Hi,

This is my first posting on this website.

I have two Labrador bitches, they are sisters and are 1 year old.

We are experiencing a couple of problems with them.   They are both pullers, and are making walking an extremely unpleasant experience, but obviously, this can be managed.

What is causing more concern is that the more dominant of the two has very recently started to bark at passers by, and jump up if she gets the opportunity.

A neighbour attended our house today, and frightened the poor lady when she barked loudly and jumped up at her, causing everyoneconcern.  I apologised, but am not happy about this sudden turn up of events.

This is obviously the first signs of aggression from this dog, and it's come as a bit of a bolt out of the blue.

She is currently towards the end of her season.  They are from a reputable breeder from a good working background, and getting about 6 miles of walking a day.

are there any views on this, or any useful way to stop this before it gets out of hand.

Very many thanks.

Mark

Sounds like teenage behaviour rather than aggression. The easiest way to deal with it outdoors would be to use a headcollar. Much easier to stop them from pulling, easy to stop them from jumping up at people, and if they want to bark at something, you just turn the head away so the eye contact is broken. Obviously if they jump up etc in the house as well, they need to be trained not to.

It's a very, very hard situation to have littermates and really not to be recommended and I wouldn't wish it on my worst enemy to be honest  as it is far harder to train two pups than one. (I am currently in that situation, although not by choice -I ended up with one unsold pup so now have 6 month old siblings. This is the second time I have had to keep siblings, I also have a set aged 7 years, so I've been through it twice and it removes so much of the enjoyment of having a pup, with a single pup you get a much closer bond and training is easier.) They do need to be split up very regularly (i.e. on a daily basis) to get individual training. Have you been to any training classes? If you find a good class you will get help with issues such as jumping up at people -it will be easier to start doing it with people that are used to dogs and don't mind possibly being jumped at to start with. Before the issue is resolved, I'd keep the dogs in another room if you have visitors, or even better put on headcollar and lead so you can be sure to stop it. Lots of praise and rewards when they stay with all four paws on the ground.

Also if they are working bred dogs, do you do any form of work with them? Exercise is all well and good, but using their brains will tire a dog out far, far more, so again obedience training etc will help to curb some of that exuberance. :)

Hi Mark

Firstly how long have you been walking them both for 6 miles a day ? The six miles how much off lead walking do they get and what training have you done with them ?

Interesting user name BTW :-)

I ended up with one unsold pup so now have 6 month old siblings. This is the second time I have had to keep siblings, I also have a set aged 7 years, so I've been through it twice

my god! what a good advert for not breeding a litter!

Do you walk them separately or together? If together it could be that they're competing against each other to be in front and so both are pulling, whereas if they're taken separately (as they should be at least once daily) they're more responsive to you. What other training do you do with them? Lots of physical exercise just produces physical fitness (and joint problems if done too much too soon) and not tiredness!

Having siblings can be a nightmare with the extra work of having to train them each separately as well as together!

what a good advert for not breeding a litter!

Indeed. With my breed, you can't sell them to just anyone (i.e. they can't go as pure pets to your average pet owner) and they have large litters and with this last one (litter of ten, vet who scanned said one or two pups only, I had 6 buyers waiting), somebody changed their mind the same week they were due to collect and no other suitable home appeared. This is why I don't breed a lot as it is the risk you take. Even with a waiting list.