Hi, I am a new dog owner and very concerned about my 6 month old labrador puppy. - We take him for a walk in the morning and after work each day. He is normally well behaved on walks. - When we arrive back from a walk, he collapses his feet at the door and doesn't want to come in (as I think he knows we will put him outside and we will go inside), he pushes past us quite aggressively and tries to run inside. If he manages to get past us and get inside, then we try to get him to put him outside, he starts barking and growling at us and runs to another area of the house. - When we leave for work he guards the door and tries to not let us leave. - When he is outside and we are inside, instead of exploring our 1 acre garden, he sits on the deck or at the back door and watches us through the window. He barks at us through the window, and has recently started hitting the window with his poor quite hard and continuously. - He has lots of walk time with us and we do let him inside each night for a bit (we have an indoor cat so can't have him inside all afternoon after work because we have to keep him separate from the cat), but he still seems incredibly needy - nearly separation anxiety level? - Then I had a horrible incident with him on Tuesday night. My boyfriend was at a concert and I took Humphrey (lab) for a walk. It was about 8pm so towards the end of the walk it started getting dark. We were nearly home and walking through a school playground that we always walk through and he picked up a hat and was playing with it. After he had played with it for a while, I picked it up and threw it to another area and tried to keep walking with him to get home. He suddenly attacked me. He was jumping up on me, growling, barking and biting my arms. I was trying to keep hold of the leash as we were near a main road. I have large bruises, bite marks and scratches all over my arms. It was NOT playful biting at all. It was like he had turned into a warewolf, I was terrified. I couldn't call my boyfriend as he wasn't home and no one was around. After a few minutes, I let go of the leash (risking it that he might run onto the road) and hoping he might just run it off on the school oval now that I had let go of the leash. Even though I had let go of the leash, he continued attacking him. He was running off and doing run ups to jump at me and bite me. I turned away from him and didn't give him attention (as taught in puppy training if they bite) He then started attacking the back of me, I have large bite marks and bruises on my bum and thigh, and then after that he tried to pull my clothing with his teeth. This went on for about 20 minutes, I was screaming and crying. He eventually stopped attacking me and I was able to take his leash and walk him home, he walked home with me trying to lick my ankles as we walked. He has not been aggressive again since this incident on Tuesday but I am scared to take him on a walk again and worry that this incident was a build up from the other small issues we have been having above. I have always had cats so this is all new to me. We have done a few months of puppy training and start obedience training in 2 weeks. I am completely overwhelmed as this puppy seems to want to be by our sides 24/7 and is becoming aggressive when he isn't. We are trying to walk him lots and be with him but we can't all day! I'm very concerned. Please help.
Hi and welcome to the forum from me and my little Stanley Your dog won't be happy living outside - they're very social animals and like to be where the people are. He reason he's sitting looking in is because he wants to be there with you. Can you not let him live in the house and divide rooms with baby gates so the cats can escape if they want to? It's a bit mean to get a puppy and leave him outside for long periods.. of course he's going to want to be by your sides. Your his best mates! I don't think your pup's aggressive. It sounds to me like he got overexcited and was trying to get you to play with him. Stanley was really bad for doing something similar at the same age when he was either over excited or frustrated. I used to try and distract him with some training, getting him to sit etc to calm him down. Even just this weekend another dog went for him and was pinning him down, when I eventually got him away I think he had an adrenaline rush and started jumping up at me and trying to grab his lead out of my hands to play tuggy. At one point he got my hand rather than the lead and it really hurt. I just got him to sit, stood on his lead then bent down to hold his harness so he couldn't lunge and stroked his ears for a few minutes until he was calm and we could walk again. I know at the time it's quite alarming and I was worried too. But I came on here and saw that it's not unusual at all. The more panicked you get, the more excited he'll get. I found it best to try and stay calm and in control. They're not aggressive.. just a bit over the top Good luck!
Hello and welcome to the forum. I'm sorry you feel scared by your puppy. Firstly, I would say that dogs are social animals, especially Labradors, and he really would do best to be in the house with you. Can you get a pen, or use baby gates so that the cat can get away from him if needs be, until they settle down and learn to live together? Keeping a dog outside is sadly more likely to cause behavioural issues. That said, I would very much doubt that what you experienced was true aggression. After all, dogs can crunch bones very effectively with their teeth, so if he really wanted to hurt you, he would have done. I would suggest instead that he just hasn't had as much opportunity as he might to learn proper bite inhibition because of living outside. It sounds like typical, boisterous Lab behaviour, cuts and bruises and all. The screaming would have just riled him up more, thinking it was a fun game. So, I would say, find a way to get him in your house. It's not good for him to be outside - his behaviour is telling you he's really not happy about this and he wants to be inside. Spending more time playing gently with him (sat on the floor in the evenings, stroking him, having gentle games of tug etc) will teach him how better to play and interact with you. And, if he goes crazy on a walk, stand on his lead so he can't jump up and turn your back on him. It will pass, and then you can give him lots of praise for being calm again. With patience and love, he'll learn. Good luck
Hello and Welcome from me & Rolo - I second everything Jen and Fiona said as above, you may think it isnt playful but I can assure you everyone on this forum has been covered in bruises from their dogs. 6 months is still very young. I cant explain the growling however if he has had a big energy rush this may be why. Cant express enough how much you should try and spend time with you dog. I understand you have cats but they are not social like dogs are. so the baby gate idea is fantastic. Do you have any areas where you can let him off lead and burn more energy doing fetch games etc Good luck and dont be disheartened
Hi and welcome. We also have indoor cats and although we got Harley as a 9 week old we have made sure that the cats always have a way of getting away from her if she becomes too much for them. We have never had any hint of aggression from Harley towards the cats...or anyone or anything but still she follows them around and is always keen to introduce play. We don't have baby gates as such but my husband made some barriers for doorways from very cheap wood and the barriers allow the cats to move freely and for us to contain Harley when needed. I will post a picture tonight. Harley also sleeps in a baby play pen at night. The pen also allowed us to introduce Harley to the cats in a safe manner for all of them, although she was more at risk of harm from them at the time. We have made every effort for this to be her safe space, so at night, if we stay up a little late she will go and paw at the gate so that she can go to bed. We are also cat people that had a rude awakening to dogs via a lab puppy but fortunately, we had the pen and the barriers set up before she arrived so she has always known them. I can highly recommend setting up physical boundaries like this to prevent her having the chance to do things we would prefer she doesn't. I don't know enough about labradors and dogs to comment on aggressive behaviour but the research I did prior to getting Harley definitely leans in favour of labradors being boisterous but lovely natured and friendly. You just need to get through the boisterous. Good luck, I hope it all gets better soon.
