I am beside myself with worry. On the last 3 occasions my nearly 11 month old lab retriever has started to lunge at children, grabbing them by their clothing and this evening I sat next to him holding him close to the lead and he lunged at the child's face! I am so upset about this and won't even talk to him now. I am looking to speak to a behaviourist as I can't have this escalating into something serious. I do dog walking on beaches and in parks where there are children running around playing. I don't know how to correct or punish him but I am now petrified to let him anywhere near children. Can anyone help please? With the Easter holidays there won't be many behaviourists working! A very worried dog mummy
Don't panic! Definitely don't 'correct' or punish him. You're right to avoid that. When unwanted behaviours emerge we should immediately start thinking about what we want our dog to do instead, and then start training that alternative thing. Instead of lunging at children you could want your dog to sit beside or in front of you and keep his attention on you. So you'd start working on that, with big rewards, doing lots of practice in easy situations (no children) then slightly harder situations, gradually increasing the difficult level (so start with adults....then adults patting him......then children at a distance.....then children a tiny bit closer...etc). In all these situations you will be shovelling tasty treats into his mouth for sitting quietly. I'm assuming that he's lunging to get closer to the kids and that he wants their attention. You can use this to your advantage in your training. Rope in some human helpers (adults at first and later dog-savvy children). Have a helper approach you and your sitting dog. You're treating at a high rate while he's sitting (or at least keeping feet still). While he's still the person can keep approaching but the millisecond he moves his feet or butt the person should turn abruptly and walk away. When he's still again they can have another go at approaching. He'll gradually get better at it. Removing attention like that will help him learn that if he wants to meet people it only happens when he's controlling himself. By all means get in a behaviourist to help you with this. I'd say it's just a normal adolescent lack of self control combined with a strong desire to greet interesting new little people but a behaviourist will help you to work out what's going on exactly and then put together a training plan. In the meantime doing what I've suggested over the Easter weekend definitely won't hurt
Hey Rachael, Thank you so much for your reply. That is great advice. On the last two occasions he was actually sitting and I held him close to the lead because I was cautious because of the first incident but he still lunged. I will do as you say though and practice it with people walking by. and completely stay away from children. He still needs to learn not to jump up on people. He automatically does this when people reach down to stroke him. I am trying to get him to sit but I will give it a go with what you suggested. I definitely need to find out why he has started to do this. I am beating myself up about this, especially because the last one was one of my clients and I was just kneeling down beside Louie at the doorstep. It just came out the blue. Needless to say she won't want me to do anymore dogwalking for her anymore
Aw, don't feel bad. Dogs will be dogs!! My dog is far from an angel in all situations (ie. he's normal and so is your dog). When he lunges is his general attitude one of excitement? (As opposed to barking furiously or looking scared?). Sometimes we think things come out of the blue but if we look back we might see that over the past few days our dogs have had a few new, exciting or unsettling experiences that together have accumulated, temporarily chipping away a bit at our dog's ability to stay chilled. The behaviour that seems so unexpected then makes a bit more sense. If you think that's happened then you can avoid new or potentially arousing/stressful things for a few days so things reset to 'calm' (or calmer...).
I've worked really hard on the not lunging with limited success, so it's an ongoing thing. Yesterday I had him nicely under control walking past a group of people when a little boy suddenly rushed across saying 'doggie!' - of course Ripple jumped up and was as tall as the boy. So while we struggled to get Ripple under control the parents said nothing and just watched - no telling the boy to come away from the dog, absolutely nothing . I'm sure they would have been the first to complain had Ripple nipped him in his over excitement. I do wish people would teach their children to ask before they touch a dog - mind you it's not just children, all sorts of people seem to like to touch Ripple, until he makes them all muddy .
Labs love to reach our faces to say 'hello'! Tatze has always been bouncy round children, even 'tho she is used to our twins (three years old) When we approach children we put her on the lead and give the children a wide birth. If we can't give a wide birth we lure her past with a fish cube. She's four years old now and usually looks straight to us when we see a child. But we still don't entirely trust her. If a child runs up to her I say to the parents 'she's very friendly but very bouncy, she will knock him/her over'. They usually call the child back. If they don't I hold her collar until they do. Knowing what you are going to do whenever a child is near really helps, having a strategy calms you - and the dog will be calmer because you are.
Harley went through a stage of jumping up at children, but it was purely excitement. As we hardly had contact with little ones it was a novelty to her. I worked with her a lot from a distance and slowly went closer to children. Within a few months I would take her to work with me (I used to work with children) and this completely stopped her jumping up. 11 months old is typical for adolescence so this type of behaviour is quite common.
