Hi all, We have some concerns about our 8.5 month old female Springador Skylar. https://imgur.com/gallery/oqkE2U9 Skylar is generally a good natured friendly dog but we are having some issues with aggression that are starting to be a concern, mainly in the evening. She gets 2 walks a day and we play fetch and tug with her regularly which she enjoys. Her activity seemed to tire her out and throughout the day she is often happy to nap and is generally pretty chilled. In the evening she is the most challenging. She is visibly tired after her walk but is struggling to settle and just seems to want to bite us or chew on the furniture. She will often seem to settle down for a few minutes but then gets up and seems to seek out something that will get her in trouble. We have tried putting her in her crate but after a few minutes she is barking and working herself into a frenzy so we are then concerned about this making matters worse. With the biting, we try to leave the room and ignore her (we have a baby gate that stops her following us) but just trying to get out of the room is difficult because she jumps and bites and as we try to pull away it is very painful. We have tried this a lot and it does not seem to be sticking. Sometimes we try to turn it around into a training session and if she responds to a ‘sit’, ‘look at me’ or ‘down’ we will reward her. However even when this is successful she will often attempt to bite again after a couple of minutes. We use frozen Kongs full of treats to try keep her busy throughout the day, and has her meals in puzzle bowls for stimulation (as she is part Lab she will inhale her food otherwise) From reading around online a lot of people seem to suggest that this is quite normal adolescence behaviour and it should die down. However others seem to suggest that the biting generally stops around 6/7 months. I don’t think she is an ‘aggressive’ dog because she is generally good natured but the jump-biting is getting out of hand. She was spayed 12 days ago and her recovery has been challenging because she is a high energy dog and she was back to her normal energy levels just a day after the surgery. We have been taking her on short walks but with limited activity. In the last couple of days we have stepped up her exercise and activity to ‘pre-surgery’ levels. Any advice would be much appreciated Thanks!
https://thelabradorforum.com/threads/faq-6-9-or-12-month-old-dog-jumping-up-and-biting.28049/ Don’t know if this will help. You have probably got double the energy levels with a Springer spaniel and a working lab so may take longer to calm down than an energetic lab!
Thanks I did read that and have tried to follow some of the advice. We have stepped up her training in the last few days and definitely seen an improvement in her behaviour We just cannot seem to shake the occasional jump biting though. Even just now she was relaxed and sleepy but just got up and started biting me. I leave the room and ignore her and when I return we do a ‘leave it’ training session but it will inevitably happen again She certainly does have lots of energy and I’m just glad now we have got her through spay surgery recover so she can do more exercise!
