Ella has a had a subtle change in behaviour now that she's hit seven months and I'm wondering if it's an age thing as I can't seem to identify any other triggers. She seems to have become a little more alert/apprehensive/barky in the last couple of weeks. For example the other day she stood at the window barking at the suspicious looking balloon than blew into our front yard. At training there was a dog tied up that was barking and growling and she kept spinning around and looking at her and even barked back once and then today she span around to look at the little girl riding her bike in the court at home and gave one little quiet bark before we went inside. All of this is very new as she hasn't really barked much before. She looks quite alert and uneasy when she's reacting so I'm little worried about her. I haven't reacted one way or another at this stage, just distracted her and continued on with whatever we were doing as if nothing was going on. I was worried that comforting her might make it worse as I would be confirming that there was something to worry about. I have absolutely no experience with this type of thing so any tips would be great! ☺
I can only speak from my own Otis who's almost 5 months now. About a month ago the same thing happened with him where he became much more reactive of things. I try to catch him before he barks or reacts so that I can click and treat.... but still something we're working on. We just introduced "look at that" with our trainer which is saying "look at that" right when they're engaged with something but not reacting...then click, they look at you for their treat and you reward. I guess the idea is that eventually when they see something of interest they'll automatically look at you for what they should do. It's of course a constant work in progress... he growls and barks when someone knocks on the door and also at our neighbors! He loves children and is super gentle with them but very often will bark when he sees them too.
Ella is entering adolescence. I know it seems way too early. Molly entered adolescence at seven months and she was very lively andvery difficult for several months.I found I needed to retrain several of the basics, which is disheartening. Not reacting is definitely the to go, however, it becomes more difficult when the dog is hanging off your arm or acting like a total idiot.
I read a lot about the risks of desocialisation when Charlie was on rest, and repeated parts of his puppy socialisaiton several times. There is an article on dogstar daily about this - I like it very much, and find myself referencing it quite often when people report almost the exact thing that you report with Ella. It's quite common. I know that you and Ella are active and she gets to do all sort of things, but the period of intense socialisation has probably come to an end, and she has more of a routine, AND she is now a teenager. She might be showing signs of not quite tolerating changes in her routine/normal. This is a key extract below, and the whole article is here: http://www.dogstardaily.com/training/adolescent-changes Socialization often heads downhill during adolescence, sometimes surprisingly precipitously. ...... If your adolescent dog does not get out and about regularly and few unfamiliar people come to the house, his desocialization may be alarmingly rapid. At five months your dog was a social butterfly with nothing but wiggles and wags when greeting people, but by eight months of age he has become defensive and lacking in confidence: he barks and backs off, or he snaps and lunges with hackles raised. A previously friendly adolescent dog might suddenly and without much warning be spooked by a household guest. Puppy socialization was a prelude to your safe and enjoyable continued socialization of your adolescent dog. However, your adolescent dog must continue meeting unfamiliar people regularly, otherwise he will progressively desocialize. Similarly, successful adolescent socialization makes it possible for you to safely and enjoyably continue to socialize your adult dog. Socialization is an on ongoing process.
Thanks Julie, as always you are an encyclopaedia of doggy information! ☺Sadly I think you are spot on and what's even worse is I think it's all my fault! Sometimes I get so worried I'm going to ruin this poor puppy She's been an overly social nutter so I've been putting a lot of work into her learning NOT to automatically want to say hit to every new person or dog that she sees. I didn't realise that I was causing another issue! How do you find the balance between a happy sociable dog that's great with strangers and other dogs and one that won't want to run and say hi to every person on the planet? Suddenly the crocopup stage doesn't sound so bad anymore. Hang on, wait, yes it does
It's not your fault! It's a normal, natural doggie thing and you are a diligent owner, spotted the signs, and immediately started to think about what you should do. If only every dog had an owner like that, the world of dogs would be hugely better off.... I can only say what I did with Charlie, who is seriously the world's nuttiest over socialised dog. I made sure that Charlie had plenty of new experiences, but I asked for a lot of impluse control (that's still a work in progress with my hooligan). So in upping the amount of impulse control I asked for, I didn't reduce his new experiences. I once forgot about the new experiences thing, after his second op. Obviously, this was a more extreme situation than most people will find themselves in, and I was really heading for trouble. It was dramatic. Rachael ( Oberon ) reminded me, and I implemented a programme of getting him out to one new place a day that he hadn't seen before. He wasn't allowed to jump on people or dogs when he got there though. But I took him to new parks, a funfair (I was lucky in that a funfair was being set up not far from where I lived so we went everyday as it got bigger and more noisy everyday), a new pub, a new busy shopping street. It's the newness that's the thing, they can still be asked for impulse control in the new place.
