Hi, first off, great site, great books, a must for any Lab owner. Our issue issue with our lab Lola,has started in recent months leading up to her 18 month adult hood. As a pup always affectionate, to all the family, myself, my wife, my son aged 16, my daughter aged 12. As a family we have all had hand in feeding, walking and play. We still do, if she allows! More recently she prefers to steer clear of my daughter, and if get too close will growl and bear teeth. Then occasionally on Lola’s terms she will play with my daughter until she has had enough and resumes normal routine or growling when near or walking away. With my Wife, who also walks and feeds and plays, the growling only tends to be in the evening, the same behaviour as towards my daughter, she will try to avoid if my wife walks past or growls and bears teeth or will ask to go out side to be elsewhere. Which I think is rather strange it’s evening time and not during the day. Myself and my son, this behaviour doesn’t occur, although Lola does love rough and tumble with my son as play. Lola is due to be spayed soon, and reading your articles this may not necessary change any behaviour. Any tips would be greatly appreciated. As you can imagine this is proving quite upsetting for our family, especially my wife and daughter. Many thanks Jason
Hi @Jason riggs Welcome to the forum. Sorry to hear about the strange behaviour. During weekdays day I take it that your daughter is at school. What happens during the day when your wife and daughter are present on the weekend? I am trying to figure out why evenings matter, if at all.
Thanks for reply. During the day at weekends Lola is fine with my wife, during the day with my daughter she remains the same. It is only the evening her behaviour changes towards my wife but remains the same with my daughter day or evening. Thank you
Hi @Jason riggs It's not clear to me why your dog's attitude to your wife changes during the evening, unless in the evenings your daughter is near your wife. I suggest you get a dog behaviourist to come in and observe what is going on, and suggest a training plan as soon as possible. Since I imagine the behaviourist will suggest some form of desensitization and counter conditioning might I also suggest you read about LAT training. The folder to access is as follows: https://thelabradorforum.com/threads/look-at-that.22184/ I suggest you should supervise the dog's interactions with yoour daughter until there is a change in behaviour. Ensure your dog always has an opportunity to avoid your wife and daughter--that is your dog does not feel cornered by their approach. Let us know how you get on. And good luck.
I would recommend you hold off on that, since research shows that spaying can make fear and reactivity problems worse. We don't know why this is, but hypothesise that we are removing the 'softening' effects of the female hormones (progesterone and estrogen), leaving the dog with only a small amount of testosterone which is produced by a gland in the brain. This: https://www.psychologytoday.com/int...a8Q-QVckKdBVZN2V3fNaZ8Wc3dwEb6tksgKKC5phfzdYA Is a readable summary of this: https://www.frontiersin.org/article...S19HhPxk-NZkGpCP8QUpGDEKuYdltGz0sX3AiWhdHFHqs Then we have this: https://www.psychologytoday.com/int...FCEFyEbSNJT7OaBkVsfB187GNm3QjqAjwIk4uco4g#_=_ And this: http://www.naiaonline.org/uploads/W...PtCqux0MLoKC_lQ--9deVcreFqRzdNO8bHggcmY4w2c8U I will stop there!! I agree with Michael, this is one of those 'weird' cases where you really need someone to witness directly what is going on. I would suggest filming your dog with your wife and daughter during the day, and then also filming for comparison, your dog's behaviour around them in the evening. Get a good reputable force-free behaviourist in, and show them those films. If you need any help finding one, post here and we can give you some starters...
