Hi all, I need a bit of help! We have an 11 week old black lab and he is a good boy. He will happily follow us around the house and plonk himself anywhere we are. This is until we are sitting on the couch. Every time we are sitting on her couch he will jump up with his paws and will eventually bark at us, sometimes quite aggressively. My wife and I have no problem letting him up on the couch however when we bring him up he gets very bitey and will not settle. We give him a chew toy and that will occupy him for a short while. We are first time Labrador owners. Is this behaviour quite common? He clearly isn't a snuggler and has a mat that we redirect him to however he will eventually come back to the couch. Just wanting advice on some things we could do? Or is it just a puppy thing that will pass? Thanks!
Hi @Matthew Atanasovski So if you sit on any other couch the dog remains calm? Does the behaviour stop if you get up and sit elsewhere in the room. If so. It sounds as if the dog is resource guarding her couch. Two solutions. The dog loses her couch. Put it in another room that she does not enter. Alternatively, when the dog is on her couch throw treats to her and progressively move closer and closer to her couch. You might need 5 three minute sessions. Dont make haste and lose the "war". When you finally sit down on her couch with her and she remains calm mark her desirable behaviour and give her treats. Let us know what happens.
That doesn’t sound like resource guarding at all. Sounds like play time. Mine did the same thing. He still puts a paw up and wants to bark once and while but gets over it very quickly cause we must ignore him. Does it happen at certain times of the day or every time you sit? Is it possible when it was a very small puppy you played with it on that couch or from that couch while the pup was on the floor ?
It is most times we are on the couch. We have played with him while we are sitting on the couch and he is on the floor before. When we sit on the floor with him he is completely fine, doing puppy things like playing and nipping every now and then. Every time he does it we stand up and turn our backs on him. Once he is redirected we treat. As mentioned, we have no problems with him being on the couch, it just seems at this point in time he does not know how to settle (he just wants to play, and im sure thats just a puppy thing!)
They are very smart and can be quite coercive. I had a few drinks one night ans at 10:30pm out of routine I played with my boy quiete aggressively and he loved it. The very next time I had had a few drinks a week later at exactly 10:30 he came looking for his roughhouse playtime like we did the previous week. Years later he still comes looking for a playfight if I have a few beers in the evening but gives up quickly because I don’t give in. They are smart animals.
I think you just have an excitable pup which wants to play roughly with you and sees you as fully available for his pleasure when you sit on the couch(!). Ways to deal with this are: Get off the couch and play with the pup on the floor using tugs and rough play - teaching 'drop' and 'ok' release words to get control into tug from the start. For some pups, this will get them worked up even more. In which case, it's time for a frozen Kong or chew, until they are no longer in this mood. Licking and chewing are calming, soothing activities which help calm puppies down. Make use of this when you need it!! Alternatively, you can do more training with your pup - what your pup is telling you, is that he wants to interact with you more. His idea of this is jumping on you, but you can equally make it into training with you. Use your puppy's meals to train multiple times a day. Enrol in a force-free puppy class and practise your material at these times with him. Thinking, using his brain, controlling himself and learning how to earn reinforcers is teaching him a much more appropriate way to engage with you, than leaping on you and biting your arms...