Ripple is just over 6 months and is certainly starting to show signs of adolescence. Unfortunately his has manifested itself in forgetting all our loose lead walking, ignoring me a lot of the time when asked to do something and, yesterday, bolting off when I let him off the lead for his off lead work and recalls. He gave me quite a scare as I couldn't see any reason for him to run off but it appeared he had got the scent of something - all the normal things to get him back failed so I ended up almost rugby tackling him when he was going round and round in circles trying to follow the scent. I then had enormous trouble getting him back to the car as all he wanted to do was pull in the opposite direction and my goodness he's getting strong! I felt really miserable for the rest of the day as I felt I had failed. He has also started barking more but that generally stops if I can ignore it.
Oh yes, this is very normal. At 6 months they become more independent and begin to look out for themselves instead of always looking to you for protection. It's good, at this stage, to try to make sure all their experiences are positive. When they meet something they react to on a walk (with Twiglet today it was a memorial bunch of flowers tried to a tree) let them react, but don't comment/react yourself - either positively or negatively., so that it doesn't become a 'thing'. Treat them once they are walking normally again. I find it good when Tatze is with me as Twiglet looks to her and copies her - except when we see a cat of course, because Tatze is TERRIBLE with cats! As far as 'alert' barking indoors goes - I look out, say 'oh it's only ...' and then they are fine. They have done their job - alerted me - and then settle down again
Thanks for this reminder - Jaffa is just over 6 months and this morning also had a woof for some voices/people in the distance where normally there is no-one - so I need to get out to more new places too etc - bit stuck in a routine !!
JulieT thanks again, that really helps. I'm working out a timetable of extra walks and outings to new places (I'm one of those freakishly organised people that likes to preplan their week ☺) and I know that the farmers market comes to town in two weeks so that one will be good too. I'll get working on this and I'll let you know how we go. Hopefully we've caught it early enough☺ SteffiS oh no, the bolting off is particularly awful isn't it? It is incredible how strong they get so quickly, I've noticed when I play tug with Ella she could pull me over if I'm not careful (although I am considering using this to my advantage and training her to pull me up off the couch hehe)! It's funny how different dogs have setbacks in completely different ways as Ella's loose lead walking is actually getting better and better but, as you have read, there are other areas that have definitely become worse!
I'm hoping that today's behaviour was just another adolescent blip - after a really enjoyable morning walk and lots of good behaviour this morning Ripple has just turned into an uncontrollable biting monster! It started at the end of our walk in a local park when I asked him to sit and watch me, he decided he wanted to watch someone in the distance with a husky and wouldn't pay me any attention. Stupidly, I think in hindsight, I waved a treat under his nose and touched his collar and all of a sudden he was a whirling, biting, growling, snapping monster - throwing himself about, baring his teeth and showing the whites of his eyes - all directed at me. This went on for about 3 or 4 minutes during which time I could not get control of him, 2 people walked past tutting and glaring, I would imagine they were either thinking I was abusing him or he was a very aggressive dog. A couple of times I thought he had stopped but as soon as I loosened my grip on the lead he started again. I was quite frightened myself as he did seem genuinely aggressive. He did eventually stop and sit and watch me when asked, although after I drove home and brought him indoors he did have another go at biting my arm, then barking at me when I wouldn't make eye contact. He is now in his crate with a nylabone. I hope someone is going to tell me this is not unusual for adolescent behaviour as it was quite upsetting and I'm sure if I saw another dog behaving like that I would think it was aggressive. Any tips for dealing with this would be gratefully received, as we did have a similar episode a few days ago but nowhere near as bad.
