Our new 4 month old black male gets into the "zone" but by the end of is nipping in a frenzy and lurching towards us with furled lips. Is this normal for a Male? We had an English female previously - she was docile and easy going. I know he is a different strain being an American style from hunter stock but am curious other owners thoughts?
We call that the Zoomies. Lots of dogs do it but not all get so worked up they bite us. It has nothing to do with male or female, bench or field breeding, some do, some don't. I LOVE the zoomies, they are an expression of joy and good health, I hope they never end. But not the biting. My high energy bench bred boy (aka English) does not bite. My bench bred, gentle, sweet, submissive girl did, go figure. When she got to the biting, only my pants legs, I quit watching and she quit biting, but also quit zooming for that time. Otherwise I encourage the zoomies by standing up against a tree or a corner of my deck and yelling GO, ZOOm. After a while I can often start the zoomies myself by telling them to go zoom. I do notice they tend to happen after a swim, and after a walk. After even a good long walk when you'd think they'd be tired but, no, they want to zoom, sort of a last Hurrah, I think. Maybe you could try quitting and assigning a name, it would be very similar to assigning a word while potty training.
Hi and welcome to the forum I'd say this is more of a personality thing rather than a male/female thing or a show/working line thing. It's pretty common in Labradors to have these crazy outbursts of excitement and mad running. And the next rung on the ladder of revved-up excitement is jumping and nipping. I've pasted in some links below to articles that might help http://www.thelabradorsite.com/how-to-cope-with-an-excitable-labrador/ http://www.thelabradorsite.com/how-to-cope-with-an-overexcited-labrador-puppy/ http://www.thelabradorsite.com/no-more-jumping-up/ http://www.thelabradorsite.com/how-to-play-safely-with-a-labrador/
Just read Snowshoe's post. I actually love the Zoomies too, it makes me laugh. But my dog doesn't nip.... And Zoomies aren't every person's cup of tea. When we got our dog at 9 months he had crazy episodes and leapt and grabbed at clothing and arms. So we worked hard to encourage calm behaviour instead. But now that he's older the Zoomies are less frequent and don't involve grabbing, just running and leaping on the furniture. I find this funny (not everyone would though and I'd never allow it in anyone else's house). But with a pup I'd definitely go for calmness...
I too find Coco's Zoomies most entertaining - but he also doesn't nip (phew!). I think Snowshoe's suggestion of putting it on cue sounds like fun, giving you the chance to escape or call a halt, and your still very young pup to have a blast and burn some energy.
I love the zoomies! At least, I do when they're outside. Having two Labrabeasts doing the wall of death and hurdling sofas in a small apartment isn't quite so much fun
Mole had terrible zoomies early evening! We called it the last hurrah for the day! Still does it a bit sometimes but it no longer ends with the frenzied nipping! In those days we would let him zoom but when it turned to biting it was time for calm, we used the word calm and popped him behind the baby gate for 5 minutes. After that he was fine to come back in with us and fell asleep. It's a stage, it will stop...the biting anyway!!
Zoomies, bum tucks, wall of death... Oh so funny! We've never actually been able to stop Ella when she gets going as the OH and I just end up laughing so hard!
My new puppy does zoomies, as did my older dog when he was a puppy (he still does, when the mood takes him ). My puppy does the smash into me, jump up, tearing at human flesh, clothes etc. Just this evening she ripped a top I love! Which is the 5th she has ripped.... I try to distract her and get her to do something constructive with all that energy instead - learning place boards is a favourite with her right now. But if that doesn't work, she goes in her pen with a non slip floor with absolutely nothing else in it. Not even a water bowl (because she will upend a heavy ceramic water bowl and kick it round her pen). When she has regained control and is more civilised, she gets to join us in the TV room.
Jesse is 11 weeks old and does zoomies in the evening. He will growl and bark at you and jump trying to nip, pull on your clothes. I have been taken him outside it seems to help and usually when we go in he is calmer. If nothing helps, we put him in his Playpen with his favorite toy. After a few minutes he is on his bed asleep, our little furry gator.
We used to call this BJ's 'cracker-dog' sessions when he did it and he still did occasionally up until he was 13 Molly has had a sort of mini 'cracker-dog' burst but not the full hurtle round the garden - thank goodness, she's only 13 weeks.
it does seem to be an expresion of joy, mine have all done it but all thankfully with out the bitting mostly.... Doug did rip a jumper off me once. When Moo does it she looks like a cartoon character running on the spot(Coyote/oad runner) she still does it a 13 when her toy boy gets her feeling all young again. Of couse this sets him of too, but she's still the funniest
love Bailey's "mad dog" zoomies. He used to run around doing the wall of death around the joint which ended in biting, but now we just get the wall of death (than goodness!). He looks so comical with his ears flat and tail tucked under and the look of joy on his face makes me smile every time, even if having a 5 month old weighing nearly 18kgs hurtling around the garden, kitchen and front room at full speed means we have to put our feet up off the floor for our safety!
Holly does the wall of death around the living room when she gets over excited. Usually this is preceded by "the jumpies" where she pretends to lunge at us and snap at our arms two or three times. She never makes contact.
I use to call it "Sirocco", in reference to the hurricane wind from sahara's desert... it's funny... Dana never makes contact... just run run and run, if she can... increases pleasure by stealing anything... and run run run as fast as she can...
