds when she was and pup and really only grew out of "noisy play" at about 2.5yrs! She looked and sounded vicious, but she wasn't and is one of the most submissive dogs I know! I just learnt to interrupt before she got too "high" and popped her back on lead. As far as recall from exciting things, this takes practice and time. Even now at nearly 3 I ensure that if she is off lead that there are no major distractions around that could cause both of us a problem, ie people sitting on the ground eating sandwhiches, kids on bikes being noisy, etc, etc!!
My Penny also does this. I have her and my son has her brother and when they play they sound like a dog fight. They never actually hurt each other and as they are now reaching almost a year and a half it is starting to calm down a bit. They are both really sweet dogs and they take turns being submissive. So take heart, it will pass. I used to put them in a time out when they got really wild. pulled them apart and held them separate til they calmed down a bit.
Thank you all so much for your reassuring words and fantastic advice. It helps to know that this has been an issue for others, but there are ways to work through it. I will look at the Control Unleashed book recommended by Snowbunny - thank you. Also appreciate the excellent advice on vigilance, recall proofing and maybe being a little more realistic on who we go for walks with! Lisa, your point was most probably spot on - we'd had such a fab time at the park, that it didn't take a lot for her to go OTT.... So I need to think about this more carefully in future. JoJo83, the trainer is booked in to specifically look at this behaviour, but unfortunately we couldn't find a suitable date any earlier. So for now, I will stick to the excellent advice on here and try not feel too fed up about it! Thanks all.
