Hi All- I have a 5 year old white lab who has always been crate aggression, growling, showing his teeth, we got rid of the crates and house trained him.. All was well for a while.. Within this past year he has been increasingly agitated with taking his harness off, feedings, and now it is just all the time. When we go to feed him and we are "moving too slow" he growls, shows his teeth and attempts to bite us. Same with the harness. Our old trainer told us that the fact that he is showing us his teeth first is a good sign because it means that he is warning us and that he doesn't want to bite us. He lunges at people on the side walk if they come too close to us. He is definitely toy aggressive but that has surprisingly been the only thing that has gotten better with him. We have gone through 4 dog walkers in the past 4 months, he is known as an aggressive dog where we board him, we had to fly home from our trip to pick him up from the boarder because he was being so bad. We have been to the vet, they have taken blood work and put him on Melatonin. We have taken him to behaviorists, trainers, the whole 9 yards. It is getting to the point where he is a danger to people and he even attempted to bite me today while taking off his harness. The next step the behaviorist told us was to put him on a sedative which makes me so sad because he is such a happy dog most of the time, loves life, loves going on walks, running and chasing the ball! Is anyone else's lab like this? What did you do to help? Thanks!
I wish I knew the answer, Buddy is the same, he will be 3 in Sept. Has yours been neutered/castrated? Do you know of any support groups specifically for dog aggression as I go through phases of feeling like a failure as an owner but still wanting to do my best and trying everything. Like you say, 95% of the time he loves life - he is a bundle of energy and just loves being outside and walk time and chasing a ball. That is when he is at his happiest for sure. Not the most affectionate of dogs - he wants to be near us / in the same room as us, but doesnt want to be touched much (and NEVER when sleeping!) but the odd occasion when he attacks it can be for no reason that I can fathom. He ll go from relaxed and calm to a fit of rage in a second. He wasnt like this until about 18 months (adult?). Our vet is referring us to a behaviourist in the next few weeks as Buddy recovers from being neutered. Good luck.
I agree with @Joy - what have your behaviourists suggested to modify and improve behaviour. From your description the behaviour should respond well to modern positive methods without the need for sedatives which eon't stop the behaviour- just tranquilize your dog.
The reason I asked what your behaviourist suggested is that I didn't want to type a long reply, only to be told that you'd already tried it. However, this site is really good and gives clear descriptions of counter conditioning. http://careforreactivedogs.com/start-here/
