Hello, wonderful people. I have been browsing The Labrador Site and The Labrador Forum for several months now, which really helped me with training my now 10-month old girl. I am writing because I have a huge problem I am unable to sort out and need your help with - aggressive behavior on walks. For the past few days my dog would randomly snap while on a walk, and start jumping at me, barking, growling and biting. The biting is not a play-bite, and is pretty hard - both my arms are all bruised because of this (thanks to a leather jacket that took one for the team), and look as if I am a victim of domestic violence. This happens exclusively and only on walks - at home she is the calmest angel (as much as this is possible for a teen dog). Here are some details: 1. This happens roughly 5-10 minutes into the walk; 2. She is wearing a harness, and not a collar; 3. The behavior started when she got an upset stomach, which is not the case anymore (she is all healthy now); 4. When she starts doing this, she does not let go of my arm until I manage to drag her into the building where we live. She then calms down; 5. When it happened today, I panicked and instinctively hit her, which only made her biting harder (yes, I do indeed feel super guilty about this); 6. This has happened on almost every walk (2 to 4 walks a day) for the past 3 days; 7. She is not sprayed (and will not be, at least not anytime soon). Now, I know what all the books say about this - get help from a professional trainer. Problem is, there are no positive trainers at all where I live (Bulgaria), and I am most certainly not willing to beat, humiliate and/or "dominate" my canine roommate (even when she is being a bully). Several months ago a friend recommended me the only "positive" trainer I could find. When we met, however, he started with suggesting I get my dog a prong collar, kindly advising me that a dog can not be trained without violence, and insisting that he gets several training sessions with the dog alone without me being present. Needless to say, our paths never crossed again. Yesterday I tried to consult my vet about the problem, but she let me know that my dog is "dominating" me and that sometimes violence in training is needed (yes, an actual vet with an actual vet degree and 20-something years of experience with dogs). I would really appreciate any advice you could give or any trainer you might be able to recommend, and thank you so much for reading the whole thing above. Also, thank you so much for this forum and site, I would have been completely lost without you guys.
Hi Jay, I hope you can get some good advice here! Lots of knowledgeable members Since this only started a few days ago, I'm wondering if she might be in pain, did your vet examine her when you spoke with her? If she's not in pain, perhaps she developed a negative association with walking on a harness, either from the stomach pain, or something else. Is there something that happens 5-10 minutes into the walk that is different from the start? You could try treat streaming her with some small pieces of high reward treat, and build up the walk duration slowly, so that each experience is a positive one. I don't have experience with unspayed dogs - does anyone know if this could be a hormonal change?
Thank you, SilverFalcon! The vet examined her and determined that her tummy was sensitive on touch. They prescribed medicine (smecta) and prescription diet food, and since this morning she is not reacting at all to her stomach being touched. There are no other changes in her behavior (sleepiness, loss of appetite, etc), and she is not doing this at home, which makes me think that you are most probably right about the harness. There is really nothing different that happens when the behavior occurs compared to the beginning of the walk, and the change is very sudden - one moment she is sniffing a flower and wagging her tail, and the other she is trying to bite my arm off. As for the treats, I tried to lure her to let go of me with a treat, but she showed no interest, so I suppose this is stronger than her love for food. I have a collar somewhere at home, so I am going to change the harness, and try your advice with building up the walk duration using treats. Again, thank you! I knew I'd get some wonderful observations and advice here.
Hi @Jay Good for you , re the violence , punishment or violence in training is never ever acceptable ! To me anyway , those who use cruel methods have not got the patience or knowledge to train and treat a dog with kindness and respect . Sometimes , we have to step outside the box and analyse the issue , work out what it is that's upsetting the dog , what it feels and how it perceives us . Good advice already from @SilverFalcon , slowly and steadily wins the race . Maybe you could also arrange to walk alongside someone else who has a calm dog ? Calmness does rub off from one dog to another, helping to build confidence , good luck x
Thank you, SilverFalcon and kateincornwall! The collar and treats actually did the trick. She still gave me "that" look preceding an "attack" several times, but never even growled at me. This is literally the first normal walk we've had for days, I can't thank you enough! I hope she keeps being the good dog she is. I am going to wait for a few days and try the harness on again (she still gets very excited about birds and cats sometimes, and I really want to avoid any risk to damage her neck), but if she still hates it, I guess I will have to get her a proper collar.
Perhaps get a different style of harness. I'd be wanting to protect her neck if you think she's going to pull or lunge. We have a selection of harnesses! I think we're settled on one now
Glad that you have had fantastic advice and it has helped already. As said above, I would look at buying a different type of harness if your girl is a puller as will help keep her neck not being hurt. It so nice to read that people do walk away from being told by 'professionals' that they need to use violence. Well done
I just wanted to say welcome from me Helen, Hattie 9 years and our rescue boy Charlie 6 years. Lots of great advice already given so good luck with it and I'm sure you will make progress. Good on you for ignoring the 'trainer' and the 'vet', the more people that do this the sooner out dated, cruel methods will be reduced. xx
Thank you, Helen, and thank you all for the advice and support. Switching to a collar and increasing the treats on a walk solved the problem literally instantly. Words can't express how happy I am to have found people like you. I was so very tired of everyone telling me that I should beat my dog to "discipline" her, even though their own dogs getting "disciplined" are not well behaved at all. I even had a nasty experience with a huge stranger dude on the street who hit my dog because she was sniffing something and wouldn't come when I called her (yes, a passing-by stranger hit my dog because why not). After I shouted my lungs at him for several minutes, he was genuinely surprised that I mind what he did, and let me know that he used to have dogs (because apparently having dogs means that you can now hit other people's dogs, I wonder if he would apply this way of thinking on children too). My point is, I am happy that I now get to communicate with people who do their research and use their brains when choosing how to train their dogs. Edit: I forgot to mention that yes, I am going to try a different type of harness, thank you for this idea as well. I am sure that I will find one that she will feel comfortable with.
Well done @Jay so glad things have improved for you. What kind of a person hits another owners dog, beggars belief Good for you having a go back. Imagine how this person treats their own dog x
Wow...just wow...well it makes me very happy to know you're doing the right thing by your pup Btw, what's her name? Mine is 10 months also Good luck with the harness hunt!
Her name is Erika (as in Night Vale: "all angels go by the name Erika. Erika with a K"). She is a rescue pup - a girl I know found her and her two brothers near a heavy traffic road when they were just about 8 weeks young. Frankly, it would be more accurate to say that I'm her rescue human - my life is so much better with her.
Aw bless you and Erika poor little girl being dumped, just awful Glad she's with you now for lots of fun filled adventures together xx
So sorry Erika was on the receiving end of some mindless thug. It beggers belief what goes through some peoples minds. So glad you're seeing results straight away.
I sorry someone was so horrible to you and your dog. Things like that happen round where I live too. Its really hard some times. Its hard to do things differently glad you are though. You and your dog will have a great relationship.
