I am at the end of my tether, I have a very dominant but loving Labrador who will be 10 months old on the 11th September, in many ways he is so good, recall off lead when no other dogs around is good, does not stray very far from me, but the past 2 months has shown a controlling behaviour, all of a sudden he will switch from a placid loving boy to jumping up and biting me, nothing works, I turn my back and he jumps up me, I do not meet his gaze still the same, commands are a waste of time, he circles me and I try to keep my arms out of his way, so he nips my legs, I am covered in bruises, I decided to join this forum today after an episode in the garden which has reduced me to tears. I have owned Labradors before and have not had this behaviour from them. I am starting classes again on Wednesday in dog obedience in the hope of some help, but he will sit, he will wait while out on a walk, I put his food down and he will wait until the command 'take it' , and is quiet when I leave him, which is no more than a couple of hours as I took early retirement. I have read that others have had this problem, so some advice would be gratefully received.
From how you describe it, sounds like he is trying to get you to play with him. Can you describe when he does this and how often? Is it before or after a specific event/time during the day? Does it happen anywhere, or inside/outside? How much exercise is he getting daily? Is he bored and looking for excitement? Do you use a crate? They are such a handful as pups! My black lab (she is now 10 months old) did this (jumping/biting my arms/body) when she was 3-8 months old. She was an absolute terror as a younger pup. She did this when she was either too excited/over threshold or tired. After awhile I got to know when it was going to happen, and usually directed her into her crate for a quiet time (with a treat). She grew out of it relatively quickly and thankfully. There were times though, when we would be out on walks and she would start up, and it was very difficult to manage her then. I have a lot of scars! I was often bruised and bloody. (My daughter says I have thin skin LOL). My first lab (avatar pic) did this as an older pup (around a year old) but only when we were on walks. She wouldn't bite, but she did jump at me and would throw her full body weight against me. It was a like a sudden burst of excitement that she had to get out of her system. Because she was leashed she couldn't zoom, so she did the next best thing, and body slammed me! Again she grew out of it. It is stressful when they do that, because you are always on edge!
Thank you for replying, he does it mornings and afternoons, but in the evening a lot more calm in his attitude. I will be sitting in the kitchen at my laptop, he will then just come up and start biting my arms, also when I am outside feeding my hens ( he is not allowed near their run) I will then come back through the gate and unless I have a treat for distraction he will jump up and bite me, and he ignores any attempt to make him sit and respond to my commands, I have spoken to my trainer who thinks he has formed a much too strong attachment to me, and has advised I spend less time with him, and when his behaviour is bad put him outside until he calms down. Apparently I also talk to him too much, instead of giving command and being quiet. He gets 50 mins of exercise (5 mins for every month) quite a lot of this is over the fields off lead, and he has lots of chewing toys etc.
