I have a 12 month old male black lab. When we leave the house to go for a walk, his heckles are straight up. As soon as he sees someone, either close or in the distance, his heckles are up. If someone suddenly walks round the corner we are approaching he barks, backs up, jumps about. Most people understandably avoid us but if I calm him and allow them to stroke him, he is fine. He is a loving and friendly dog and my little girl adores him but I am scared that the aggressive behaviour will get worse. He was castrated last week and we went back yesterday for a check up he was a complete nightmare, I could hardly control him, barking at everyone, crying and whining when I settled him. The vet described it as an anxious bark 'are you going to speak to me, should I speak to you first' kind of thing. I've had dogs before but never a lab and I'm stumped at his behaviour. Nothing has happened to him to make him like this. The vet said it could be a closeness thing with me, he likes to be touching, I allow him on the settee next to me and he does this weird thing when I greet him whereby he wraps his paw around my leg, as if to say your mine. I'm starting to hate going for walks or crossing the road as soon as I see anyone but I believe that will alienate him more. Any suggestions please !!!
Hello there, and welcome to the forum! Your dog sounds like a rather nervous chap to me, rather than aggressive. Could you give us a bit more information about him - have you had him from a puppy, do you live in a quiet area so perhaps he missed out on some areas of socialisation, is he from show lines or working lines, etc. I can sympathize - my dog is 3 1/2 years old and very calm and quiet, but in her adolescence she became quite nervous of strangers. It took a lot of gentle, calm reassurance, together with high value treats and slowly getting her used to strangers walking up to us (especially old people), to stop her barking and growling. It did work though, and she is very gentle, friendly and calm now.
Yes I have had him from a puppy and I live on a normal housing estate. I did two sets of puppy training with him. so believe he has socialised well but he was the typical lab at the classes and just want to play rather than 'stay' and recall was non-existent. He is from working lines and weighs 32kg, so quite a big boy when I am trying to stop him jumping around. I too think its more anxiety, I talk to him all the time when we are walking and he has a routine whereby when we get to a certain point he is rewarded. I just feel his behaviour is getting worse. I purposely took him to an ice-cream cafe with my daughter where I knew lots of people would be, he was fine for about 20 mins, then once he had barked once, he just kept grumbling on, so we left.
Well, I would say you would probably benefit from some more professional training, possibly on a one-to-one basis. From the sound of things, this is a situation you can turn around, but it will take a bit of work. If you want to do it on your own without professional help, then you will need to take things slowly, and build up his self-confidence. For instance, taking him to the ice-cream cafe with your daughter is a good idea - but I wouldn't stay for twenty minutes until he starts grumbling. Just take him there for two or three minutes, give him lots of treats, and then take him away again, before he has time to get upset. Then the next time you can take him for five minutes, then the next time for seven minutes, then ten minutes, and so on. You get the idea - you need to find situations where he feels comfortable, and slowly extend them, rather than testing him to his limits. By the way, if he can be in a crowded cafe for twenty minutes before he gets upset, that really sounds like you have a basically good-natured dog, who gets sensory overload after a while. Working line dogs tend to be more sensitive than show line dogs; mine is working line too and I believe that is part of the reason behind some of these nervousness issues. You need to work with your dog and build up his confidence slowly. For instance, take him for a walk, and when someone comes towards you, get his attention (pieces of roast chicken works well for this!), and reward him for walking or sitting quietly while that person goes by. Honestly, if you could see my dog now, and compare her to how she was at around 8 months of age, you wouldn't recognize her! It took patience on my part, but it worked out. Also, particularly working line dogs really need quite a lot of stimulation in order to be fulfilled and therefore calm and happy. I'm a huge fan of giving a dog a job. It doesn't really matter what it is, though of course working line labradors do tend to do very well with gun dog training. But agility, fly ball, or search and rescue are all great, too. The main thing is he needs to do something to stretch him mentally and physically. This will also build his confidence - and doing some sort of training together with strengthen your bond and give a whole new aspect to your relationship with him.
I have two very nervous working line labradors. They bark and sound aggressive although their body language shows fear. They are four and have been like this since they were six months. I'm pleased to say though that they have improved a lot and are now at a point were they will actually take treats from people's hands who they would once have barked at if they'd come with in six feet. It's taken time and patience and I've had to accept this is how my dogs are they are never going to greet people like long lost friends which because they are labs does shock some people. I would recommend the book Why Does My Dog Do That by Caroline Spencer. It has lots of helpful advice on how to get your dog to trust you to make the right decision and keep you and him safe in stressful situations rather than thinking he has to do it.
