Hello I am not new to owning a lab puppy but maybe I have forgotten what it is like to having a puppy again. We had a 13 1/2 year old lab pass in August of 2018 and we just got a new black lab in February 2020. He is a really sweet boy but it seems like as he is getting older he is testing my patience. I feel like he used to listen to me and now has a mind of his own. I call him and get ignored. He wasn't a jumpy puppy but now he jumps. We are in a training class but it was put on hold because of all the shutdowns and social distancing. We just started back up at the training center and he acted like it was his first day ever being there. But my main concern is that when he gets the zoomies he sometimes charges at me and starts jumping up at me with his mouth and he is very growly. What do i do at this point? do i ignore him and let him calm down by himself? I try to walk calmly where ever we are to get him in is crate but sometimes when I start moving he gets worse with his mouth and jumping. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
Pamela, I just first want to say, you are not alone! My 6 and a half month old black lab puppy does the same thing. I have had the hardest time with him and puppy biting. He is constantly biting me when he gets excited, does the zoomies or wants to play. I feel like I have tried everything (a firm "no bite", ignoring, stopping play, giving him toys during this time so that he can bite in an appropriate way, clicker and treats for biting the toys) and nothing seems to stick. He also jumps non-stop. He knows "down" and will get down, then 5 seconds later is jumping again. I feel exhausted and I don't know what I'm doing wrong. I wish I had better advice for you. The thing that has been the most successful (even though not totally successful) is ignoring. If I leave him when he does that or if I turn around and don't pay attention to him, it will usually get better. But then he still does the same thing the next day lol. Hang in there!! You're not alone! I hope it gets better!
Oh I thought it was just me!!!! It's been so long since we had a puppy, I think we were just so used to our old guy who would just hang out with us, snuggle on the couch and watch TV. Not that I want to wish his puppyhood away. Now with things opening up we are going to keep up with our training. We do have a few new puppies in the neighborhood so I will have to check out how they play together and make sure we have a few play dates during the week to get him tired. I have been doing the ignoring when he acts up or just put him in his crate until he calms down. From now on too I am just going to have to keep a toy in my hand and try to distract him until I can get him in the crate. That has been my biggest challenge. Thank you so much for responding, I hope all is well.
Hi Pamela We are at 8 months and I can think of examples of everything you’ve described so you aren’t at all alone. I’m a novice dog owner but here are a few things that have worked for us: Jumping Up: Completely ignore, fold arms, turn head away and look bored stiff, staring out into the distance until you get a sitting puppy. Lavish with attention when 4 paws on the floor so there’s a huge comparison for them. When we go through a really tough adolescent weeks where he jumps and bites at clothes whilst playing fetch we stop the game and properly huff off and away from him so he can’t get to us. Sends the message. Remember the extinction burst with this one! Zoomies: We call this ‘popping’ and usually something triggers it which causes overstimulation, it’s more common when he’s overtired too. Seeing our cat and not being able to sniff him (frustration) usually causes this. We try to preempt the warning behaviour of a puppy about to pop (whimpering, darting around) and do an easy recall as usually at home to defuse and then we distract. Selective Hearing: Give your command only once. Wait it out or go back to basics if necessary and lure into portion so you get the outcome you want follow with a marker word and the command after it’s happened I.e ‘sit’ *lure to sit if ignored* ‘yes, good sit’ We also found asking for particular commands (that he’d started to ignore) when he wanted really something helped us reaffirm the behaviour. We’d ask for a sit for things like: if he wanted to go in the garden, wanted us to come through a stair gate, wanted his food bowl/Kong, wanted to come up on the sofa, lots of little repetitions that interrupted his day and refocused his mind and attention. I say this but like us all, he’ll still have an off day! I cant offer much advice for the behaviour mid-training session but it suggests your pup is over stimulated, maybe a bit frustrated and past the point where training anything new will be successful. Can you bring a filled Kong as a calming distraction? I realise giving it to him in the moment feels like a reward, but maybe aim for a nanosecond of good behaviour or any easy command and give it then. Best of luck and take some comfort in the fact that you are not alone on this journey to ‘dog’ - ‘puppy’ is a very different world Jess
Thank you so much for re-assurance. I am definitely going to take and apply these suggestions. I do want to say that he did pass his puppy test and earned his ribbon with the AKC S.T.A.R puppy. I was a proud mama last night. So maybe I am in the right direction even when sometimes I feel like we go backwards. Onto our next training class and thank you again!!!!!!!
Ahh congrats! It’s so easy to focus on the parts of the day where the dog ‘failed’ (such a harsh term) instead of the small successes that do happen everyday. I regularly remind myself that dog training is a marathon, not a sprint and the things that he does well now that I would have given anything for him to do a few months back.
