My lab (15 months old) has since we got him, regularly done the butt tucks, zooming or whatever people call it. Tail between legs, butt to the ground and spinning off in circles, often involving near body slams. This happens often on walks, especially in tall grass and when he is excited about something. Is this at all normal labrador behaviour? My girlfriend does not like this behaviour, for two reasons: - He shuts his ears while zooming around. No contact. I can eventuelly get him to heel after a while, but with those crazy eyes looking up at me saying "I'M HAVING FUUUUN! WEEEEEEEEEEE!" - The body slams/near collisions. When he zooms around he often passes very closes to us, and sometimes crashes into us. Also normal or not? I've googled a bit around, and found this behaviour to be withing the "normal lab" range, but is it a sign of stress, playfulness or what? The main thing that bothers me with it, is that he's very very difficult to establish contact with during this crazy sessions. Any input would be great.
Charlie does this. He is two. He does it less in the house these days. It's perfectly normal. With Charlie it's just excitement, nothing else. It's just tooooo exciting to be able to run around like a nutter. Two things helped with Charlie. I put "run around" on cue, and he gets to run around madly shaking a toy as a reward for things I want him to do - it is less "butt tucky" than a free range zoomie and he stay more under control when he does it. This gives him an outlet for the behaviour. And the other thing that helped is a really strong interrupter cue. Mine is "ready?" which is a cue that we are going to do something, we're starting work. Here is Charlie's "run around" as a reward for a sit and wait on an exciting beach: [click on pic for vid] beach run around by julieandcharlie julieandcharlie, on Flickr
Hehe, Charlie is a nutter. My two (nine and a half months) do it occasionally, not very often. It's a pain when it's in the house, but I can stop them with an "enough" cue. When they were smaller, if they got too excited to the point they could hurt themselves, I would put one of them into the crate for a few minutes to calm down. When we're out and about they don't do it often; maybe once a fortnight. I just let them get on with it because they tend to do it at a sensible distance. I have been knocked into very hard by Shadow, when he was chasing something thrown by DH (who clearly didn't see me standing right in front of him and behind Shadow ) and even with him being small, it really hurt, so I can understand your girlfriend not liking it during a butt-tuck. I've only ever seen it being done out of excitement, not stress. I don't have any other suggestions to add to Julie's, sadly. Just to reassure you that it's perfectly normal.
Maisie never did the but tucking madness until recently (14 montgs old). She's been on restricted exercise for a month now and butt tucking/zoomies have become a daily occurrence! Defibately caused by excitement and a build up of energy!!
Interesting...Benson will run around happily with a prize...like in the video of Charlie, but he has never (in my memory) run around in a proper bum tuck. Casper our older dog, often will race around tail tucked, eyes round, zooming in circles. I think it is something to do with impulse and excitement thresholds, Benson although younger, has far more impulse control, whereas Casper really struggles.
Juno is a major bum tucking phase at 11 months - luckily outdoors only, indoors I can stop her with "enough"!. She has become totally deaf during these periods which is so unlike her. She will run around without a toy but here preference is for a stick to zoom with. I put it down to all the restricted exercise and lead walks before and after her surgery and she is just so happy to have the freedom. Although I love to see her having fun, I would prefer it if I had her old responsiveness back
It's excitement. My first dog Nicolae, usually very placid and quiet, would regularly just let it all out in a crazy fit of bum tuckiness. Used to make me really laugh to see him so joyful. Obi, usually in a high state of alertness, hardly ever bum tucks. Only a few times in over two years. I wish he'd do it more as I see it as a sign of huge happiness and I love to see him hugely happy. I'd say just take delight in it when it happens, try to keep out of the way and bend ze knees in the event of a collision!
