Hi all,

Am actually a bit nervous of posting this - have read some very scary things on here last few days!  Anyway, here goes.  My 11 month lab who I have posted about just recently is still not eating right.  The only times she has eaten (after me being stubborn for 2 days!) is when i put some gravy from steak and kidney on it - burns dried that is.  Have tried soaking it in water, chicken gravy and she is still not happy but likes to be fed by spoon when children feel guilty that she might me hungry! (Wrong i know!). I know that should have gone on the feeding area of the forum but think there's more going on to it than that.

She is so grumpy.  We are back to the mouthing thing ,but it is really bad - the teeth haven't quite raised blood yet but i had a real 'fight' with her in the garden today when she was off her box trying to really get hold of me and growling and barking.  Fun?? the kids don't think so and are getting a bit edgy around her.  As i have said before, we are back to basics with training coz her recall seems to have disappeared and she gets 'done' on friday - could it just be hormonal?  Also she just sits in front of you and barks, like some mad dog that has no stimulation in her life? - testing us? do you walk away, do you tell her no? do you ignore her?
AND she has demolished three be sleeping cushion things? - why, she loved them so much!!

Just feel a bit like going AAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHH

Any advice would be good - be nice !!!!

Sara

Hi Sara

Sounds like the Kevin stage to me.... :D

Also sounds like she has gotten you very well trained regards to food :)

More lab experts will be along in a mo - I'm a dane person myself - so hold tight and stay sane :D

Good luck.

Hi Sara, nice to see some new blood on here. Hope everyone makes you very welcome.

Sarah
when you say you have been stubborn for 2 days what do you mean?
How much exercise does she get?
What do you do when she sits in front of you and barks?
Its very hard to give advice when we don't know how yur handling the situation.
Don't be afraid to ask....your trying to sort out your problems...we'll do our best to help
Archer

Has she had her first season yet, cos its sounds very like my lab bitches when they are getting hormonal, they go off their food for a couple of days and get very tetchy too!!

Hello again.  Yes she has had her first season which finished at the end of July hence she is at the vets right now getting 'done' because i was advised on here that it was right to let her have the 1st one rather than what the vet said about getting her done at 6 months old regardless.  Up until the last few weeks everything was great but since me and OH went away for a weekend (dog at home with kids and aunt) sh'e been a bit mad!  Started chewing door frames and furniture again - she was sooooooo bad at this when tiny, recall gone out the window and not interested in her food - burns.  Changed the flavour and was stubborn in the sense of not offering her anything other than her breakfast and tea, if she didn't eat it i just took it away after about and hour.

She did get two walks a day, off lead and on, walking to heel etc but then she decided she wasn't coming back and it took 20 mins to get her so of recent time cos i am worried she won't come back it has been all walks on lead.

The barking thing is driving us nuts! bearing in mind I am home nearly all day anyway and this week is half term she has had loads of company and playing etc.  We've ignored her, walked out of the room, put her to bed to 'chill' but she just keeps on going unless she decides to have a kip!

There, that's about it i think sorry it's so long.  Look forward to hearing your thoughts
Sara

Me again!

Just an up-date.  She has been done and we all had a lovely quiet weekend (until the anaesthetic (?)wore off!) and now she is back to behaving in exactly the same way.

However she has been off lead and has come back no problems, this is the only improvement though.  Came down this morning to find that my new kitchen rug has four holes in it and her new duvet had no stuffing left in it - looked a bit like christmas in the kitchen with white fluff everywhere!  Could she be bored in the night?  The barking thing though is doing our heads in!!Please give me some ideas, anyone!

Sara

http://www.apbc.org.uk/article1.htm

Tohme,

Thank you, thank you!! a great bit of reading.  Fingers crossed
S

Hi Sara,
Just wanted to tell you - you are not alone! We have a 10 month old GR and I am currently in the process of pulling my hair out...took him round to a friends earlier and he caused mayhem (although a lot of the problems were caused by the combination of a large tail and things on a coffee table so not his fault!) but I am knackered! As for beds, he is not getting any more until he stops destroying them. End of story. Or blankets, towels, toys...what fun! Good luck! (think we both need it!)

