Hi, our puppy is coming up to 7 months old, and she is just going through her first season. She is a wonderful puppy, a joy really (some chewing, but nothing we didn't expect!) The vet has advised that she may go through some temperament changes while she is in season, and we have had some clingy behavior. However she has suddenly become quite scared of traffic, this includes big SUV, trucks, Vans and lorries. She is fine when they are not moving, but tries to cower away when they go past us, this can be quite dangerous considering she is a large girl and sometimes tries to go through me to hide. I am obviously hoping that this is a phase and she will grow out of it, but I don't want to encourage this behavior and wanted some advise on the best way to deal with it now. Also on a side note, she is a very friendly lab ;D, and when she sees another person or dog, she just has to go over and say hi. Unfortunately she is very over enthusiastic and can be a handful to keep under control. trying to distract her away is impossible even with the lure of her favorite treat. A few words of advice would be great. Cheers Claire
Re: Temperament changes - 6-7 Months Old Hi Claire , bitches do often display anxiety whilst in season , along with the clingy behaviour which you describe . With the traffic issue , you certainly don't want to swamp her with her fears but neither do you want them to become established behaviour so what I would do is this . You need to get her focus on you, so maybe you have a seated area where lower volumes of traffic passes ? If so , take her there and get her to sit with you , when you see a vehicle coming , give the command " Look at me " and she looks at you, give her a treat , and repeat if necessary . If she becomes fearful and reacts , don't tell her that she is a good girl, because she will then think that reacting to traffic is good , instead ignore it and work on the sit and look at me , the penny will drop eventually . My rescue girl was also afraid of vehicles but this worked for me and now she ignores it completely . With regards to her over jealous greetings , my Lab was just the same at this age . I started off by crossing over the road when I saw someone approach with a dog, or even turning round and taking another path . I then found that walking with a friend and her dog, both on lead, helped enormously , it became less of a novelty to want to meet and greet everyone he met . I know that she is in season but does she normally have free runs with other dogs off lead ? This is good for socialisation and will again cut down on the over enthusiastic greetings , she is still very young and Labs are very sociable , she will get better honestly x
Re: Temperament changes - 6-7 Months Old Thank you for the traffic advise, I will try this over the next few weeks and see if it helps. I don't want to create a bad habit which I know is easy to do. Usually when she is not in season, she is off lead. I took Pippa's advise (even though I was scared to death) and let her off lead from day 1. She is great and loves to play happily with other dogs, I assumed it was her age, I suppose I just wanted some reassurance that she will get better (calmer) as she gets older. Cheers Claire Xx
Re: Temperament changes - 6-7 Months Old Hi Claire. Harley done the same with traffic when she was in season. I trained the 'look at me' and treat whenever a large vehicle went past. If we go on a walk from home we have no choice but to be on the dual carriage way for a few mins so I persevered with this. I have no problems with Harley and traffic now As for the over zealous greetings Harley has calmed down unless it's someone she knows, then she can go a bit loopy Harley is 13 nearly 14 months old
