Hi, I'm having an issue with my 5yr old flat coated retriever.  He has always been a mouthy dog a likes to carry things (as you would expect of a retriever). However recently he has started to grab at clothes and arms when he gets really excited, it isn't an aggressive response just excitement but obviously he is a big lad and it can hurt if he gets your skin.  He also tends to attempt it when running with my husband. 

Does anyone have any experience/suggestion on how to stop him other than ignoring him (this is difficult when running). 

He is very good natured I just worry this behaviour will get out of hand and he will grab a running child or stranger

Thanks in advance

Mines have all done this to some degree or other, the first used to do it very gently and lead you to where he wanted to go. The youngster I have now cannot get the hang of doing it gently and like you it can be a bit painful if he gets too excited.

Have you tried giving him something else to hold? The one I was talking about will happily carry a stick or dummy when out and that pleases him enough not to resort to 'hand holding'. His Dad always carried a rugby ball, just see what works for you.

I have had a case where the young one did try and hold hands with some walkers and they went ballistic at him, acusing him of biting etc so I understand your concern. Now if we meet anyone they just gt bashed with a big stick!!!

Good luck.

Thanks flattie mum I will have to think of something to take out with him :)

i was also going to suggest giving him something to hold as its a tough one to train out of a Flatcoat.

Ah - Flatcoat mouthing - sounds familiar!  My older boy (6 yrs old) no longer does this although he still loves to carry things and show off his toys, retrieves well, etc.  Our puppy (10 months) still loves to mouth if he gets the chance.  Like you I am always concerned that this could be misinterpreted by others so I am working on minimising this as much as possible but without putting him off carrying/retrieving things (which he adores!).

What seems to be working well is as follows:

When he greets us in the mornings we say 'Where's your toy?' before he even has a chance to start mouthing us.  He rushes off to fetch one of his toys and brings it to us for us to admire.  We began this training initially by giving him a suitable toy to mouth immediately we opened the utility room door.  Now he goes and gets a toy straightaway - often without the cue of us asking him to do so.  If he can't find anything quickly he will pick up a (large) dog towel and gather it all up carefully into his mouth instead of a toy!  We do this whenever we come back after being out & when visitors come.  It has the added benefit of discouraging him from jumping up as he likes to parade around showing off his toy.  If he does forget himself and mouths us we say 'No Bites' and redirect him again onto a toy.

The other thing I am doing to address this when out on walks is just to concentrate on all the basic obedience stuff.  This includes recall to voice and whistle (ongoing work in progress!) but I have found that establishing a really solid 'Leave' command is really helpful.  Through clicker training he has learned that a loud and clear 'Leave' means 'stop whatever you are doing - (or are about to do!)' and come back to me for a smashing reward!  As soon as he pauses he looks at me (Click!) and rushes back for a really scrummy treat, a game of tug or a game with a squeaky toy - sometimes all three!  I practise this ad nauseam with both dogs, indoors, outdoors and on walks and for some reason their response is sharper and more enthusiastic than to a straightforward recall command.  It's definitely revved up my older boy too and he has become more reliable re. 'Leave' and recall - they both love 'the Leave Game' - a bonus!

I always take a small squeaky toy or raggy with me on walks and this approach gives me a lot of confidence re. control and being able to stop him rushing up to people and overdoing the greetings.  He loves food but at the moment he seems to love toys and games even more so I try and deliver!  My youngster is still such a baby and we have a long way to go but I am really encouraged that these methods are are really helping him along the right track.

Sorry  - rather a long winded reply, but hope it might be of some help!

Good luck - they are worth it!  

If he can't find anything quickly he will pick up a (large) dog towel and gather it all up carefully into his mouth instead of a toy

Sounds like my 4 year old, he always greets us with a towel or his blanket in his mouth, always neatly gathered up so he doesn't trip over it!!

Henry does the exact same thing if no toys about, he will grab anything like my cushions or tea towels and prance around like it's the best thing ever.

He has a very good leave command but I never thought to use in this context so thanks for that suggestion as will probably work well when we are out and about.

