Dog Training & Behavior

I am almost on my last straw and I don't know what to do. We have a 4 month old chocolate lab. 80%of the time he is a sweet puppy who plays fetch with you, sits on command, rings a bell to go out and is generally a great dog. But when you (the human) sit down (mostly in the evenings) it is like a flip is switched. He starts lunging on top of you and biting at your hands and my dh has even had his nose nipped. If you try to gently push him off he comes back even harder than before. We have been trying to institute the off command but this sometimes starts the manic behavior. He has a thing about hands. If you stand up and turn your back on him he is nipping at your legs and yanking on your clothes. He absolutely cannot settle down once he gets in that mood. All we can do is put him in his kennel for 1/2 an hour and let him settle down. Sometimes even that does not help. People have suggested training but I am serious when I say that once he is in this manic phase he cannot hear anything you say and nothing you do can stop the train once it is going. Others say "he is just a puppy" but we have raised two family dogs and two guide dogs and I have never seen this behavior in a dog. I am not kidding that in these phases his eyes actually go red and by the next day they are white again so it is not an infection. I think he is possessed. What can I do? I am seriously starting to dislike this dog and  I feel really bad about that. Already we cannot have people over in the evening and my dd refuses to bring my sweet chihuahua puppies over to visit anymore. He is not mean to other dogs or to the grand-puppies. My dd simply cannot stand being jumped on. He is great around other dogs and people when we go for walks (3 times a day). So I hate to lable him an aggressive dog but the way he wants to "play" in the evenings is not something we want to do anymore. What can we do???? HELP!!!!

Laurie

Hi Laurie and Welcome to the Board. I'm Laura and I'm the furmom to a 13YO dalmatian, Samantha and 3YO lab/mix, Cleo.

I'm so sorry you are going through this right now.  I can only imagine how annoying this is for you.  If you look at my siggy you will see a Ylab....she was my beloved ^Valentine^.  I lost her two years ago at 8YO from kidney failure.  She was a "heart" dog...and I miss her every single day.

Valentine was a handful...just like most labs.  She was puppy-like almost until the day she died....she never lost that labby spirit.  Labs are extremely high energy and need a lot of exercise to be happy.  Your boy is just a baby...and needs an outlet for that "mania".

I've also had dogs get crazy like that.....and I agree with the time-outs you are giving him.  What you need to do is get his attention when he starts acting up.  If she jumps on  you when you are sitting down don't push him off...he thinks you're playing.  Stand up and turn away from him....say "No" in a loud voice until he settles down.  It might take a while but ignoring him is the best thing you can do.

You can also take a rolled-up magazine and bang it on a tabletop....anything to get his attention.  As soon as he settles, then praise him highly.  You have to break the concentration he has on acting up.

You might also want to start instituting Nothing In LIfe Is Free.  If you can work on this when he is calmer, reinforcing the commands should be easier.

John a dog park....my Cleo just "loves" the dog park and comes home too tired to move.  Or bring your dog to a doggie day care a few times a week.  That should help to tire him out.

Good luck with your little boy...and please let us help in any way that we can.

 

Would changing up his schedule help any, particularly in terms of feedings?

I will say evening is when the maltipoo(6 mos)goes bonkers and does that run in circles more typical puppy thing. It does seem the typical time and I wondered if switching up his eating and walk times might not mix it up a bit?

I see nothing wrong with a pup being in a crate for 2-3 hours while your DD visits. Otherwise, you are going to end up resenting him.

We have a 13 yr old Golden and had another who lived to 14. Even though they were/are both wonderful dogs,I know I will not have another; they are just too high energy for where I am in life(old ;)) It seems Labs are even more so. I would guess your guide dogs, even if they were retrievers, were specifically bred for calmness and you now have the more 'typical' Marley version

Service dogs aren't always bred for calm temprament, but they are chosen for service dogs because, among other things, they have that calm demeanor.  I do have to agree - being a "Marley" is pretty typical of the labs that I've seen, especially when they're young.  Both of my 1/2 lab grandpuppies have that attitude.  Ace is 1 1/2 y/o, he's the wild child that arrived when I posted my last post in this thread.  Delilah is 10 months old, and also a wild child.  My daughter swears that the reason Delilah likes to go to her Nana Rose's house is coz the first thing she does when she gets here is to go to the ball park across the street and run until she's tired! LOL  If we do the run right away, we have a pretty calm existence for the time of their visit, if we don't, that pup makes me crazy within 1/2 an hour of arriving.  When Ace arrived last night my son and I took him and Missy to the ball park for about 20 minutes to play fetch (with our Chuck It - the dogs can run much longer than our arms can throw the ball!), and even though he was still fairly high energy when we were done, it was a much more controlled high energy.

I agree with the post who said to turn your back on the dog and firmly tell him NO!  I use clapping my hands loudly to get our dogs' attention, because I can guarentee I'll have my "tools" available whenever I need them, unlike relying on a rolled up magazine, pennies in a can, or just about anything else.  Pushing the dog away isn't going to be helpful in getting him to settle down - watch how puppies play.  They start out by batting their paws at each other, and the game excalates from there - he's seeing you pushing him away as batting your paws at him, and in his mind it means mommy wants to play even more.  If this pup is only 4 months old, he's still a baby, still learning the routines, and still very high energy.  It's going to take awhile to get that out of his system, our vet told us that we can expect our half labs to be puppies at heart until they're 2 or more!  Thankfully, Ace is controllable, and Delilah is starting to show us glimpses of the awesome dog she's going to be, or I'd see no end in sight at this point!