Really need some advice here. My normally very placid one yr old lab got out when I was taking the bins out. This on it's own is out of charactor, she would usually wait in the doorway and watch me. She ran towards a woman pushing a push chair and was barking furiously and her hackles were up. She was growling a bit too.
Clearly she thought this woman was some sort of threat? She has always barked when someone walks past the window but has never ran towards someone like this. In fact usually she greets any new person with glee, and we have trained her not to jump up but to wait to be petted if the person wants to.
The poor woman was absolutely terrified, she was angry and scared and I totally understand why and I just feel awful about that. :(
She is the most passive, agreeable gorgeous dog usually, she puts up with my one year old human child and loves him to bits.
The only thing I can think of is that we have just returned to the house after two weeks with my parents. We had visited a very dog friendly park and on a couple of occassions she has found the other dog(s) was playing too rough (tail rammed between legs and came running back to me) Or perhaps she feels more of a need to guard since we returned? She had a walk this morning for an hour already so she didnt have a lot of pent up energy.
I am still shaking, cant believe what just happened...
What next? A behaviourist or wait and see with extra vigilance?