FAQ: 6, 9, or 12 month old dog jumping up and biting

Older puppies and young dogs jumping up and biting at arms and clothing is a very common problem. And often occurs out on walks.

This behavior can really spoil the time you spend with your dog and causes a lot of worry and upset.

And as it tends to appear as the puppy is maturing, the biggest concern that most people have is that their dog is becoming aggressive or dominant towards them.

Is my dog dominant?

The good news is, this behavior is nothing to do with dominance. This is how young adolescent dogs play together, and your dog is attempting to engage you in rough-housing games.

Here’s an article explaining how we know that your dog is not trying to dominate you: Alpha Dog

Why is my dog jumping at me and biting me?

There are lots of contributory factors to this kind of behavior, it tends to happen most in the last few months of a dog’s first year.

It can be made worse by

• over-excitement
• lack of exercise
• boredom
• inappropriate games

Will my dog grow out of it?

That's a question with a bit of a yes and no answer.

To some extent this is likely to improve as the dog matures and becomes less exuberant. But how much of that improvement is due to the fact that most people take some steps to cure it, we don't know.

I would not recommend a wait and see policy. I would definitely take some action

How can the jumping and biting be improved?

It can be improved by reinforcing calm behavior, and by access to free running in a safe area,

It is also likely to improve if you have regular training sessions with your dog, where your dog learns to work with you in order to earn food. And by controlled games such as fetch and tug.

Practical steps you can take

1. Stop Rough-housing: Stop all rough/physical play with your dog. By anyone. You need the whole family involved. All jumping nipping and other attention seeking behavior must be ignored.
2. Increase exercise: Make sure your dog gets the opportunity to run off leash in a safe area, or on a long line if that isn’t possible, each day. Older dogs can go jogging too.
3. Play tug: Play tug with your dog for short periods of time. You need to control when the game starts and when it stops.
4. Play fetch: Play fetch your dog - you can give a dog masses of exercise sprinting up and down to collect dummies or toys this way.
5. Train every day: Dedicate a quarter of your dog’s daily food ration for training. Set it aside and aim to use it up in training sessions, or as rewards for great behavior indoors (such as lying quietly while you watch TV, or keeping all four paws on the ground while you stroke him)

Here’s a link to playing games - some of these can be played indoors if the weather is bad.

Threads on this topic:
https://thelabradorforum.com/threads/jumping-and-biting-on-walks.28047/
https://thelabradorforum.com/threads/really-struggling-with-adolescent-labrador-behaviour.28035/

 

I’m new to the site and have just posted about this exact problem with my 6 month old puppy! This is very reassuring, I thought it was great related, hope I’m wrong. She attends weekly puppy training and enjoys playing/chasing games with the other dogs there.
I do all of the suggested activities apart from daily free runs so will give that a try. Many thanks.

 

Did it get any better?

 

Hi I’m new to this site too and my 5 month lab seems to bite when she needs to go for a poo is this normal behaviour for her age will she grow out of it??

 

To the extent that defecating is a positively reinforcing feeling (I would imagine it could be also negative reinforcement), then no, your dog will not grow out of it. You need to watch your dog carefully, and indicate to her that you have noticed it's toilet time, before she bites you. Better still go outside before you think your dog will want to defecate and

 

....positively reinforce your dog when she defecates.

 

Hi...I am new here. We got a 7 week old lab for my son for Christmas. In the videos the breeder sent Colson appeared to be the hyper bully of the litter. Always jumping on and biting the other pups. I thought oh thats so cute. Well from the start he has been biting and doesn't like to be cuddled. Now...just about 6 months old at night time he gets what seems very aggressive towards my husband. Jumps on couch biting at his face and barking and growling. My husband literally has to block him or he will get his face. It doesn't seem to be friendly play. My husband is with him all day taking him for walks and playing fetch in the yard. Dont understand what is going on. We have a grandbaby due in September and are afraid. I read labradors were the best family dog. I feel like I'm going through post partum depression.

 

i think that's normal, maybe they're just doing play-bite.

 

hmm you should not tolerate that kind of behavior, your dog might think that your husband is playing with him/her.

 

It is def not a playful bite. He literally is barking loudly and lunging at him. My husband is just laying down watching TV. My husband tried to give him attention, talking to him and he just kept doing it. Then he tried ignoring the behavior and Colson still does it. Now....he gets crated. My husband says he is fine all day, happy, playful...they nap together. I hope it stops soon. Just happen a few moments ago so I went in the room to distract him and play with him. He was kinda rough with me, very mouthy on my hands.