I have had this in miniature (Jaffa - 6 months) - usually towards the end of eg a class where she has had to do a lot of self control in order not to jump on every other puppy and person in the room and she is a bit tired (she starts to try and jump on me and grab my clothing) - I can sometimes divert her by going into puppy press up mode (in order to finish the class) - easy quick action stuff, but generally I use it as a sign that's she's a bit overtired and crate time is required - not easy when you're out on a walk I know (!) but maybe just trying to be aware when he's had enough - not perhaps physically but mental concentration too and end the walk sooner - perhaps you can see a pattern and pre-empt it - it might not be the same reason but just a possibility
I think you're right about ending the walk sooner, but again not always easy when you have to walk back to the car. I feel I handled it quite badly as I was trying to restrain him, but then again we were near a road so I couldn't risk him getting away from me. I did at least manage to stay reasonably calm on the outside. I have read back through threads on here and found some similar situations, I just need to develop a strategy for dealing with it that is best for both of us.
SteffiS firstly ignore other people tutting, I know it's hard it's something I've had to learn, they have no idea what the real situation is and don't always see what is actually happening just what they think is happening. Having a puppy can be such a step learning curve. If you feel you handled it badly don't beat yourself up over it put it down to experience after all we all learn from our mistakes. I've made plenty. Good luck x
Pilatelover thank you, we live in a very small village and although I do my afternoon walks over a larger area my early morning walks are always in the village. I'm sure we're known as the ones with the uncontrollable dog. This morning two other dogs came in the rec while we were there and both times Ripple pulled really hard on the lead, I didn't react at all (apart from to hang on) and it didn't escalate into anything worse. Several times he paid attention to me and I clicked and rewarded; getting out of the rec was difficult but on the whole it went better than yesterday. School tonight! I wonder what that will bring?
So I had a really positive evening tonight. We have an obedience training session on Tuesday nights during the summer months and there's often a few of us that stay for a chat afterwards. I've found it really good because, not only can I sit around and talk all things dog for a while but it's been great for Ella to learn to chill out by me while there are other people and dogs around. Tonight it was a beautiful 25 degrees at 8pm so there were about 10 of us lounging around on the grass chatting away when a lady walked past with her dog (not part of the group, just out walking her dog). Her dog was a bit unsettled to come across such a large group of people and immediately froze and started barking at us. All of the dogs in our group jumped up and responded by barking and growling back.... EXCEPT FOR ELLA!! At the time she been lying down by my side, she looked up at the dog, look back at me and just rested her chin on my leg! I was so proud! Obviously two new walks and tonight's experience haven't solved the problems I mentioned above but I wonder if the fact that I was sitting down at her side at the time shows that she was confident and comfortable in the situation because I was so close and didn't react to the dog at all. I also love the fact that her instinct was to look to me as I think this will help in future, more stressful situations. Definitely feeling more positive tonight ☺☺
What you are describing is classic adolescent behaviour with Labs, I went through it with Molly. It is not agression, though it feels like it. It comes out of nowhere. I never did find a trigger, the only thing I would say is that it was at its worst around 6.00 which is the time she used to have what I called "The Six o clock Stupids" when she was young puppy. Yes, it is tremendously embarassing. You feel a complete twit not being able to control your dog. I think the point is that the dog cannot control itself, it is just a burst of energy with nowhere to go. Ignore the tutters. A guy who told me I should get a muzzle has had the good grace to congratulate me on what I have achieved, saying it seems like a different dog. He even gives a a biscuit now and then. Obviously he is no longer in fear for his fingers. I always say I did nothing, I just hung on for dear life and weathered the storm. Julie has been gracious enough to say that I did something, I didn't react. Either way I am pretty sure that if I had reacted I would only have made matters worse, Molly was quite unreachable when in one of her funks. And not reacting is definately in the category "Easier said than done" especially when you have a nutty dog prancing round your feet or hanging off your arm.
Mollly - it was reading some of your posts on previous threads that helped me put things into perspective yesterday. I'm not a naturally calm person but I can see I will be practising being 'non-reactive" quite a lot over the next while.
Well done Ella, I've just had one little thought. Get a bottle of rescue remedy. I occasionally put a few drops on a biscuit for Mabel when I sense things are about to get a bit difficult. I also take it myself it really helps.
