I wonder if anyone can offer me some advice.

I  have an 8 month old lab she's been with us since she was 8 weeks old we have taken great care with her training and socialisation she was introduced to just about every experience we could think she would need to be familiar with gradually and she has taken it all in her stride.  We now have a lovely pet who is great with the kids obediant and great fun.
BUT she hates visitors, something that has materialised as she gets older, she just wont stop growling at them and wont even take food from them. we've tried gentle praise and encouragement and completly ignoring her and sending her to her bed.
It seems very strange as she quite happily goes to work with my husband who is a soldier and is quite happy in this environment and she's great with other dogs. she has a working pedigree with several ftch in it and is a natural when it comes to retrieving and loves to work, perhaps this is an issue?

I would be very grateful to anyone who can offer us advice.

Do you think she is guarding the family? When you have given her gentle praise and encouragement was she growling at the time because if she was she believes you were praising her for growling and that is what she should do.

Obviously distraction isn't any good so I think what you must do is get a few friends over a day or two (who will understand)  to come to the house one at a time let them in and if she starts you get hold of her on her neck (as she is 8 months you will need two hands so you will need to be in front facing her) just under her ears pick her up off her front feet and shake her and in a growl voice say no. The second she stops lots of praise. Try this a few times. the first time you open the front door and she doesn't growl its 'clever girl' etc.

Does she growl in a down stay?

Please do NOT start to physically abuse your dog because she is growling - especially as you don't know *why* she is growling.  It could be one of lots of reasons, perhaps something bad has happened when visitors were there, maybe she is gaurding the family (in which case do you really want her to stop alltogether, or have it more under your control?), maybe she feels threatened, maybe she's entering the awful teenage stage and feels she should have more responsibility but doesn't know how to use it appropriatly :(  Whatever the reason, if something unpleasant happens to her while you have visitors, you may well have an even bigger problem on your hands.  First thing you need to do is to make sure she can't turn the threats into actions - keep her behind a baby gate or similar and make sure the visitors can't get to her and realise *why* you are asking them not to interact with her.  When she's happy to accept the visitors on the other side of the gate, then reward her.  Then you can start to introduce her on a loose lead - don't push her into anything and if she chooses to not interact with them, then that's fine too and should be rewarded.  Don't allow the visitors to call her, and ask them to ignore her all the time she's there.  If she starts to become defensive again, use the lead to remove her from the situation.

Hiya :)
As she sounds such a happy, well loved dog.....I'm sure you'd like to keep it that way. Picking her up and shaking her in any shape or form may well upset her. How long does she continue to growl for? Does she calm down after any length of time? Getting the guests to offer her treats could well encourage this behaviour. Have you tried just ignoring her at all?
Jo
:)

A working bred Labrador should be bomb proof when it comes to both people and dogs. It is not unusual for us to get 10 adults, 3 children and 6 dogs in the back of the Landrover travelling between drives so you can imagine what would happen if the dog was of uncertain temperament.

As a question, what is she like meeting people out of the house? I'm thinking along the lines of guarding you/her property? How assertive are YOU? Does she see you as a leader? Or does she feel that it is up to her to repel borders?

As someone else has said, be very aware of fault training. She growls at the visitors and you say "Good Girl" so she immediately thinks she's doing the right thing. The other side of the coin is, she growls at visitors, you make cross noises so she thinks YOU are telling them off too! You can't will either way!! The correct approach is to ignore her, she has no say in who comes into the house, that's up to the humans. Obedience training and for that matter gundog training ;) would help in that it would reinforce the position of the human. The dog working for the human. It is a partnership but it is not an equal partnership, dogs work for humans not the other way around.

Just a few thoughts for you. Best wishes, John

Right Im sorry if i upset anyone but a growling labrador is wrong totally alian to a labrador  temerament so it needs sorting out ASAP

the trouble is temperament problems are cropping up all the time and its wrong the temperament of a labrador should be a 100 percent non agressive they are not a guarding breed

Any dog, regardless of breed is equipped with the ability to growl if it feels threatened or uncomfortable.

I repeat a labrador should not show agression it is not in their temperament against dogs maybe agaimnst humans never rehardless of treats etc.. you should be the master of any dog if you accept a visitor then so should they they can not determine who visits and who doesnt admittence is down to the human
and labs are not generally  unduly
protective

Mattie, you don't know that she is guarding or being protective.  In fact I doubt if she is.  She may be growling because she is worried about something.

do you own a labrador?

a labrador should not show agression pure and simple

No Mattie, I own Border Collies, an Afghan a lurcher and a crossbreed and previously G.S.D.'s but I currently have at least a dozen lab pups attending my puppy and advanced puppy classes, 2 labs in my rehab group and a couple booked for one to one lessons between now and Easter. ;)

your point is ?  whatever you profess to know ive had labs a very long time agression is not in their make up they are not aggressive a puppy growling t a visitor is a big NO NO in our breed

obviously you are a trainer or behaviorist if so  i thinks its a sad world when we need a behaviourist to deal with labrador agression the breed should not have that in its make up sorry

I'm sorry perhaps I misunderstood.  You seemed to imply that I didn't know what I was talking about when you asked if I owned a lab. Whether it's a NO NO or not, the dog is growling according to the OP.  Anyway Digger has given sound advice and hopefully laljackson will find it helpful. :)

digger and john  both have given good advice  but whatever, the person needs help as agression is unaccepatable in a lab .

I agree with Sally, it is impossible for us to know why this dog is growling "via remote"; the dog may be in pain, uncomfortable or a myriad of other factors may be involved and indeed she may need checking over by a vet to rule out any medical conditions.  Digger and John have given sensible responses but when all is said and done one can only be sure of the cause and possible action once certain things are eliminated and the dog/family/environment have been viewed in their entirety.

