Hi all. Missy is only just now 5 months old, so I am not sure if any of this is concerning or if we just keep doing what we're doing. By concerning, I just mean is it something she should of outgrown by now. 1.) How she greets people! It's gotten worse as she's gotten older. She was pretty well at 3.5-4 months sitting at new people and melting to the floor. Now, she she sees that someone notices her (otherwise she's ignoring them), she immediately becomes so excited and wants to jump, or she falls to her back and becomes a wriggly bug which would be okay but then she wants to mouth when she's on her back. And shes so excited about the new person that shes constantly moving her head, and this can make the mouthing unpredictable. It's not really strictly a new people thing; she does this to my dad, which she sees daily. Even when I make him just stand there and ignore her, she simply can't control her excitement when she sees him until it's been a good 5 minutes. This is with him being a tree & not speaking. Otherwise she may sit, but gets up, down, up, down, falls to her back and wriggles around, crawls forward on her belly if I said down, sometimes will whine, etc. Then she ALWAYS mouths him. Jumps and nips clothing, wanting him to come down to her level. I always make him remove himself when she starts mouthing and ignore her, but so far, she seems to be getting MORE over excited. I can't figure out how to fix this! I've tried leashing her and walking past my dad for days at a time, just not letting her meet him at all if she was showing over excitement... I honestly need a solution that doesn't really involve the other person. 2.) Nipping at people (well, their pants) if they walk by too close when we are making her sit and take a break. This only happens when she is stationary and the other person is walking by without paying her any attention. Just last night we were downtown (playing pokemon go, haha) and we'd probably walked nearly 2 miles and wanted her to sit and take some water for a minute. As we were sitting, a huge group of people came by; some kind of pokewalk. Most people were a goof 5 -7 feet from where we were sitting and she just watched them, but a few people walked by really close wearing cargo pants and she attempted to nip at the pants, this happened twice. I am sure she just wanted to stop these people that were close enough to stop to say hi to her, but this is something I deem pretty unacceptable, but unsure how to counter it. She is fine while walking; people can brush right past us and she won't bother them. It's only when she is stationary and they aren't. She did it for a bit when she was 3 months, except she'd go after ankles, then she seemed to grow out of it until recently, about the same time she started being worse at people-greeting. Missy is part border collie and I wondering if that has anything to do with it. 3.) Again, mouthing - this one I'm really not concerned with anymore, but thought I'd make sure. She used to bite me SOOOO much, but she's gotten 100x better. She never bites my fiance. But still, sometimes she will jump up into my lap and just stick my whole forearm in her mouth. I generally let her do this, because she doesn't apply pressure anymore (she used to). She is very gentle with me these days, and I was under the impression this was okay (mouthing), but am starting to think maybe I should totally discourage it since she is having a problem with greeting others? I don't know. Overall, Missy is fantastic and learns fast in everything except these things. I live in a small town, and we don't really have any friends to practice greetings with (we're such loners ), my father is honestly not that great to practice with either. I could really use a solution that doesn't involve the other person. Most people just want to say hi and leave, the ones that will participate in helping her are far between but there has been a few (and she does much better with them, besides my father). She is actually okay at ignoring most people, it's when she KNOWS they're going to come see her that she just can't contain herself. She knows when they look at her and smile, and she knows that means they're coming. Is any of this concerning of a 5 month old? At what age is it no acceptable? I've read labs can take longer to mature; is that all this could be? I hope I'm not painting her as an out of control crazy, shes really very good! I'm just trying to detail my concerns, which are really only 2 issues involving what I think is over excitement and perhaps a bit of herding instinct.
You are encouraging the behavior by allowing pup to mouth even if there is no pain. My opinion on dog-in-lap may be contrary to what some will say but I never ever let my lab jump on my lap, jump on my bed, jump on the table, etc. etc. When she gets 75-85 pounds no one wants to be surprised when they sit down to suddenly have Missy pounce up. It won't be cute anymore.
I should be more clear; she doesn't jump up into my lap uninvited. It's just when she does jump (after I say come here and pat my lap), she mouths me. It is otherwise invited cuddle time. She is only on beds invited, doesn't jump on tables or couches.
