I have a male chocolate lab that just turned a year old. We take him to dog parks and walking. About 3 months ago he started growling and barking at people. Nothing changed in his every day activities or training. He seems scared and I do not know if he will actually bite someone. Is this normal, any suggestions on how to get control of this. I was thinking of having him neutered to see if that may help. I am out of ideas.
Hello and welcome to the forum. I wouldn't have him neutered just "to see" - if it makes no difference, or makes it worse - he'll have gone through surgery for nothing. If you really think that neutering might make a difference (it won't if it's fear), you could try chemical castration, which has the same effect as neutering, but is temporary. Far better for trying just "to see" Many people actually think that neutering increases fear in anxious dogs, as their testosterone is lowered. Of course, it all depends on why they are anxious. I'd be more inclined to look at changing his CER (conditioned emotional response) to people to make it a positive thing. I would strongly recommend the book Control Unleashed, which has an exercise called Look At That! in it. I use LAT all the time and have had great success. My adult dogs are both anxious and used to bark at people, especially children. Now, they very, very rarely do.
Ditto above. If you are in the UK or some other places you could try a temporary chemical castration such as superlorin. I agree though, that it probably has nothing to do with sex. My lab girl was exactly the same at one year old. I called the breeder (you should do that too) and she said it was normal for them to reach a certain amount of maturity and begin to think it was their job to warn off what they perceive as threats. Here is what nipped that in the bud for us. We were always off leash when this happened so I would do a little obedience and call my dog to heel which helped show her I was in charge. I also noticed she did not bark at people we knew. I figured she took her cues from me, I greeted people we knew happily. Easy solution for me, greet everyone cheerfully. "Hi, great day to be out. Nice to see you. How are you?" Took some I didn't know by surprise, especially men in the bush being greeted like this by a woman. But it worked. I didn't have to do it for ever, only about a year.
I was at the vet's this morning, because we are having our Poppy sterilized on Wednesday (due to a health concern). We talked to the vet for 30 minutes about the operation, post-spay care, and what short- and long-term effects this would have on her. He confirmed that being spayed will have no effect on her personality - on the contrary, he stressed that both for male and female dogs, castration has no effect on their behavior (apart from their sex drive). So I think it very unlikely that castration will help you in this case. Our Poppy, who is quite a sensitive and nervous character, used to bark and growl at strangers. I found the most effective way of dealing with it was to call her back to me, and to have her sit by me quietly and feed her high-value treats until that person was past. As time went by, I only had to give her a piece of cheese or whatever once the person had gone. I no longer have to call her back to me when we see someone she doesnt know on a walk, but if she is feeling unsure she comes back to me of her own accord, walks quietly to heel, and then looks up at me for a treat...
My lab Axel does this. He's 13 months now. Had him neutered almost a month ago. neutering has only stopped his humping and marking his territory. He used to hump like crazy! Not objects or people, but he would hump all dogs. I go armed with treats and every time he sees someone I say 'look at that' and treat him constantly. Now we are at the point where he doesn't bark at some people and some he does. Usually it is men, or people wearing big hats. It's a work in progress but we are getting there. Now that I have started clicker training, which he is responding to wonderfully after only two days, I will use it on our walks as well.
My older dog was neutered at around 18 months. The trainer said it would help his reactivity. It did not. It did help the marking and humping, though!
