My 8 month old chocolate lab in last 2 days has been jumping up with front legs and aggressively barking at certain friends in last 2 days. Totally out of character. He has been on receiving end of aggressive dog also in last 2 days and been scratched by him. Camping with group of friends and aggressive dog in the group. Friend my dog has being aggressively barking at is not linked to aggressive ive dog who scratched my dog.
Hi Sarah, Adolescent dogs are quite prone to making sudden new fearful associations with things - it's sometimes referred to as going through a secondary fear period. It might be that the people your pup is reacting to now have something in common with the people you were with when he was scratched (height, build, beards, hats... I'm afraid it's not always obvious!) and his brain has made an unfortunate connection between people with those features, and something unpleasant happening when he's around them (getting scratched). You can read more about reactive behavior, and how we overcome it using counter conditioning in this article on our main site. Good luck, and let us know how you get on!
