I have a problem with my wonderful lab puppy Poj.  She has just turned nine months old and spayed about two months ago.  When she was a tiny puppy she used to nip and chew etc. which I believe to be normal for a puppy,  we used to say no and if she did it repeatedly we put her in another room for a while to calm down and she was always fine again afterwards.

Now she is a lot bigger (30kg).  99% of the time she's wonderful, she's very placcid, very friendly, very obedient and a pleasure to have around.  She does get very excitable when people visit, jumping and chasing about, but within five minutes she's calmed right down.  When she jumps at us we simply turn round away from her and she quickly realises to stop.  She doesn't jump up at us any more - but visitors occasionally.

Anyway, every now and again she gets excited about something and lunges at me repeatedly.  For example, we're walking in a field and a duck suddenly flies out nearby or she's jumped in the water and come out soaked.  She starts charging round in circles, usually around me, and lunges at me with her hackles raised and teeth bared.  I turn round away from her and she hits my back,often leaving brusies on my legs where her feet have smacked into me.  She often grabs hold of my arm with her teeth on her way past if I try and grab her or bend down, so I'm left with my arms folded, turned away from her getting brusied and hurt. If I shout 'no!' she simply becomes more excited.  If I ask her to sit she ignores me - normally she'd do it straight away. I just have to keep turning around until she calms down, in the meantime I've got hurt and very very upset.  Her little attacks last about two or three minutes before she calms down again - if I'm lucky enough to have a stick or toy to hand giving her it calms her down too, or if we're  indoors I put her in another room for a few minutes and she's fine, but sometimes it's just me in the field and it's pretty scary. 

She doesn't do this with anyone else, thankfully, but I do take her for 80% of her walks on my own so maybe this is luck.  Please help me, this has reduced me to tears on several ocassions. I really hope she's just over excited and not actually aggressive, on every other ocassion she's as good as gold.  What's wrong with me her (is it me?) what can I do?

Hi Emma,

First of all you are doing brilliantly, you are doing everything right. :-) This is such a very common problem, especially after being in water, it darned well does hurt when dogs do this, it is a case of being an adolescent, and when dogs are wet they will run and chase, it is a way for them to get dry, they become overly excited and have an adrenalin rush. Infact anything that causes a youngster to get overly excited will cause the same reaction.

When you have a dog under 12 months and they are excited all the good training goes out of the window, treats don't work, commands don't work.

There are three options to stop this behaviour.

1. As soon as your lab comes out of the water, either pop her immediately on the lead, shorten it to keep her to heal and start to walk (yes, you'll get shook on and wet, but it's better than bitten and jumped at) this will stop the adrenalin rush before it starts as she does not get the first run going.

2. Have a tug rope, favourite toy ready throw it for her to chase and let her run around and shake it to death for a couple of minutes, she will then be calm for you to continue your walk.

3. Take an umberella, make sure you cover the point with some foam and when she comes out, open it up infront of you to protect yourself, with the commands, stop and down!

All three of these options worked for me, I also had my brothers GSD's to contend with so understand the heaviness of the lab, I could not avoid it, as I have a river at the bottom of my garden.:rolleyes:

Another tactic and the best is to walk by the water with another dog walker, that way the dogs will play with each other and leave you alone, they can have their mad two minutes with each other.

As for the home, and visitors, why not pop your lab on a lead when visitors first come in, and get her to sit next to you leaded for the first 10 mins of someone coming, then let her off and the excitement will have passed.

Our dogs do grow out of these problems I promise, continue with the good training you are doing, it is teaching her, without it, she will never learn, but when excited protect yourself with her size and weight you need to do that.

Try not to get disheartened, it is all to do with her age, it is the most difficult period to own a dog I think, but once you get through it every minute is worth it. :-)

That, Carrington, is a very good reply!

Despite how this might appear to be "aggression", it does sound like wild excitement, particularly in viw of Poj being in the adolescent phase, where sweet well behaved pups turn into beings posessed by the devil. Dont be hurt...she does love you...shes just treating you like another dog, but forgetting you are boss.
Always take a distractor with you when you are out...either treats, or toy. This will interrupt the wild thoughts and get Poj focussed. Then when she is focussed on the treat/toy put Poj on lead, and get her to lie down. If necessary put your foot on the lead near the collar, distracting her with treats. I have found that this enforced lying down helps break the mad cycle. My afghans were both a bit mad bitey like this...they are big and I am tiny, but this technique worked well.

