Hey guys, sorry to ask a second question but my little 14 week old lab in the past little while has gone through this stage of when we're sitting quietly or just having a pat, he suddenly gets up step back and barks excessively at me, he's done it to a few others aswell. Like he's already getting attention and then all of a sudden he looks like he's about to get aggressive and barks at us as if he's about to attack. After previously adopting an aggressive rescue dog who attacked and bit badly multiple times and I had to give up , I get a bit anxious that my little guy is getting like that. Is this normal? He's otherwise just amazingly beautiful, there's just been about 5 times he's done this in the past week and I want to know what I should do to stop the behaviour/train him out of it. Any advice would be awesome thank you!
I could be wrong but I'd say he's wanting a more active game. I wouldn't engage with him in response to the barking. You'd don't want him training you to play when he barks Try immediately getting up and leaving the room for half a minute. He's only a baby. There is nothing aggressive in it But he should learn that barking is not the way to start a game with anyone, human or dog. What is his typical day like? What do you do to keep him occupied?
Thanks Rachael! I think we're doing enough with him. When he gets up he's excited so we have more calm play and he settles and then we go out to the yard and play with a ball and do come and wait trainings with him, then he just explores for a while on his own, then he gets brecky, after that we let him chill for a while, then there's some chasey around the yard, tugowar and sometimes some practice on the lead. Then he gets a frozen Kong or a pigs ear or a wobbler and I go to work. When we get home it's calm play as he's excited, then when he's calm we go out to yard for a run around and same sort of things, 3 days a week he has socialisation with other dogs, plus puppy school and at least 3 outings to 'new environments' then things settle for the evening on his mat in front of the telly! We do a lot haha he's our whole world
Sounds like you're all having a lot of fun Hopefully withdrawing your attention will tone down the barking. When he's become quiet again, maybe then reward this with a little training session (5 mins) to wear his brain out a bit. I'm sure he'll grow up to be a wonderful dog.
Sounds like a busy day . Do you do anything like sit, down etc? Might be worth doing a few short sessions throughout the day. I always ignore and turn my back if Harley barks at me and this has always worked. He sounds lovely though
