Hello! We have a wonderful 5 1/2 month old chocolate lab. He's come so far since we got him at 2 months, his biting has become significantly better and nearly stopped, he settles in the house easier and his recall continues to improve everyday. One thing I've been noticing lately is how rough he is starting to play with the other dogs. He's getting quite large and doesn't seem to know it. We have a park by our house and are familiar with the other dogs there. We used to let him play off leash but due to his increasing size and roughness, we now always keep him on a leash unless we are far enough away from other dogs that they won't run up to us. He nips the other dogs, jumps on them relentlessly and tries to wrestle/tackle them. My biggest concern is he doesn't seem to read the other dogs back-off cues well. They will snarl at him to stop which he is oblivious to. He's extra bad with the small dogs and seems to go after them the most. We currently have him in doggie daycare once a week (we carefully vetted this one) in hopes that it would help with dog to dog play but it appears to just be making him play rougher. My question is do I pull him out of doggie daycare and avoid other dogs best I can? Maybe only setting up play dates with well-known appropriate sized, tolerable dogs? Or do I continue socializing/doggie daycare in the hopes that he learns some manners?
You've created a canine bully. Have a read of this article I wrote: https://totallydogtraining.com/over-friendly-dog/ You can also have a look at: http://playwaydogs.com/we-need-to-s...DMK5WQ83Yab7_7_WByR6oHljCpEGHvdY68YrdV4O-2mEs https://www.whole-dog-journal.com/blog/Dog-Parks-Are-Dangerous-21816-1.html He will not learn manners from other dogs. He will learn to bully them until eventually another dog retaliates and there's an all-out fight. He will traumatise others (as he is already). Yes, you should pull him from daycare and you should focus on training him to focus on you in the presence of other dogs. It is very hard to teach a dog not to be a canine bully once they have become one (without access to a huge supply of absolutely perfectly suited 'teaching' dogs), so control in the presence of other dogs should be the focus.