Sadly I deal with the down side of dog ownership nearly every day my rescue takes in nearly 200 +  labradors  a year this year up to now  we have had 46 .One particurlar dog we have now was a total hoolligan when he came to us and I mean out of control  with firm but kind handling and good socialisiation we now have him to a standard where people can come to visit him and he has all four feet on the ground at once !! and is manageable his probelm was his family let him rule them and he was rejected by the family later when they found him too much.
most  young labs in rescue are boisterous young males which have been bought as puppies and then the families cant cope.either they dont understand the needs of a labrador or the dog grows up so quickly ( in body not mind) and they end up with a juvenile delinquent on their hands very soon.
I admire the original poster in this thread they are trying to help their puppy and I hope they manage it I really do  and yes it may be a medical condition as suggested but why does it only happen with visitors?  

original posting excerpt >>>>>>BUT she hates visitors, something that has materialised as she gets older, she just wont stop growling at them and wont even take food from them. we've tried gentle praise and encouragement and completly ignoring her and sending her to her bed.
It seems very strange as she quite happily goes to work with my husband who is a soldier and is quite happy in this environment and she's great with other dogs. she has a working pedigree with several ftch in it and is a natural when it comes to retrieving and loves to work, perhaps this is an issue?<<<<<<<<

I'm sorry Mattie but I'd have to slightly disagree, I have the softest mushiest labrador in the world. She's a complete wet blanket and loves absolutely everybody.
BUT if she feels that she's threatened then she will bark and growl.

For some reason, maybe passed through me I dont know, she;s become scared of the dark, and if we take her out after dark, she's very skittish and barks at the slightest noise.  But she's just scared. I dont see it as a fault in her breeding. 

Maybe this pup just hasnt been socialised enough and is nervous of strangers.

Aslso we had a friends dog round to stay with us who ALWAYS barked at noises outside, especially if it was someone approaching the house. Darcy just joined in with the barking and for a few weeks after the other dog left carried on herself.

There could be as simple an explanation as that :)

Edited to add:

I forgot to say Darcy will also bark and growl if she thinks that I'm being threatened. She barked and growled at a policeman in a flourescent jacket who stuck his head through my car window.

Because this sort of behaviour is so rare in a Gun dog breed  the owners really need to know *why* she is behaving like this (and maybe mention it to the breeder, especially if the breeder breeds as much for temperament as looks).

Aggression like this is unwanted in almost any breed (except, perhaps a gaurding breed doing its job).  The point is that by implementing some advice aimed at eliminating unwanted behaviours, we can end up  suffocating the dogs natural response and finding it coming back in some other form, such as attacking without any warning (because the growling has been eliminated doesn't mean the dog doesn't still feel uncomfortable) or a stress linked behaviour like foot chewing or innapropriate urination........  However we decide to handle the problem we should look through what we are planning to do and what the possible knock on effects could be.

Thank's to everyone for your thoughts and advice on this problem.

John, sounds like sound advice, I think she is behaving like this out of fear ( ears back head down definatly no bareing of teeth) perhaps us making a fuss of her when she 's upset has made her think that vistors are an issue when you're right they are not really any of her business.
My husband is training her as a gundog its more a learning curve for us than it is for her. Hopefully as she gets bigger and more mature her collywobbles will get better (do you think it could be age related?)

She loves to be out and about but doesn't like to be approached when we are out she gets shy and hides but doesn't growl although she's great with other dogs. I really hope we can get this sorted as it doesn't fit with my past experiences of labs at all its usually the opposite and in every other respect she's a great, clever, obedient lab it just gets embarassing when she acts like a great pussy cat!

thanks again john (everyone)  lal

It does sound fear related.

I wonder - can it be that at some stage she has either A) not been socialised and found it enjoyable actually in the home (as this can be different to dogs to being socialised at work or outside); or, B) has at some stage shown a wee bit of fear (however uncertain ie tail down, eyes afraid; uncertain wag to tail; etc etc) and if so was she "made" (for want of a better word!) to socialise?

It may be that you have the shy puppy and she needed very gentle socialisation -almost ignoring and letting her make the moves, you kn0w? :)

Isn't hindsight great !!!! :D What do you as owner think, does this ring true at all?

It is possible often to encourage more positive attitude from youngsters such as these by various tactics such as getting the dog to associate people with good things, there are various methods.......

I note she is being trained as a gundog. John probably wont say this,but he has written a great book on gundog training with Lab owners in mind... :D

Hth a bit?
Lindsay
X

Yes lindsey hindsight is great!

your A) point rings true, feel stupid now to think it but we were perhaps overkeen with the socialising jaunts out because thats the fun bit!
The bit about the shy pup may be true the people who came to visit when Lupin was little did make lots of fuss and the ones who didn't tended to have her thrust upon them a little (well we are very proud parents!!) its a bit like the children really all best intentions and all that and really all they need is a bit of healthy neglect ...not that they growl at visitors...

thanks Lindsey food for thought there

Lal

Hi, would just like to say, my labs are all submissive,and also my English Springer Spaniel, I turn them on their backs daily as puppies to tickle their tummies, and they look on me as Alpha female, their is no aggression in them, but my three year old black lab will snarl, one night I was watching telly in the dark and a friend walked into my house without me realising they were there, my lab shot up through to the kitchen door snarling with bared teeth but stayed her distance from the intruder, as soon as intruder spoke, she immediately came back to me tail wagging and I feel very safe with her around, but I did not speak to her, as I cannot admonish her or praise her, instead I spoke to the person she snarled at and she realised that everthing was ok. This has only happened twice in 3 years. she will protect and defend without attack, all my other dogs lift their heads for a few seconds and start snoring again. Strangely she is at the bottom of the pecking of 4 bitches and one dog, two of which are younger than her.

Kay