Thank you so much you two, I've been beside myself about this, thinking I was raising a terrible dog and not knowing what I'm doing wrong.  Thank you thank you thank you.  I hadn't even wanted to admit what was happening, even lying to my husband about where the bruises are from in case he gets cross with the dog or my poor handling of her.  I will try the tips you have suggested.  Thank you so much.

I can empathise with you. I've had 4 golden retrievers & they, like labs, are the most gentle bidding dogs, BUT at 9 months they are a NIGHTMARE, and you wouldn't be alone in wondering if you should rehome them at this stage -don't feel guilty -I've been there a few times!!! But it does only last a few months. I can recommend a great book which really helped me, called 'Surviving your dogs adolescence' by Carol Lea Benjamin. To be honest though, the main thing that gets you through is knowing that it's normal and that others have been there too. Persevere - it will be worth it.

Emma, take heart, and listen to what the others have told you... you will both come through this, it is very normal....and she will settle down, just have patience.... Even my Oldie Emma, who is my saving grace sometimes... ;) can still get really excited, especially after being in the water...she quite normally holds on to my hand or sleeve (she seems to think I need guidance lol )... but when in her 'daftie' mood her teeth occcassionaly clip my knuckles or wrist .. she doesnt realise that it bleddy hurts lol... she simply wants me to join in :)

>I hadn't even wanted to admit what was happening

Emma, the very best of us sometimes need a shoulder ;)

I agree with what everybody else has said. Dogs go through puberty at about 9 months and your normally placid, well behaved dog will overnight turn into Kevin the teenager. This period last about 3 months. It doesn't sound as though she is being at all aggressive. It's just exuberance. When I let my 6 month old Lab puppies out of their kennel in the mornings, one of them always bites my bum. If you watch two young dogs playing together, there is always a lot of 'play biting' involved. It's quite normal, don't beat yourself up about it, she'll grow out of it.

Emma, you've had some excellent advice from Carrington. I think most of us have experienced this problem from our adolescents, and basically doing what Carrington has suggested will sort it out. If you do this, (ie manage/train etc) then you will find it will pass (although perhaps not quite as fast as you would like... :P :P )

Lindsay
x

Way back when...when, we had our lab Kit, she was always given something to hold when getting excited. This could be for some new person coming into the house. Or when excited when coming out of the water after her swim. Any thing at all, it worked a treat.
That is of course after this final flourish of general Kevish behaviour abates.
Karen

Don't worry Emma, it sounds as if you have a perfectly normal dog here who is going through adolescence. Water, in particular can have an over-exciting effect on dogs of all ages and Nips behaves like a complete loony if he gets wet.

Indeed, so far as over-excitement is concerned, we get episodes of it out in the fields if a particularly thrilling event has happened - a hare, for example that needed a thorough all-out chasing. From his behaviour when he returns to me on those occasions a casual observer could well assume that the wild, leapy, air-nippy, barky thing cavorting around me was a very small but just as dangerous version of the Hound of the Baskervilles. If they could see him now, absolutely zonko on my bed, (or even 99.9% of the rest of the time!) they would also assume that I'd exchanged the wild thing for a much more manageable dog since surely they couldn't be one and the same animal!

The wild moments really are momentary but if he looks like forgetting himself for longer we stop and have some quiet time before continuing the walk.

Hi there.  I have a 3 year old male Lab and he does exactly the same!!  He is the most wonderful loving and placid Lab, as the majority of them are.  However, if I laugh at him, tell him off if something excites him like giving him a new treat, digging up mole holes or feeling sand under his feet, to name just a few, he adopts a stance where all four of his legs are in a spread eagle position, his tail and back end curl under he runs around in circles then runs into me and starts snacking at me, biting my arms etc with teeth showing.  He becomes quite aggressive but not in a nasty way.  After a few minutes of his "crazy time" he is back to his normal self and wagging his tail and very loving.  The thing is when he does this I just cant stop laughing which makes him worse!!

As you may have seen Lindsay [hi btw] I think Carrington's reply was excellent too.