I have a 1.5 year old black male lab who is cuddly and goofy...but a couple of times in the last 2 months, gets aggressive with me if I stick my finger under neath his paw. He was nibbling at his paw and I went to search with my fingers to see if he had a thorn or lump and he jumped off couch agitated and barking and every time I would take his paw he would put his face near me aggressively barking quite seriously. I tried another paw and he did the same thing..I wanted to see if it was specific to paw or not. I had this same type of encounter with him a few weeks ago. It's like it maybe feels weird to him so he becomes aggressive.. I worry that if the vet needed to examine his paw he would react similarly and maybe bite.. Anyone ever have anything similar or know why he is acting like this. Thanks for any help you can offer.
It's troubling when they act out of character isn't it? Others will have better advice about what to do, but I would say either it hurts him or it is a particular place that he doesn't like to be handled and he is barking to let you know (rather than biting). I do remember in puppy school we had a session of clicker training for all sorts of handling. Touch paw, click, treat. Touch arm, click, treat. Touch upper arm, c/t. The idea was to start with the easy places (in your case the paw would not be where to start), and work up to the harder places (ears, rear areas) over multiple sessions so that your dog associates all sorts of handling with treats. Now it could be that something is hurting him and a vet needs to take a look. As I said others may have better experience or advice with this. Keep us posted.
I'm sure that's a bit scary. I agree that it might be an indication that he's sore there, so I'd get the vet to check it out. Take lots of treats but also chat to the vet about sedation if he's really worried about having his feet looked at - better to be sedated than barking and struggling. At least a vet check can rule out a physical problem. All the advice that Mylestogo has given about getting him used to touch in different places - I'd follow that too
Thank you so much for your input. He also goes to doggy day care and this morning the team reported they have never seen any aggression in him.. they also suspect it might be an injury and a reaction that that needs to be nipped in the bud with more touching and positive reinforcement. Other than these times, he is such a good boy. Sounds like I need to do a little more work on training and have the vet check out his paw. Thanks again for taking the time to reply... its so reassuring to have a place to get feedback and to know this doesn't mean Jasper is a 'bad' dog . just needs some redirection... I've also just learned that, although labs are great family dogs, they too can be aggressive at times... and it isn't the end of the world.
One of my previous Labs hated having her paws touched too , I did exactly as you have been advised , baby steps all the way , I worked a treat ,I`m sure Jasper is far from being a bad dog, he sounds lovely
Jasper is definitely not a bad or aggressive dog - he just wants to keep his feet to himself for some reason. If the vet check doesn't show up anything then I'm sure the training approach will help Jasper to realise that having his feet touched is not so bad. It is definitely a sensitive area and it's very common for dogs to prefer not to have their feet touched. My dog recently had a foot injury that meant a lot of dressing changes. We could only touch his foot with the help of a constant stream of very tasty treats. Otherwise he'd growl in a very, very serious way. He's a sweet, friendly dog, but his foot hurt and he didn't want us touching it any more and was telling us the only way he knew how.
I used the clicker desensitization method with my pooch who we got at 8 months old and who came with lots of issues regarding touch. Works great, just take it slowly, but you may be surprised at how quickly he gets used to it!
