Hi we have a nearly 9 month old, stunningly handsome chocolate male lab. But he is uncontrollable and getting worse by the day - jumping - biting - eating everything from food to poo to door frames - no longer able to get him on harness and walk time becoming a nightmare - beginning to get out of garden (village but main road with 60mph speed limit!!) Tried classes - tried 1:1 - tried toys - tried treats - tried wearing him out - tried structure ....,... truly at my wits end now. He's big dog for age and incredibly strong and at 5'2" becoming concerned he's going to hurt me When my attention is undivided he's gorgeous - a second away and it's hell Any and all suggestions welcome please
Hi Anne and welcome to the forum Sounds like you have your hands full there. A lot of people will be able to relate to your experience. It can get better though! Can you tell us a bit about the training approaches or methods you've used? What have you tried to teach him and how have you done it? Can you also tell us what your dog's typical day is like? Tell us more and I'm sure we can help Just some general thoughts here... Some dogs can be a challenge, and often they are actually the ones who will respond the best to clear, consistent training. They are wanting to interact with you and the world, but they are confused about it all and are full of energy. That makes for a tricky combination, as you know well. Often the solution involves: 1. us taking a good look at ourselves as trainers and improving our skills so we are clear and consistent and set things up so the dog is rewarded for doing the thing that we want (like sitting instead of jumping, or lying on a mat during dinner instead of barking in your face) 2. us looking at some lifestyle changes for our dog. That can involve more structured activity in their day combined with more training in how to settle down and be still. Dogs don't always naturally know how to chill out and be quiet and calm - they have to learn the self control to be able to do it.
Wonderful advice from Rachael. If you can tell us more about what you've done, it will help. My puppy is 11 months, hugely confident and complete mischief. Your boy is at a very challenging age and you really do have to be consistent, grit your teeth and work through it. He'll settle with age but in the meantime it's your responsibility to help him get there through kind, clear and, above all, consistent training. He's still very much a baby brain in an increasingly strong body. Let's start with the most concerning thing, which is him getting out of your garden. Is he left in your garden unattended? This will obviously have to stop if it's not secure (which it obviously isn't, if he's getting out). He doesn't need to be outside unattended; as long as he is getting enough structured exercise during the day, that will do. The rest of the time, if he needs to go into the garden, you can make sure you're there with him, on a lead if necessary. It would also be worth you considering investing in secure boundaries so that he can't get out; if that's too expensive in the short term, then maybe making a smaller safe enclosure for him. Or, as I say, simply not letting him out unattended.
Absolutely this, in conjunction with all the advice you have been given. Does sound like you have your hands full right now
Great advice given, so my only thoughts are you've mentioned toys and treats, but have you tried frozen kongs? When mine was your age and he was going hyper loony delinquent mode (after already having a walk, training, etc), a frozen kong would help him to decompress from all of the excitement. You could try just feeding him from kongs; a big hit around here is his wet food mixed with his dry kibble and soaked, then frozen. You're at a really hard age, my lab was so high strung during those months. He matured quite a bit around the 1 yr mark, so you don't have too much longer to go. He's still a delinquent at times but he's settled down a lot, he's now nearly 1.5.
God advice above. He has hit the teenage stage, but will come through the other end with consistent, patient and kind training from you.
We got our dog Obi when he was 9 months and he was pretty much exactly like your dog is now. He jumped up, he grabbed clothes, he grabbed bits of people, he barked constantly, he couldn't settle for a moment, he pulled on the lead. The only thing he could do was come back when called. But with consistent training he has become a wonderful dog. Below I've pasted in some things I've posted in other threads about what worked with him There's a bit of repetition - sorry about that. Hope there are a couple of useful snippets there...
