I have a 3 year old Black pure Labrador called Joop. I have had him from 12 weeks old. He has always been good as gold And has always let me open his mouth (Normally to get something he has stolen out of it) But After his last Kennel stay in February this year that has all changed. The day after we picked him up I when to open his mouth to get my lipstick out and he growled (something he has never ever done before) The kennels are great and they take such good care of the dogs. Hes always happy to see the girls there. He had a lump on his gum that the vet found The following week,As we toke him to the vets about it, They removed it and it was all clear and he has a healthy mouth,But he has carried on growling every single time, And he will go to snap at you if u don't back off. It makes me really sad as he is my best friend and such a loving soul I just cant get my head around why hes doing this. He lets me take his food and play with his muzzle But its opening his mouth he cant stand now. Any ideas would be great I have tried to Give him a treat in exchange of letting me near his mouth but he still does it and i don't want to get bitten/
Hello and welcome . It would seem that he is now sensitive about his mouth being opened , which isn't surprising really , I would agree with Jane , let your Vet check him over again , and just give him time to get over the fear, because it seems that's what it is, fear of someone hurting his mouth .
Hello and a warm welcome. Very much agree with the above - he is sensitive about people opening his mouth. Train him to give you things, and stop opening his mouth, would seem to be the way to go....best of luck with it.
Yes, I agree with Jane and Kate, take him back to the vet for a check up and leave his mouth alone until you know if he is feeling pain or not, or because of the lump previously is no afraid it might hurt. If all is clear, then take it gently, perhaps a 'hold and give' while you are sitting and he can come in close and making it a game.
Training a "drop it" can certainly done without needing to touch him or his mouth to avoid having to man-handle things out of his mouth in the future. But that cannot be the end-game. If he's choking on something and you need to check his airways for obstructions, what would happen then? Just sit back and watch him choke to death? It's easy to appreciate that his gum problems have formed a negative association with pain and having his mouth handled. Even if the pain has gone, the bad memories haven't, and pain-induced fear associations can leave a significant imprint behind on the canine mind that don't just magically go away. When his mouth was definitely hurting, he was simply trying to tell you "My mouth hurts! Leave it alone" or "it really hurts when you do that". The growl is an initial warning, asking you politely to please stop that. When you don't, the behaviour escalates to the next level - Snapping. If you ignore that too, there is a very real chance you'll get bitten. Please know that this has nothing to do with your relationship with him, your bond and love. This is simply his only way of communicating to you that he seriously needed you to stop what you were doing! By all means see how you get on at the vets, but if they give the all clear and nothing changes then qualified behavioral trainer should be able to help very easily, as learned fear-aggression can be easily un-learned through positive training. When you say he won't let you near his mouth, does that include the offering of amazing treats like roast chicken? Not to handle his mouth, just to treat him? If so there is plenty of scope to re-program his outlook on having his mouth handled. But you do it in baby steps. Will he take some chicken from your hand? Great Then try touching his muzzle with a finger, just for one second, whilst he's taking the chicken from your hand. Then try a two second touch whilst he's taking the chicken. Then repeat, touching a different place (top, side, chin etc) Then two fingers maybe? Then move closer to the mouth. Again one finger one second, and build on that. Then repeat all the above, but now he should accept the touch before the chicken, with that following as a reward. Slowly building up to a touch of the lips just for a second, then two, three, four and so on. Then you might put a finger on a tooth for a second. The maybe a gum, then maybe a finger in his mouth. Then a finger with tiny pressure, then two, then a finger from each hand, building up over many weeks to the grand finale. This list is could go on forever, but you must break this re-programming down to the smallest, simplest and least invasive steps possible, starting with actions that he is comfortable with. At each successful stage repeat many times over many days and reward him like it's Christmas. If at any time he curls a lip at you or growls, back off immediately. Turn away and remove eye contact. Then you've "listened" to him and he has no need to move to stronger warnings. Rewind to the stage before, things moved too fast.
Very well said JohnG. I am going through this process with Tatze and her ears. We are up to me being able to handle her ears but not yet look inside, that's the next stage It has taken 3 months to get this far. Once they have an aversion it takes a long long time to get back to square one. (Tatze's started with sore ears and ear drops + me being to eager to get them in) Never take his food. Teach 'swap' for something tastier so that you can take away food he shouldn't have - but never take what you have given (except in 'swap' training)
Agree with Boogie, never take food. Give food and leave him in peace to eat it. Also agree with Vet check, things might not have healed up in there as well as you think. Yep, agree with swap training and teaching LEAVE IT, DROP IT and GIVE too. I think some kind of trauma, physical and/or emotional happened with the sore on him mouth at the Vet's and this will take some time and patience on your part to get over so in the meantime try to be very much more careful about not dropping things or leaving them out where he can get them. Poor boy.