Hi and welcome to the forum. It does sound very much like he is anxious rather than aggressive. I have this with my two in situations where they weren't properly socialised - kids being my main problem area, but Willow also went through a phase of barking at everyone that appeared around corners, or in places she wasn't expecting. She still does on occasion, but it's quite rare now. The way I worked on it was to work on "look at that". It's a technique that's described in a very good book called Control Unleashed. The main points are: when your dog sees something you know he is going to react to, you click your clicker immediately, just as he looks but before he reacts. He will then look to you for a treat (make it something really, really tasty). Keep on doing this again and again and again and again at a "safe" distance - where he's interested but not going crazy. This may require you doing set-ups. Eventually, you'll get to a point where he looks at the person (or thing) and immediately to you, for a treat. This is a good thing. It means he's starting to associate the thing that upsets him with nice things - treats. Gradually, you can inch closer. This must be a very slow process, especially with a dog as anxious as yours sounds. Every time you move closer, go back to clicking immediately he looks at the person, until he starts again with looking at them and immediately back to you. Note, you're not asking him to look at you; you're training him to do it automatically. That's very important because it means that it doesn't matter if he sees something that you don't. His reaction will eventually be "I don't like that, look at Mum". It's very important that you don't try to rush this; it will take a long time (weeks or months) to work on it and so you need to find scenarios where you can practice; places you know people will be in a certain area that you can safely stay a good distance from. Wherever you are, whatever you're doing with him, capture nice calm behaviour; give him praise for it and plenty of treats. The vet's surgery is a very difficult situation for most dogs, because of the number of other animals in close proximity, and the overall feelings of stress. So, again, it's not a great place to expect good behaviour that you've not practiced for. You need to get him used to that kind of thing gradually. Maybe sitting in a park to start off with. Use the same "look at that" technique with other dogs that are at a distance. Eventually, build up proximity. If you know anyone else with dogs, you can ask them to help you by setting up scenarios. Start with the dog at the other end of a field, and build up to a place where you can be sat on a bench next to them, and he doesn't react to the other dog. Again, it takes time, but if he can't do that, then there's no way he'll be able to cope in a vet's waiting room.
I also really agree with Karen's suggestion about getting him into an activity that will use his brain and burn off some energy. It's very important for all Labs, and I believe working strain in particular, to be mentally stimulated. Something like flyball, agility or gundog classes (you don't have to do anything to do with actual shooting or game) would be great for him to focus his energies and start learning to be calm around distractions.
Hello, and a very warm welcome! Sounds like great advice above - I can't add to it, I'm afraid - but slow and careful exposure to the things he finds scary seems like the way to go. Best of luck with it.
Thanks everyone for the advice. I will try some of your distraction techniques but if I feel that I'm still not getting anywhere with him, I'll contact my trainer from the puppy classes. I took him out this morning with a pocket full of sausage to distract him, so will just keep trying and hopefully he will settle down. Thanks again for your advice.
Yes the sausage did distract him. We passed another dog which was about 10 feet away, he was agitated but wanted the sausage. The dog passed I gave him the sausage, then he started barking. But it was enough for the dog to pass before he started barking and jumping around. I will persevere because I want him and me enjoy his walk. I suppose it's day 1 and I've made a start but I'll definitely keep you posted, thank you.
Something I noticed today whilst off lead on the field. If someone walks nearby or even far away, Charlie will run to then and run around them but doesn't bark. On the lead, he barks. He didn't immediately recall but eventually did, after a bit of calling and the people just walking on and ignoring him. Just an observation, now I am trying to analyse everything and not just thinking 'typical lab'.
You might think this is a bit stating the bleedin' obvious (sorry! ) but it's best he doesn't run up to people - you might be trying your best to stop him doing this already though! It's tough with young Labradors. People might be alarmed, even if he doesn't bark, or they might harm him in some way, which might make his reaction to strange people even worse. I don't think the tendency to run up to people in itself is a problem, lots of Labradors do it. But you maybe have a clue in that being on lead makes him feel more anxious, perhaps because he can't get away from a situation in which he feels uncomfortable?