I'm in Rachael ( Oberon's camp) i love to see it !I don't get it very often now but I got the most jubilant one the other day when we surprised him in the garden coming back from our 10 day trip!He was doing a 'butt tuck wall of death ' extravaganza" When Dexter was younger he used to have a nutty hour in the evening and wr had to stop him trying to do laps round the coffee table,that did have safety issues so I can understand your girlfriend being a bit perturbed!He doesn't do that now and he's actually quite a serious boy so I love seeing him have a mad eyed hoolie round x
I think all Labs do it. My girl, Lady, still does it every now and then at 5 years old. She used to do exactly as you describe when she was a pup (which goes on until around 3 years old in a Lab, by the way). Just watch our for the body slams and glancing blow though - especially around strangers. Lady broke my wife's leg very badly after a glancing blow when butt tucking. It highlighted the potential law suits that might be on the horizon if the same thing happened to a stranger. I love it when she butt tucks, though. It's just an indication of a really happy dog full of the joys of being alive, I think. Nowadays she tends to butt tuck more when in the company of a male Lab and tries hard to attract his attention by boffing him with her paw on the nose then hooning off hoping for a chase!
Good to see it's normal. It does not happen often, but tall grass seems to be the trigger, or when we are doing hikes in the forest/mountains. Guess he's just overly happy. Butt to the ground, wide eyes, tongue out and breathing like a horror monster when he's doing it. It last max a minute, so I'll guess we'll live with it. It's just that he likes zooming by our legs during his runabouts, which sometimes involves crashing into us.
Think I must be lucky as Juno has only clipped my leg once - yes it did hurt (she hit my dodgy knee) and she hurt her shoulder and limped for a few minutes but always makes sure that she doesn't come too close since.
Haha, long grass is a major butt tuck starter for Maisie as well. I'm really happy with her on walks as she often spots a patch to hop through, but she just does her little run through it and then stops once she's back on the normal grass (and doesn't normally even pull during this, just has her fun and stops). I find that very acceptable and don't mind it. She also finds dirt wildly exciting and may do a butt tuck run through dirt. Sometimes if she's with another dog and they're not being allowed to play or they aren't interested, she runs in her wild circles just to get some of her energy off without approaching the other dog - again, I think this is a good thing as she is doing something to get rid of energy but not something destructive or annoying to others (unless you're run into!). Last night I came home after journeying all day, she had been with my boyfriend, and she had a CRAZZZZZZY butt tuck run around the house. I was pretty happy she was so excited to see me, it was really cute!
Mira is still partial to the odd BTR (bum tuck run) as we call them! Fortunately it now rarely happens when out unless she is having a very exciting chase game with another doggy friend. Mainly it is in the garden when she comes back from an exciting walk (ie most walks!) or if we play a chase game after some training. It's a bit of of mad happy puppyness which we are happy to indulge in the safety (to others!) of our garden
All 3 of mine do it - Barney, who is 5, not too often but Shelby (nearly 3) & Ellie (19 weeks) do it on daily basis. It's just excitement & too much emotions. I just let them do it - watch from the distance till they stop
When Molly starts it I open the back door and let her out into the garden where she can enjoy it. Interestingly, she has never collided with me.
Just last night as we were (attempting) to go to bed....hubby was in under the covers, and I was making my way around to my side of the bed. Bella was at the foot of the bed, and had a goofy look on her face...so I was being silly and started breathing funny.....and OMG....that set her off....and in the tiny confines of our very small bedroom...she had a mad moment of crazy circles, on and off the bed, pouncing on DH and just generally being sooooo wound up. We let her go at it for a couple minutes laughing at her before we tried to get her to settle enough that I could get into bed and get the lights shut off. It was hilarious watching her try to run laps in the tiny space....literally our room has only enough room around the edge of the bed to shuffle around it...no more than the width of the door frame at the widest spot....and most of it even tighter than that....I'm constantly bumping into things....
The last time Shadow did this inside, he jumped onto the kitchen worktop. He was very surprised with himself. As was I! They did it yesterday evening on our walk, when we came across a big patch of snow that's not yet melted. Nutters.
