Hi, I’m hoping someone can help me. I have a 10 month old lab called buzz. He’s is a lovely natured dog but constantly biting to the point where me and my partner/ friends/ parents can’t actually sit in a room with him as it is so painful and feels unavoidable. We’ve have had a trainer round multiple times and he behaves like an angel the whole time the trainer is round and doesn’t display any of the behaviours we struggle with. He was aggressive around meaty bones so we stopped giving these to him. Unfortunately this was after he bit my arm and I had to have stitches . I will be honest since he bit me I am very nervous around him and struggle to be a pack leader and assert dominance. He has “gone” for me twice since the incident that landed me in the hospital. I feel as though I am at my wits end and so is my boyfriend. I don’t want to be scared of my dog but I don’t know what else to do. He is always walked regularly and we do “training” sessions to keep him mentally stimulated also. Any ideas or advice would be extremely appreciated. Thanks in advance
What does your trainer say the behaviour is ? Could it be over zealous play ? Has he been taught to settle in his bed, or in your living room ? How much exercise is he getting ? What training sessions are you doing ? Both those activities exhausted my dog at that age, so could then easily settle. The dominance theory is pretty old school thinking now, so maybe try and understand why he is behaving like he it. It’s is a really challenging age so don’t feel you are alone in this, have a read of other threads, there are many similar.
One thing to do straight away is to put Buzz's food down in a room where he can be left completely alone to finish it. Don't go anywhere near him while he is eating. When he has finished and left his bowl, shut him in another room while you go to pick the bowl up. (This is a management thing for your safety - eventually you can train him to be happy with you near his food.) Can you tell us the circumstances around the other times when Buzz has tried to bite you/snapped at you? It would help to have an idea of the pattern of your day - so what sort of routine does Buzz have? What has just happened when he shows signs of aggression? As Edp has said above, the dominance theory of dog training has been shown to be based on false premises, so it is a better approach to understand why your dog is behaving like this in order to make changes to improve things.