I will agree with all above. He was probably playing. Though some cats, a few, will play in similar ways when young, it's different with a much bigger animal like a dog. Except dogs don't grab you with their front claws and rake you with their hind claws like cats can do. I've always had cats and dogs. You can leave Humphrey alone with the cat if you take some precautions. We built sturdy gates on our kitchen and put cat sized escape holes in them. Some people use a big pen, which might be a better idea as puppies can wreck your kitchen cabinets and walls and floors. I cut the cat's claws short and supervise for the first many meetings. The cats learned to avoid the hooligan puppy if I was not there. ONe hid for a whole year but now is good friends with him. Good luck. Really, he sounds like a normal playful puppy.
Axel used to growl and bite my legs and thighs, arms and hands, anything he could jump up and get, oh and clothes! Very much like you described. I still have the scars on my arms and hands from him at about 4 months old. He's almost 14 months now. I agree with everything said above. Dogs are social and need their human time. When ever Axel got into these crazy attack modes I would redirect him with training. Ask him to sit, reward with a treat. If I was at home I would also give him a frozen kong to keep him busy or if I suspected he was tired I would put him in his crate and he would lie down and fall asleep instantly.
I agree with everything said above me! You can't have a lab and expect that he live outside. Poor baby just wants to be with you. As far as the "attacking" you, he was most likely just playing. My guy does this whenever we're outside in our yard throwing a ball around. He gets a little too excited and will jump up, and bite my pants, boots and legs. So far the thing that has worked for us, is whenever he gets like this, we stop whatever game we're playing, I grab him by his harness and have him sit while I pet him. It calms him down enough that we can usually start playing the game again. If he doesn't calm down, we will go inside and take a break. My puppy is 5.5 months and he's a big boy. So he has a puppy brain, but a big body and doesn't realize quite how strong he is. He's definitely not doing any of it to be aggressive or to intentionally hurt anyone, and it sounds like your boy is the same way. Good luck!
Nothing more to add really, just agree that it sounds as if your puppy was trying to get you to play with him. Dogs in general, but Labs particularly are people dogs and he is probably craving being with you, you are after all his whole world. As others have said can you use gates/pens to give you the best of both worlds? I don't have cats, but both my sister and best friend have dog and cat mixed households and took precautions introducing the cat and dog and both have a settled household with cats and dogs that are friends. Good luck
Can I ask what else you do with your pup other than walk him twice a day? Do you play games inside with him? Have cuddles? Hide toys? Dogs need mental stimulation as well as physical stimulation and they can get over excited if they've not had any interaction.
Its a shame you arent starting obedience training earlier but speak to the instructors ask them what you can do if it gets over excited to calm him down if you are out walking him. There are also exercises you can do at home like making him sit and wait til you put his food down and tell him he can have it, making sure he waits for you to go through doors first - always while he is like this. There are also ways to train them not to see cats as chasey toys but get him to understand he has to show you respect first (when he learns not to jump/mouth etc - they dont mean to scratch they learn to take more care with teeth and claws eventually). OUrs would like nothing more to play a game of chasey where she is the chaser not the chasee but thats not going to happen with us as Im not going to be pounced on by a flying dog - and yes when she tried it it was similar to what you describe but I put a stop to that pretty quick (one leap/lunge and snip and that was it - not gonna have that escalating and this is what she has tried in the middle of playing chasey in the yard too so you can never run, nor emit any high pitched sound - our older dog will play but wont play that). When inside you can use puppy play pens and baby gates to restrict the puppies movements too giving the cats somewhere to escape.
I second and third everything that was posted above. Although we played fetch, cuddled, and took him for two mile walks twice a day Finn didn't become "human" until he began playing with other dogs. Labs need a lot of exercise and mental stimulation. Can you take your boy to a dog park or to a doggy daycare? Training is so much easier when our pups are physically exhausted.
I think you're probably getting the gist of what's up with your pup. I would only add that dogs don't really exercise themselves if put outside on their own. So I would use your 1 acre garden (about which I'm very jealous) to do some fun training with him that will tire him mentally and physically. Good luck