Mouthing has never bothered me when others' dogs have done it to me (mine don't mouth). But, I can understand why it could be considered a problem, because other people could take it the wrong way - and some people don't want to be covered in dog slobber, anyway! So, I think if my dog did it, I'd discourage it in the same way I discouraged nipping; any interaction stops immediately. My boy, Shadow, nibbles sometimes, but I don't mind this because he only ever does it to me. If your girl only ever mouths you, and you're happy with it, then I wouldn't worry too much. With the issue of jumping up, try putting her on her lead and standing on it when people approach. This will stop her being able to jump up and, in time, she'll just stop trying. Have lots of interactions where she's completely ignored - if she always gets attention, then she'll learn to expect it. If her behaviour is getting more pronounced when you're ignoring her, then it means it's working. Attention-seeking behaviours tend to get worse before they disappear, as the dog learns that what it's doing isn't working and ups the ante. If you cave at this point, you're in trouble, because you've just rewarded your dog and s/he knows for next time that making more of a fuss gets results. So, stand your ground, give her no attention at all - not even eye contact (which is difficult for us humans!) and you'll come out the other side. She's still a baby, and acting like one
I thought a lot of it was being a baby still, but I felt I should make sure! I haven't raised a puppy before. I've always had 1-2 year old dogs, so this is new to me, and I want her to be set up for success! Her mouthing doesn't bother me at all anymore, especially because it's just been on a downward trend. When we first got her she was a SHARK. I still have scars on my hands from 2+ months ago (I am a diabetic, so I heal slowly), that are finally fading. Those puppy teeth tore me up even when she wasn't trying (all 4 of those sharp little needles fell out in 1 day a few days ago - YES!) Anyway I thought that she would just continue to stop the mouthing as she has been on her own these past few months. I also read a lot about labs being slower to mature, which the majority of her is lab. Do you think it would be a good idea to practice being a person that doesn't realize you should ask to pet a pup and maybe tone down the excitement in your voice when you see said pup going nuts? I generally don't get super baby-talk-excited with Missy. But maybe I should, just to correct her when it starts to excite her too much? Fiance has already been practicing totally ignoring her when he comes home for the past few weeks until she totally calms down and sits/lays. She still has a hard time there; she'll go into a playbow and ruff, trying very hard to keep herself planted, so she gets the idea - it's just hard for her.
Edsel is 2.5 years and excitement over meeting and greeting is still our big hurdle. He's getting better. By this I mean it only takes him a couple minutes rather than 20 to calm down now. He simply just loves people and activity and is just thrilled to be part of it. The more I've been able to gain cooperation from the humans in completely ignoring him and going about their business, the better he's become. He's not really mouthy, he's a "bumper" and will thump into people trying to get attention and pets. A bit of a pain now that he weighs 73 lbs. I was worried as well since I felt he was way past puppy stage, but I realize they all mature at different rates and as long as I see progress I feel ok. Missy is very young still and full of exuberance!
Bailey at 5 months still goes loopy to meet other dogs - also those he knows he greets in an excited manner, jumping and trying to lick them - new people he keeps four paws on the ground, just can hardly walk due to the mad tail wagging!
On the weekend I went to a talk given by a behaviourist and she said that the consensus/evidence is that dogs are not considered to be mature (socially) until 3 years of age. So, they are kinda still learning all that time. At 5 months your puppy is still a baby She sounds normal and it also sounds to me like you're doing really well. To get her attention out on the street (instead of nibbling Pokemon pants) you can also try feeding her a constant stream of treats.
Of course it's hard for her - she's a Lab (at least in part) and ALL THE PEOPLE are ALL HER FRIENDS! What I did was just lots of practice - whenever people they knew (FUN PEOPLE - PLAYTHINGS! YAY!) came towards them, I'd shout "Please, stop!" and get them to stay still until the puppy was sitting calmly - then the person could walk forwards. If pup started jumping again, the person stopped. The most fun person was my husband, and he was the easiest to train (he's use to responding when I shout ) so we did a lot of him stopping, or turning and walking away when they were too excited. I'm generally a "yes" person, but when my dogs were pups, I ended up really quite abrupt with people, shouting "Please don't touch my puppy!!!!!" and similar, when they were going in for the stroke and the puppy was wound up. I upset a few people, but it worked