Hi Charlie,

How reassuring that is!!  Madam downstairs has now destroyed her vet bed - pink fluff everywhere so she now is left with a large plastic bed with nothing comfy in it to snuggle up to!  I feel rather cruel coz it's chilly at night but cannot afford to keep replacing things!

Good luck with your problems, no doubt we will speak again!!

Sara

Maisie always used to chew her bedding, foam, stuffing, white fluff, i never told her off though it was hers so i did'nt mind. Like you said though expensive to replace so i now fill her plastic bed with loads of blankets and sheets she can rip them to bits but no stuffing goes everywhere !

I am sorry but a labrador should not ! be growling at all hormones whatever .the labrador temperament should be bomb proof.

I would be quite worried about that behaviour. is she of work stock ,show?  sorry just trying to help .
feel free to email me privatley if you wish  I have some experience with labs.

I'm no lab expert and agree if it is serious growling - "if I don't get what I want I'll bite and mean it" stuff, but with the barking and other etc do you not think it sounds more like inappropriate play behaviour where she is treating her family as she would another dog rather than showing a genuine temperament problem? It has to stop of course and I hope you can help Sara.

With apologies Sara, I'm guessing she is a very happy and very spoiled young lab who is busy training you when she isn't using you as a tug toy. :)

Hi Sara.
I would not be too concerned about food. No self respecting Labrador is going to starve unless of course there is a medical reason and if there had been I would have thought your vet would have found it. (Remembering that she has just been operated on.) At 11 months old the bulk of growing has finished and as such her food requirement is lowering so she could be just limiting herself.

As to the barking, a Labrador should never bark. As a gundog it is an eliminating fault in a Field Trial or Gundog Working Test. Unfortunately so many Labradors are now so far away from the ideal in the field that I here some really noisy ones around. Whatever you do, and I know its hard, DON'T RAISE YOUR VOICE! If you do then in your dog's eyes YOU will be joining in with the barking. Quiet insistence is better, but I must say that although you might reduce it a bit you will not eliminate it.

The mouthing business does sound, as someone else has said, as if she has got into the adolescent stage. Training is not a straight line graph and at times the pen sinks almost to the bottom of the paper. If she has not fetched blood then I can safely say it is because she did not intend to. I have been bitten by several Labradors and Goldens over the years and believe me, if they want to hurt they really do hurt! I'm not minimising your problem but really it is back to basics. Hopefully it will not take long.

It is so easy for troubles to start to be self precipitating. Every day a new problem and the days get blacker and blacker. Try to step back, look at the good points and try to work with these. To be able to praise your dog for just one thing can brighter her life and maybe start her on the road back.

Regards, John

Don't worry about the vet bed. My Anna had holes in hers for the first two years of her life. I lost track of the times I replaced it. To a large extent it is insecurity. It's her "Worry Blanket". She will grow out of that in time.

Regards, John

Thank you all so much for taking the time to reply to me!  I know I probably went on a bit about her bad points but I must say she is a very much loved, spoilt, kissed and cuddled black house wrecker!!

The link that Tohme sent has been very helpful to me and I am, I think, getting somewhere with the advice - shame it doesn't quite work for the 8 year old child! 
In trying to understand her 'moods' I believe that the barking and biting thing that she is doing is purely for more attention or perhaps even just to let me know that she wants another walk/kiss/piece of cheese and I am trying very hard to ensure that I stick to the advice given so that I can once again be 'the boss'!!

Just have to face the fact that I will never have a kitchen rug without a hole in, just like i will never have a garden without a hole in! 

Again, thanks.

Mattie,
Will keep your name in my book should the situation deteriorate if that's ok?

Sara

Be patient. You should get to have a kitchen rug without holes in one day although I would not be quite so sure about the garden!!

Do not allow her to initiate the attention. It might get you a moment's respite but it will never correct the problem. The only way to do that is for you to be the one. Ignore her approaches but later, when she is quiet YOU go to her.

Add plenty of training sessions into your walks. Heel work on lead whilst walking to the park plus some heel free, stays and recalls when running free in the park or fields. Make it fun but insist that the free running is the reward for a little work. I do a little heelwork then let mine have a run. I then call them in on a recall, praise them and let them have another run. A short stay, possibly whilst I pick and eat a blackberry, again followed by a run. So you can see what I mean when I say that the reward for a job well done is a nice run. My dog has earned her run.

Regards, John