It's nice to talk to other flattie owners as there are not many about near me and no one knows what he is lol

Hi Wobbliebob

Yes, I'm sure the leave command is worth a try & might prevent your boy even getting to the 'mouthing' stage with strangers - that's what I'm working on with mine, anyway!

I agree it's nice to talk flatcoats and yes not many people know what mine are either.  They are often mistaken for Labs (predictably), and Lab crosses but my two  favourite comments so far are:

"Is he a Black Red Setter?" (Wonderful when you think about it ...!)

and

"Oh  - my favourite breed - I've always loved Large Munsterlanders".  Nowadays I just smile, agree, and keep walking lol!!!

I get the 'is he a black red setter' alot which always make me laugh.

By far the strangest was is he a German shepherd er.... no

Sorry I can't help at all with this as although my springer loves to retrieve and carry things/bring you things she is not mouthy in the respect that you are talking about. 
However I remember the first time I met a young flat coat, he was playing with the young black working cocker I was dog sitting at the time.  They were a similar age, same colour, coat texture, same build too and same enthusiasm, but obviously very different sizes it was lovely to see them running around like hooligans together right up to the point when they accidently banged heads (audibly from feet away) and we all agreed we should call that a day! 
Never seen him again but he was a lovely handsome chap

Yep I get the is it a black red setter but the best when she was still being carried was is it gsd pup from your other one who is a large gsd male ! followed by oh may be a rottie ????

Henry is always banging his head lol, he's very smart but also very stupid sometimes.

I always think I should have called him Doug :)

Bales our recent rescue addition is like this. Unfortunately his intelligence level is down with the one care rather than a pack of cards !

What I am doing with him is when he starts to get excited and mouths is say stop, hand up and sit then fuss to focus him which he has now got the hang of. He is better on hand signals with voice commands than just voice commands. I went for this option rather than stuff something else in his mouth as wanted to stop the behaviour rather than deflect the behaviour which works for me.

He still loves to grab the lead once it is on him but again and stop then come and he walks ahead.

He was grabbing everything he could and accidental nipped my daughter in the first few days so this was one of the first things I worked on.

>  We began this training initially by giving him a suitable toy to mouth immediately we opened the utility room door.  Now he goes and gets a toy straightaway

I have a  Border Collie who soon learned in exactly the same way.  He now honestly believes that it is compusory to give me a toy, a ball, or a bone.  :-)

My munsterlander "/pointer x/flatcoat x/long legged collie/springer/English setter" boy does this too usually when excited! He usually grabs a shoe or sock or my arm so I play swaps for a toy. When I get home from work I make sure I have something ready for when he launches at me :)

I love Blay's post, a bit of obedience training on walks goes such a long way.

I was told my a very experienced Munsterlander Breeder, that the holding your arm was a genetic thing. There to take the handler to wounded prey. There instinct over many generations, is to hunt and find the wounded game and then take the handler to it. I don't work my dogs, but cetainly mine have a lot of natural instincts, but they are very soft mouthed and gentle, so not a problem.
Just wondered if this same instinct is in other gundogs.

A easy simple pain free resolve. It works. Get yourself a spray bottle or mini water sprayer fill with water. Do not let your dog see this hide it in your coat. When he goes for your clothes a quick jet of spray and say no firmly. He won't know where it comes from and it shocks him. Pain free and kind. He will learn within a day.

There's nothing kind about squirting a dog in the face with water.  And, they are not stupid - they are a damn sight quicker than us to pick up on movement and he WILL know where it comes from.  He'll also quickly learn to associate being near his owner with a very unpleasant experience, and that can have much further-reaching consequences within the owner-dog relationship.  Some dogs also find it extremely aversive and it can cause serious problems elsewhere - my Raine was sprayed just a couple of times for mucking about with her harness, when I collected her she was very aggressive about having anything put on.  Just from that one experience.

Far better to teach the dog better self control (exercises such as waiting for food/door, to go off lead, get out of the car etc; the 'leave' as has been mentioned; tug and drop on cue with a toy, so on and so forth), and redirect any mouthing onto an appropriate item and/or teach an incompatible behaviour - a really strong down is good as if he's lying down, he can't be mouthing.  Or something like a retrieve as it's more active than a down so is easier for some dogs to do in place of mouthing.