 

i have a labrador puppy 3 and half months old he would start by biting slowly and the bite harder amd harder till i have to take my hand back and he starts barking like crazy and run around in my while room please help

 

Hi, I’m new here but have read some of the issues people are having. My beautiful boy Barney is nearly 8 months. A loving cuddly boy and does what he is told for most of the time. He gets walked down the fields every morning from 8.30 to 10am. We go again in the afternoon after 2pm. We also play ball and have a treasure hunt to find kibble. He loves his lick mat and Kong. He loves sniffing, eating blackberries (this is new this week), looking at the cattle, horses and swimming in the river. But, this could happen at any time in our walk, at the start or during. I can tell by the way he’s panting or pushing the stick he’s carrying into my legs, and then he starts jumping on his back legs, lunging at me, growling and snarling. It’s difficult to ignore when you are in the middle of a field and can’t move anywhere when he’s lunging. I do have marks on my arms and hands. Once this is over we move on and he’s back to himself again. Can anyone give me any tips as to what to do to help stop this. It’s affecting our walks. We are going to get him neutered at the end of September. I’m praying it will get better! He never does in while on a leash walk

 

Hi,

I’m new here too and have a just turned 1 year old lab. I’m feeling pretty down at the moment to be honest as she still gets completely over excited in certain situations and will jump/play bites. It’s definitely not aggression in any way but it’s like a switch is flipped in her head and she enters hyper mode at times. If you were to see her at home she’s so calm, chilled out and lazy. On on-leash walks she’s very calm as well and has generally learned to walk without pulling. Off leash walks sometimes she’s fine but other times the over excitement kicks in. Say for example if another dog appears and the two of them start playing and chasing. She then enters this hyper mode where she might then run and jump on anyone that passes or might play mouth. We tend to keep her on the lead to avoid this behaviour and she gets an hour walk in the morning and an hour in the evening, plus garden play so she is exercised. We also do mini training sessions with her in the day and she goes to a once weekly puppy class. Additionally, I’ve signed her up for three sessions beginning soon with a behaviourist to try to tackle her over excitement/mouthing/jumping.

She was going on a weekly dog walk with a local walker but the walker has started to moan lately about her behaviour and her excitement levels on the walk. Therefore I have recently pulled her out of those walks as I felt like that environment over stimulated her and almost encouraged her to become overly excited around other dogs. So hopefully over time she’ll forget any bad habits she picked up on those walks. Looking back now it was probably a bad idea from the word go.

I just want her to be the calm, gentle girl she is at home, when she’s out off the lead. I’m worried that the play biting and jumping won’t ever stop and we are trying so hard. It’s just a difficult stage

 

I am also new to site with 6 month old male puppy. Recently started biting at lead and biting me. Tried to turn away etc but when he attached to your back its very difficult. Walked, exercised etc and goes to training classes but I am afraid what he might do to other people. When he calms down he is very sociable with adults children and other dogs, but it's that time in between. I now have cuts and bruises!

 

I have a 3 month old male black lab who is generally very calm and although he can be mouthy is generally very manageable. However he gets very aggressive every evening about 8pm (just as we are all trying to relax for the evening. As someone else mentions he jumps up at me when I am on the sofa and snaps and barks in quite an aggressive way that I find quite intimidating. He has just started going on longer walks and gets plenty of interaction during the day so I'm not sure what triggers this. I wondered if it was maybe overstimulation at a time when he is tired but don't know how to help him calm down. Anybody got any suggestions?

 

I'm really struggling with this problem, and am relieved it's not just my puppy. Max is almost 6 months old and can go absolutely mental while on the lead. He jumps at us, nips, bites clothing. My husband is fed up because what we've tried isn't working.

I can see there's no magic fix, but has anyone come through the other side and have advice, or at least hope it can get better?

My husband wants rid of the dog but I definitely don't. However, the jumping and nipping is very scary and not behaviour you can accept from a dog.....I'm afraid if we can't sort it, the problem will only get worse. Any pearls of wisdom???

 

This is an old comment, but just wondering if it ever got any better?

 

I have had similar problems, it started when Buster was about 7 months old. It happens whenever he gets over excited, usually after seeing other dogs and I found it very upsetting at first. I stand on the leash with both feet so that he has just enough length to sit and not jump up at me. And we just stand there until he calms down - took awhile at first but now he gets over it quite quickly. He's just over a year old now and it does still happen occasionally but not often so seems like there is hope that it will get better.

 

Thank you! This is encouraging!!! I had a 121 with a trainer too and have ideas on how to improve my lead training. It really helps to know it can get better. My husband is afraid of him now, and to be honest, so am I. I just wanted a nice dog.