Am hoping for some advice about my dog's behaviour. She's a 9 month old black Labrador/German Shepherd cross. We've had her for 3 months.
About 3 weeks ago we had her spayed. Over the last week or so her behaviour has really changed. She's become quite domineering and also very restless/agitated indoors.
We'd been making good progress with recall (2 other dogs so we know the drill). However, twice in the last week she has run off completely. The first time we were all out looking for her for nearly 3 hours before the pdsa rang to say someone had handed her in (we discovered her name tag with our contact details had come off but fortunately she is chipped). Last night she did the same thing, but we got her back quickly as she had our phone number on her new tag.
If I didn't know she'd just been spayed I would say she's behaving like a dog on heat.
We're really pushing the recall routine and hoped that being out with our other 2 dogs would help keep her close. We've been careful about when/where to let her off and have used a long line but she had that on last night when she ran off.
If it was just the running off I'd think it was just a matter of persevering with recall, but that coupled with the domineering/agitated behaviour is making me wonder what's going on.
I do think she is more shepherd than Labrador and I don't really know the breed (other dogs are Labs) so I wonder if there's something in the breed I need to know about?
She gets walked 2-3 times a day, has never been left on her own and there's usually someone willing to play with her when we're indoors.
Any advice gratefully received!