>Far better to teach the dog better self control

Definitely agree.  My lot obey the word "wait" and it works every time.  It appears to have a calming effect.

Well after using the 'leave' command in this situation only a couple of times he has got the gist very quickly (he already knew the leave command but usually to get him to drop a toy). I've even got the other half to run round the field like an aeroplane and he gets excited and runs but no grabbing:).  Although we did get a couple of strange looks lol

As for water spraying he loves water, so I can't see it working as the hose pipe and shower etc, sends him crackers

My gundogs (HPR breed) have done this for many, many generations;  carrying things as greeting toys, could be blankets, a shoe, a rope toy.

There is no point punishing a retriever for doing what his instinct tells him to do.  Just go and get several knotted ropes, big ones for the dogs who like blankets to carry, and hand them out to him when he wants to carry something.   He will still get blankets/towels now and again, but can be diverted into looking for his ropes.

Remember to put them all in the washing machine now and again, as they need freshening up.

I dont have the problem with grabbing bits of us  but yes Brooke fcr always likes to bring you something. Mostly its her favourite soft squeaky frog or pheasant but anything will do. For some reason when she goes out she like taking something with her but will then drop it an leave in the garden. I have to keep going out there and collect various objects she leaves behind. I have to be careful of the washing or would find odd bits of clothing around the garden.lol flatcoated knickers !!
I find iot rather endearing the habit I dont like is finding things in the bins in the house so I have to hide them too and being able to seekout food like a  heat seeking missile however it is hidden I swear she can smell through cupboards. keeping sweets and edible christmas presents aay from her is a nighmare ahving just discovered she has opened a door with some hidden presents and eaten a box of chocloate brazils !! thank god she isnt too sensitive to milk chocolate it seems. I never imagined she would find them let alone open the door. Well thats a stocking filler for oh gone  and I will let her explain  ! 

The one thing I can say for Henry is he never really steals food.  He is like any other flat coat obsessed with it but rather than take it he will just sit and stare at it and drool.  This is why he is very good at the leave command.  My husband says he thinks he's a Jedi and is going to use his mind tricks to levitate the fruit out of the bowl etc.:)

Not a Flatcoat but one of my Golden Retrievers is very mouthy. We have her mother here and her daughter has shown much more natural "instinctive behaviour" than her mother ever did (apart from actually retrieving which her mother is very good at!). I'd heard about this behaviour before but never owned a dog which did this. Flo, the daughter, will grab hands/arms when we return home, depending on how excited she it! She will also go around, gathering whatever she can find, be it socks/underwear/towels/cushions etc and walk around us, wagging her tail. Funny thing is if nobody pays her any attention, she will still be walking round and round us 10 minutes later with the items still wagging her tail - so sweet!

My biggest problem with this behaviour is that she's developed the habit of grabbing the cushions from the settee and wandering around the house with them in her mouth. She also sucks them like a blanket, and although I want to replace the cushions from the lounge feel we need to try and stop this habit first.

Can honestly say she has rarely chewed anything.

Any suggestions?

No but I can totally sympathise - my OH has a willy worm draught excluder thingy and Roxy thinks that it is appropriate to bring it to you.  She doesn't chew it either

I would honestly just play swapsies. Redirect the behaviour to a (in your eyes) more desirable item like a fleecy tuggy or something. If you try to tell the dog off she will just start to pick things up and back off from you and never bring it back (not saying you would of course)! Tell her how wonderful her present is, ask her to bring it to you, take it and give her back a toy or whatever she's 'allowed', giving her lots of fuss while she has that item. Soft things like cushions are so tempting for these dogs which is why I suggest something like a fleece tug :) I would make sure a few things like that are in places she habitually goes to grab things like cushions too. I know it takes a while with these gundog brains but she will soon realise which presents are more pleasing to you!

I find it very cute, unless it's my shoe and my pup runs outside in the pouring rain with it for a wee and forgets to bring it back. :)

Very interesting about Munsters there, dorcas, thanks for that!