I am not sure I was ready for a labrador when I got one. Her over the top play style, her craziness compared to other puppies her age, her high energy, etc… it was a bit overwhelming! I loved her but she was a nutter (and still is!). However, the longer I have her (and probably the more she settles down), the more I LOVE her for her labrador nuttiness and think how pleased I am that I chose a labrador. We've been doing class training again (a nose work class and an intermediate group training class with some older puppies). Her first "socialization" classes were a mess (badly run and the trainers told me Maisie was MALICIOUS and aggressive… I posted about it on the forum here) and I was stressed out at her puppy classes I took her to next even though the trainers were really lovely and maisie actually did very well there. But now Maisie is really shining … both in terms of learning things AND being the class clown! Some examples... - In nosework, there are two other dogs. One is an 8 month old jack russell, he's actually fairly calm and steady about his work. The other is an older beagle (12). Then… there's Maisie. We are working with "boxes" - one with the scent she is supposed to find, one empty, and one with food in it. At class, Maisie sniffed the empty one, sniffed the food one, and then got confused when nothing was yielding results, so decided to try a sit. She didn't look behind her and sat down with her butt on the scent box!! Then she was like "oh yes!" that's the one. She is also the only one who bats at the boxes and starts chewing on them… but she's just so cute and lovely when she does it! - When I did this for practice at home, her first move was to locate the food box… and promptly pick it up and try to trot off with it!!! She soon realized what we were doing, but hey… that's the smart move, right, in a dog's head? - Last night at her intermediate training that takes place in a field, Maisie played with some of the dogs before class. She's gotten SO MUCH BETTER at playing, which made me happy, and she also was pretty tired, so she ended up just lying on her back batting at the other dog (he was happy and enjoying it) and rolling around like a crazy lady. She just makes everyone laugh and smile when she is around and I love that. I'm also really happy she is learning to play better. She had a very rough style at first, still is fairly rough compared to other dogs, but she also knows how to play chase, and will instigate that, and she was being much gentler with a little dog that she was playing with compared to how she would play with a big dog last night - I could see her giving her a bigger space margin and not really getting her teeth/paws very close to the little dog. She also learned the flop down and play style, and SHE DID THIS WITH A DOG that she has never been able to play super nicely with!! So proud. She really struggled at first and she still doesn't really know when "enough is enough" but we're working on that and I'm sure she can work on it. Anyways, this wa mostly a big brag fest about how much I love my Maisie, but I've just been feeling really happy about her lately and happy that instead of being irritated by some of the labrador traits (hyper excitedness, over-friendliness, goofiness), I now actually love her for those traits .
They're simply the best .... ... better than all the rest .... It sounds like Maisie is growing into a normal, goofy, playful, loveable Lab. Believe it or not, it gets better. When they settle down at about three years old they become the most amazing dogs.
Lovely post. I remember your post worrying about her being aggressive. I bet you look back at that and think "stupid woman" about the trainer! Maisie is obviously just a normal, batty Labrador One thing about living with a Lab is they make you laugh every single day.
Yes, that "trainer" was absolutely dim (and rude). She thought Maisie was malicious and aggressive… ha! There is not an aggressive bone in Maisie's nutty Labrador body. Even if she's scared, if she sees another dog, she gets happy again thinking it's a new friend. She only bites people out of excitement and very rarely nowadays (even when her ears hurt nd the vet was poking at them, she just tried to run away, not bite). My boyfriend is sad when he doesn't see her for a few days because yes, as he says, "she's funny every day! I miss out."
Maisie sounds gorgeous so similar to my girl Mabel. We are doing a clicker course. There is only two of us, the other lady has an Alsatian which is 6 months old. What ever we do Freya gets it after 3-4 attempts. Not Mabel she'll look at me as if to say come on help me out here. Gets bored rolls over and chews her lead. Trouble is it's really funny. Although witnessed a miracle Mabel did "wait" today for a whole 60 seconds we can now try for our KC good citizen Bronze award. Not hopeful. Labs really are the best. Xx
