Hi, my dog is a lab mix, but this seems like a good forum so maybe someone can help me out . About a month ago we adopted a 1.5 year old (male, neutered) lab mix from the city shelter. He had been in for five or six months. The short version is this: Help, he won’t stop trying to eat me long enough to do any sort of training! I’m 99% sure it’s not aggressive, but he mouths the crap out of my arms and ankles. He’s like 60 pounds and it hurts when he bites my ankles so ignoring it is hard to do. We have fairly successful walks. Trying to get him to stop pulling, I think I’m making progress. But I need him to stop chewing on me. Long story: This dog is a total sweetheart and the volunteers said he had decent leash manners and liked people. Great. We have had two lab mixes before (years ago) but we got them as puppies. This guy seems to be doing all the naughty puppy behavior (jumping, biting, grabbing everything in his mouth and trying to run off with it) but he’s big. It’s a lot easier to control 15-20 pounds of naughtiness than 60. So on the advice of the shelter volunteers we tried a two week board and train. He’s not much better. The trainers could control him, but using leash jerks, and one time when he was bitey she grabbed in his mouth and made him yelp. So, my fault for being desperate and not doing research. I don’t want to bully my dog or have to be in constant battle of wills with him. Also I’m worried that this sort of thing will make him aggressive. He does great on walks with people and bikes and cars and other dogs (just shows excited interest, not fear or aggression). So I think I have a great dog, if he would stop mouthing me long enough to learn some dang manners. We had a great walk this afternoon but I just tried to let him out in th the backyard and it was all biting and jumping. So I’m kind of discouraged. He’s in his crate most of the time because basically if I’m not walking him, he goes nuts. After long walk last night he was pretty good for five or ten minutes. Anyway I think I need support as much as advice . Should I just keep walking him as much as possible? I try to feed him through Kongs as much as possible to keep him a little bit occupied but I feel bad that he is in the crate so much. Anyway thank you for reading my ramble.
Hi @Roscoe01 , welcome to the Forum from myself and 2 year old Cassie in the UK. Well done for taking on a rescue dog, I have never done so but there are people here who have done so I hope they will be along to help. I have however experienced the jumping/grabbing/nipping behavior about a year ago so I know a little about it. Do you have a trainer/behaviourist who uses positive methods who can help? Perhaps it would be a good idea to start by teaching him to work for his food rewards if he is food motivated, and teach eye contact and hand touch. With the lead, I did have to stand on it and yes she nipped my feet. I just had to wear thick boots in the warmest summer weather we had last year! felt a right ninny, but it worked within a week she stopped. And don't say anything just pick up the lead and walk on. There's also plenty of advice about looselead walking in the stickies in the Training Forum.
Hi there Roscoe and welcome to the forum! Well done for rescuing your boy. First of all, training is not my forte, others on here will be more helpful, but here goes.... Biting. I am guessing you don't know much about his past life, but this may reflect lack of bite inhibition as a youngster. Perhaps taken from his mum/littermates too early? Anyhow, there is a fair bit of stuff on the Labrador Site about biting and puppies, but other than strategies to deal with it until they grow out of it (less useful for you) I wondered if over-excitement was the issue? So maybe teaching strategies for calm should be your focus. Maybe Time outs in a crate, but perhaps teaching a "settle" or "go to your mat/bed/spot" might be helpful. Using something like a tuggie for rewards, to keep distance from your hands. I wondered whether this particular bit of info might be of help for you? https://www.thelabradorsite.com/dog-calming/ I think in the longer term, working on calmness will help with the leash walking too. Stick at it. You are doing a good job
Congratulations on your new rescue. It is not at all unusual for a dog to have some behaviour problems after being in rescue, particularly after 5 or 6 months, so it would be a goid idea to find a good positive reward based trainer/behaviourist to help and advise. As you have discovered not all trainers use positive only methods so don't just take from websites as less than positive trainers are very aware of the 'buzz words to use. Ask specific questions on methods used and judge from the responses. He is still very much in the settling into his new home period at the moment- it can take 3 - 4 months for a dog to truly settle into his home. Walking and exercise are good for him but be aware that lots of exercise and long walks build fitness in a dog not tiredness or calmness. Does he like playing fetch games in the garden or you could introduce some scent games, hunting for food games in the garden which will help to keep him mentally engaged and tire him out. I would try to avoid long periods in a crate as this can then add to his lack of calm and the mouthing when released. Dogs are social creatures who like to be with us and being isolated can then lead to extra excitement when contact is available.