Ah, the lovely teenage years... I want to get Teller a little brother but reading posts like this gives me pause. Some things: You mentioned 'biting', is this mouthing (putting his mouth on your body without actually biting down) or actual biting where there is broken or bruised skin? As mentioned, mouthing is completely normal and expected for retrievers since they were bred for the express purpose of carrying game in their mouths, everything goes into that mouth: socks, shoes, hands, feet, arms, toys, sticks, etc. Normally it is not a huge problem as retrievers are also bred to have 'soft-mouths', it can be a bit rough when they get excited but generally they won't bite down; he should have also learned bite inhibition from his mother. So if he is truly biting and not just mouthing it's a different issue entirely, one that a trainer or behaviorist might need to remedy. You also said he was eating everything. Sorry to dive into semantics here, but is he ingesting a variety of odd things or just being generally destructive? If he's going round eating unusual things left and right it could be a dietary problem. A friend of mine was feeding her dog some cheap kibble and he would literally eat everything he could get his mouth on because it turned out he wasn't getting adequate nutrition. So long as you're feeding him well and the proper amount for his size, this likely isn't the cause. Destructiveness is unfortunately fairly common in doggy adolescence and can be exacerbated by anxiety or not getting enough exercise. As for the poo eating, I can't help you there lol. Nothing really works so far as I know and some dogs even like the taste of those yucky bitter sprays. Establishing a firm 'leave it' will definitely help but sometimes dogs are just, well, gross. Teller doesn't do it predictably but when he does ugh... there are few things nastier. I remember one time when my Shih Tzu was a puppy, we took her to the park and caught her munching really intently on something thinking it was gum or something equally harmful to dogs, I pried open her mouth only to find a big ol' mushy glob of poo. Needless to say, sometimes dogs make you want to retch. The harness thing. Sometimes traditional harnesses can actually encourage pulling. Been there, done it. I don't know if front-hook harnesses are popular there but brands like Ruffwear make one that functions as both back/front-hook and doesn't put stress on joints or interrupt gait patterns like those ones that go across the chest. Frozen Kongs were brought up but Teller got to the point where he could destroy even the black kind (the toughest they make) so we started giving him raw bones (the weight-bearing kind) to chew whilst supervised and noticed they kept him occupied and calm. There has already been great advice given, so I'm here to tell you that it does absolutely get better with age. I got Teller when he was 13 months old and he was still smack in adolescence. We had a relatively easy time with him, he wasn't destructive or loud, but he pulled like a mule on the leash - I'm 5'2" as well so he'd all but drag me down the street - and jumped like he was possessed; he also had the zoomies and a tendency to bolt from the yard. I tried a variety of different training methods to curb the jumping and devices to discourage pulling (head halter, front-hook harness, prong collar, etc.) in the end he just had to grow up a bit. It happened for us at around age 2 but it's wholly dependent on the dog in question. One day it was like he woke up and decided not to be a bundle of crazy any longer. I can't really explain it, all of the sudden he was walking much better on-leash, forging ahead still but not tugging like he was trying out for the Iditarod, and not really jumping; he also can be trusted off-leash for short distances now. Also when he hit 2 we noticed he could actually focus on training and not be a hyper mess. He still has some slip ups occasionally - there are certain friends he jumps on no matter what - honestly I probably should have trained him better but for the most part he's become a good dog.
Generally it does get better with age. Cooper was pretty rambunctious at that age. The best way to stop chewing up things, is to keep them out of reach until they stop the stealing, chewing behavior. It is easier said than done, and we lost a few books and knick-knacks to Cooper when she was younger. If your dog has good recall, getting him out where he can run and play hard may help wear him out. Cooper is enough of a tennis ball dog, that I can completely wear him out if I want to. I don't think you have American style dog parks in the UK, but they really help young dogs work off some excess energy with other dogs. I don't understand your harness problem. Is it that you can't get it on, or that he pulls with it on. I would never use a back connect harness to train a dog on lead, just the opposite, it is what I use when I want them to pull me on skis, because it works like a sled dog harness. We do use a front connection harness some times, and it does help control pulling. We also sometimes use prong collars, and while they are frowned on on this site, they really do work and are probably less adversive and less damaging than a flat collar or a slip collar when it comes to pulling. FWIW we use the very small prong collars designed for small dogs and add a number links to them to get them long enough for our Labs. Both of our Labs are quite happy to have any kind of collar or harness put on them, because it means they are going out.
A harness is a great piece of kit to protect the dogs neck when he pulls. It doesn't encourage pulling, nor does it encourage good lead walking. It merely spreads the load or a pulling/lunging dog across the shoulders rather than the neck. Coco wears a back fastening harness when walking on lead, because he can lunge suddenly. His loose lead walking was mainly trained in a back fastening harness. He is doing really well. Has your dog become scared of putting the harness on @Anne Green ?
A harness is great and definitely takes stress off the dog's neck, which is always good, but from personal experience Teller pulled more while on back-clip harness than he did with a collar. It's probably one of those things that is dependent upon the dog and the reason behind their pulling. While some dogs pull just out of excitement and sheer energy, T's pulling is always because he's on some scent trail or another, with the back-clip harness he could put his head to the ground and therefore pulled as he was hunting for whatever.
If this is the case, a double-ended lead that attaches to both the back ring and the collar would work well. That would mean you still have control to prevent the head going down, alongside training him to keep it up, of course.
