I've got a lovely black Labrador retriever from the show dogs couple. She is 1 year old and I believe she is just a puppy however she has got such a personality that I can't cope with and wonder if she need environment which I can't provide. Well the problem is pulling on the leash, jumping over other people, nipping when trying to stroke her, running away, when you call her running like a wild horse, biting furniture etc.Yes I know it's all typical puppy behaviour but after months on training classes and 1 to 1 training it's no improvement. The thing is while training she is like a gold, listening etc but once she can see something more interesting another face of her appears and nothing can stop her. The only way to make her behave is constantly run and interact with her, make her Useful and tired then she is happy but I just wonder if instead of family dog she is "working" type of dog? Is anything like that exists?
The behaviour you describe (pulling on leash, jumping, running away and nipping) are all related to training - not working vs. show or family dog. Training classes give you the tools to train, but you need to work on those things in all sorts of environments. You need to build up the distractions and continue training at home, at the park etc etc. She sounds like a typical teenage lab to me - she may also be bored at home and trying to get your attention? I would try to include more training and games at home, recall games and hiding games are great. You could also work on settling - reward her for going on her bed and build up the time that she remains there. The one tip I would say is you have to make yourself the most fun on your walks to keep her attention on you... I work on this every walk with my 11 month old pup (and have for months) at the park, or wherever we go. I walk with her, change directions, surprise her with a ball, hide, call her to me from close proximity and reward her, heavily reward check ins...it works wonders. She never takes her eyes off me, even in the forest, dog parks etc because she can't predict what I'll do.
As someone with two extremely active showline dogs, I find this perception that show line dogs are quiet, laid back, and relaxed completely bizarre - no doubt some are, but lots are not. I think it comes from the fact that there are a lot of overweight pet Labradors around, and these are not energetic dogs and people think these are showline dogs - they are not, they are just overweight pets (and a fair number of them are overweight working line dogs anyway). Certainly, my dogs are more excitable, more easily distracted, harder to train, and a great deal less sensitive and responsive than the average working line dog (they are also bags and bags of fun to train ). I train with working line dogs all the time - and it makes perfect sense that this is the way it is. Working line Labradors are supposed to be keen retrievers, but in between are supposed to be pretty relaxed in highly distracting environments. The best working line Labradors that I've seen have a calm focus that I find very hard to achieve with my showline dogs (although am getting much better with practice).
The explanation of the show dog make a perfect sense to me now. I did have a working line Labrador before and she was calm and just pleasure to be with (I haven't done my homework before taking my new girl). My recent girl is like a tornado. I did train her exactly like QuinnM said 2 times a day and playing hide and seek. She adores it but it's pretty hard to do it all day as she expecting specially with my 2 toddlers. Someone told me that Labradors will get used to the quiet home environment but I don't want her to be unhappy and makes our life stressful if she will not. That's why im here for advice if anyone had similar challenges and how to tackle it.
If you can manage it financially it can be a real help to make use of things like dog walkers and doggie daycare. They can give you a break. Our dog goes to daycare two days a week and it makes a huge difference. They do quite a lot of structured activities at our daycare (interesting new places, steadiness exercises in new places) so it's not just about wearing out the dog - if you can find that kind of daycare or dog walker then that'd be ideal.
We had always heard that Field Trial Dogs lived about 5' off the ground. Tilly's mom was a Master Hunter and her dad was a Field Trial Champion. She was a high energy dog when she was young. Cooper is just as high energy, but her parents were Senior Hunter and Master Hunter, not Field Trial Champions in the immediate family. I can't really compare them to Show Line dogs, although Tilly looked a lot like a Show Line dog when she was young.
Well, they are not going to be very steady Field Trial Dogs then, are they? Retrievers that tear round at 100mph, can't settle down, can't wait calmly, don't have frustration control, have no off switch, and so on, make absolutely lousy working dogs. I know, I've got one.
Here I go again admitting his little research I did before buying a puppy Butttt.. I wasn't aware that there was more than one type of Labrador until after we got Stanley. Looking at how he's developing as he grows it seems that he is definitely more field Labrador than show Labrador. A few people have described him as a "gun dog". He's obviously got ridiculous amounts of energy and is a bit mental but I just put that down to being a Labrador puppy rather than any particular traits. He does sleep quite a lot and you can get him to settle down. I've read a few articles but everyone seems to have different opinions on it. Reading this I'm hoping he's just going to be a typical Labrador. If we have to factor more activities in to keep him occupied then that is what we shall do, maybe some agility or gun dog training
To be honest, unless there's a load of red on your dog's pedigree, then it's probably fairly meaningless to think of them in terms of "field" or "show" bred because the traits that make them one or the other haven't been specifically bred for in your dog. So, considering them "pet bred" with whatever type of physique they have is rather more accurate.
In the Pacific NorthWest at least, most all the Labs we see are Field lines. The breeders we have dealt with, never show them, and only breed dogs that have Hunting and/or Field Trial credentials. All three of our Labs have been very biddable dogs, and all of them get/got along well with other people and other dogs. Never the less they all have different personalities. Cooper has the best recall and is the closest to being a lap dog, but she is very skittish when people have tools (think clippers, thermometers, brushes) in their hands. None of our dogs have ever come even close to biting a person, even when they did not like what was being done to them. Cooper especially will struggle to get away but has never made any attempt to bit. Just to be clear, Tilly and Cooper did bite when they were pups, though there was seldom any blood. Cooper will mouth hands sometimes in play, but never bites.