Coco was 16 months old when we got him after 3 months in rescue. We wasn't bitey when out and about, but I remember him being jumpy and bitey when he was over excited - especially when I was getting ready to go for a walk with him. I don't think he was as bad as your boy sounds, but I would fold my arms and turn my back on him, and when he stopped jumping on me and grabbing, I'd re-commence what ever we were doing. He did nip my backside a few times though! We had another dog at the time too, Belle, and he would annoy her when over excited - again, biting and chasing. I bought him a puzzle toy and gave him that to keep him quiet for a minute - this seemed to take some of the madness out of him. Your dog sounds like he's going to be an amazing companion.
Hi and welcome to the forum! Other people here are going to give you better advice than me on training, but I just wanted to say well done for rescuing your boy and extra well done for recognising that that trainer is not for you! I am absolutely sure the two of you will figure out the answer to all his issues. He is a very lucky boy to have found you. What's his name? Whereabouts in the world are you? Rosie and big yellow Pongo in south Wales
I think that if he is in the crate a lot, then when he comes out he is over excited and then starts to instigate play with you by biting/mouthing you. Have you tried having him with you most of the time (except when you need to go to the loo, or do some housework/cooking), you have only had him a month and so he probably is still hyper from his previous life. You may find that being with you he will gradually give up the over excitement mouthing. You can teach him the 'settle' in the evenings, takes time but works. I think if you look on You Tube you will find one that helps. Sorry I don't have a link.
Thanks so much everyone for your words of encouragement. We are outside of Houston (Texas, USA). My name is Carrie, the dog’s name is Roscoe . I’m making plans to meet with another trainer, hopefully that will happen this week. I’ve got him walking on leash really well around the neighborhood. With lots and lots of treats (his kibble). Basically treating for walking nicely and any time he pays attention to me. I’m pleased with how it’s going. He sort of likes to play fetch, but he won’t give up the ball and also likes to cannon into me when he’s bringing it back. He would love to play tug (he tries to a lot with his leash). I haven’t been doing it because he hasn’t got any sort of “drop it.” I don’t really mind playing with him without it, but do you think that’s advisable? I’ve also been reading about flirt poles but the advice there is that he should be able to “drop it.” I would like to have him out of the crate more, but we have an 18 month old son. In retrospect getting a dog like this was not a wise choice, but I feel like he’s a good dog and we can work through this. Plus I’m just not gonna send him back to the shelter, which is over capacity anyway. The baby goes to bed around 6 pm so if we can get him to chill out a little, he can hang with us in the living room for several hours in the evening (and an hour or two during the day when the baby naps). I’ve been trying to have him in the house loose (trailing a leash) after walks but he only makes it five or ten minutes before going berserk. I feel like we are making progress. I really appreciate any advice and support you guys can offer
I would try and get some little training sessions in BEFORE he goes berserk. So come home, and after 4 minutes start a 3 minute training session. You could start training "drop it" - that would be really useful, fun AND tiring. Judging by your leash training, he will be very receptive to this. I'm so happy Roscoe has you looking out for him.
That’s good advice. I’ve also been asking for sits a bunch of time on our walks. If there are no distractions then he’s pretty good. He came able to sit for treats. So I’m not really sure if bribing him is good in the long run, but until I talk to a trainer my goal is to just build a relationship with him. So for now that’s lots of leash walkies so we don’t get frustrated with each other. One step at a time I guess . I’m enjoying reading all the stuff in the forum and on the sites.
It’s lovely that you’ve rescued Roscoe and I’m sure you’ll build a great relationship over time. I think play more than lead walks could be your way forward, as Roscoe needs to learn to engage with you without biting and jumping at you. Tug and flirt poles are great as they teach a dog to have an adrenaline surge and then relax. With both, have a very brief (5 seconds to start with) tug or chase, then let the toy go limp. To start with if your dog won’t release the toy, then swap for a really tasty treat - but then immediately restart the game. After a while you won’t need the food because your dog will realise that releasing the toy restarts the game. That’s why you keep the tug or chase very short to start with, so that the dog gets lots of repetitions of getting the toy given back.
Baby gates are good to separate your baby from the dogs without the dog being confined all the time to a crate. We used baby gates to keep our dog out of the lounge, especially when we had young kids visiting who were scared of his boisterousness (now long on, he's grown up). The dog could see everything but the kids were relaxed.
These are great ideas and I appreciate them. We will have to try a baby gate. I am kind of worried that he won’t respect it though. The first week we had him he vaulted over the back of the couch (from the floor behind the couch, onto the cushions). Try it first without the baby I guess. We went out just now to try to hang out/play in the back yard and my ankles got it pretty good. He didn’t break skin but I’m definitely gonna have bruises. I tried wearing jeans this time (I’ve been in shorts) but I think this is worse because he doesn’t know exactly when he’s got denim and when he’s got flesh. It might be time to buy some boots. I should hear from the trainer today, if not I’m gonna call around. Thanks again for your support, it helps
