Labs???

[DBI78]

Hi
We got a lab 7 months ago and boy do we know it!! After the initial settling in he seemed to settle a bit and was responding to training but at about 6 month it all went down the pan! He jumps up at people (it hurts he's huge) we ignore this behaviour which means he's better now for us but still does it to anyone who visits etc. He bites constantly- when we are stroking him, during play, grooming, putting lead in, to get attention. We try to ignore it/leave room but I kid you not it is constant . He chews everything- walls, doors, rugs chairs. He has lots of toys and we keep buying snuffle mats, feeding activities, lick mats etc. They last literally 2 minutes then he's trying to destroy the toy. His recall is terrible we have had to go to a long lead but he's so strong he can pull me over. We are doing reward based training so lots of treats and encouragement but I'm seeing no improvement. I feel judged constantly. Can anyone relate/advice?

Sounds like my father's lab. The dog is lovely but not very bright , he spent two years chewing our house, including two couches. He is 10 now and has calmed down an awful lot over the years but he was extremely hyper until he was about 4/5. I spent years trying to train him , hired numerous trainers but he is honestly heedless. Nothing motivates him except what he wants to do in that moment, which seems to change like the weather.

Sounds very normal, he has hit the teenage phrase. Which whilst it is horrible to go through, in a few weeks time he'll calm down and start to listen again.

Regarding the issues you are having, he sounds bored. Do you do any type of training with him? Ie scent or gun dog etc? My labs are from working lines, so high energy. I find doing 20/30 mins of gun dog based exercises helps tire them out more than trying to walk the energy out of them!

Recall, there is a book called Perfect Recall - buy and follow this to the letter. It is reward based games to get a solid recall. It really does work.

I'm not sure what to suggest regarding the long line and helping stopping him from pulling you over, how do you attach it to him? How is his lead work? Will he walk nicely on the lead?

My eldest lab is 2 years and I have to work with her daily to keep her under control and at 6 months she was such a pain in the bum!! Chewed our bed, skirting boards and toys only lasted minutes!! Got her a buffalo horn and that really helped and is still loved to this day (the same one I brought at 3 months of age!)

For the pulling we swapped to a chest harness and attached the lead to the front of the chest. Works a treat. We also swapped back to a short lead.

Within a couple of weeks he was plodding along at our heels and will now walk at heel even when off the lead.

Wish we had of made the change from the start and not when he was 12 months old 😂

He's hit the teenage phase - it's a special kind of hell

He will get better but you do need to be persistent and use a lot of environmental management. So leads when visitors approach so he can't practise jumping up, crate him or use a pen so he can't chew the house, a double ended lead plus harness (or a head collar) to control the pulling.

Honestly, threads like this are why I shudder when people recommend labs to families with small children. Not because you've done anything wrong at all, but because labs are big and strong and boisterous and can do a lot of (accidental) damage as they just don't realise their size

Ours is now almost 9, she calmed down around 3 years old and has been absolutely brilliant since.

mine has just turned 2

a halti harness made a huge difference

also treats for training need to be high value for out and about, recall etc

hiding treats so he can sniff them out tires our boy out....we lay a trail which he then flows on the que of 'find it!'

He sounds like a typical teenage dog. How much exercise does he get per day?

Thanks for replies I will look at more specific training and recall work. I agree re comment on young children our son is six and it's hard work with the two of them I wish we had waited a couple more years. He does get two hours of walks a day plus regular play/ training he really is high energy.
Was anyone else's lab still mouthing/biting at nine month? I can't wait for that to end!

Aw it gets better. The biting thing, just gently put your hands round his muzzle and say ‘no’. He’ll get the message.
Jumping at visitors, we made ours sit on a mat and ignored him as they came in. He is food driven so only got his reward if he was calm.
I did 2 years training with mine - canine good citizen - plus gun dog training exercises when out. We continue that on walks - he’s 10.
I have 2 now and they are very calm dogs, very sociable, as gentle as their clumsy bodies allow.

@DBI78

Thanks for replies I will look at more specific training and recall work. I agree re comment on young children our son is six and it's hard work with the two of them I wish we had waited a couple more years. He does get two hours of walks a day plus regular play/ training he really is high energy. Was anyone else's lab still mouthing/biting at nine month? I can't wait for that to end!

That's a lot of exercise and stimulation for a seven month old dog.

Have you considered cutting it down and putting more focus on reinforcing calm in the house? Remember, seven month old dogs need a lot of sleep - around 16-18 hours a day is ideal at that age.

We used to train daily, it really is worth putting the work in.
Have you tried a dog whistle? We would whistle & call her name. She knew when she heard the whistle that she would get a treat, we were soon able to just recall her by name for a treat.

As for pulling -ditch the long lead. You aren’t in control with a dog that’s pulling your arm off so a long lead us asking for trouble.
Ours trotted happily along to heel for her whole life after using a halti for just a few months along with a firm command.
www.amazon.co.uk/Halti-Optifit-?tag=mumsnetforu03-21halti

The leave the room when he bites -do you actually tell him “No!” When he does it? Must be confusing for h8m if you are just walking off.

Have you tried a Kong with treats in? That gives them something to chew.
kong

She was the best dog for us & DC, such a loving girl, I miss her still.
Your boy will get there OP.

The teenager phase everything you taught them has gone out the window.Hold in ad it will pass .Daughter had the ‘perfect’ puppy until this phase hit-lasted about 2 months although she’s a Pomsky so they will have different ages when they mature.She us finally coming out the other side but not after she destroyed several things in the house first! Recall went too

9 month lab owner - have had most of the behaviours you mentioned and some of the things that have worked so far...

Consistent, routine, repetitive reinforcement of what you want with everyone on board and everyone doing it consistently (and agreeing not to get the hump if they get a reminder!) Though don't beat yourself up if you slip up as we're all trying our best!

The jumping up that was cute with a small pup and now bloody dangerous with a 32kg pup - we tried the firm but gentle replacing of him (not pushing him off, placing him off) for ages and it was hit and miss it. Read a Lez Graham article I think and suggestion was to use more dog body language so rather than walk away from him (my natural instinct that actually allows him more bl**dy leverage to lean up against me) we started walking in to him. Totally different body language. Totally confused him and he had nowhere to go but down. We didn't march into him to throw him off balance (got to think of his still developing joints) just slowly walked into him and he would remove himself. Within a few hours he'd pretty much stopped. He does still go to jump on visitors but we then trained him to go to his bed/crate when people come in and sit until he's called to say hello - we ask visitors to ignore him on arrival, not even eye contact and do the walk into rather than away and it's getting so much better.

Chewing - we've been lucky so far that his constant supply of ostrich bones, rubber Kong toys, pizzles, antlers, frozen stuffed Kongs have kept his chewing under control. He clearly has real bouts of teething/teeth/ jaw settling pain as he'll gnaw on an empty Kong for ages, drooling, to self soothe. From day one we would pop a chew in his mouth when he went to nip and he will automatically grab a toy when he wants to sit in your lap. When we first started using leads he'd chew them mainly because he likes anything novel so we made it kind of boring for him, just left it lying around with his other toys and chews so it wasn't that exciting. Cannot recommend yak, ostrich and split antlers enough! My husband was also very, very patient with teaching him bite inhibition - now if he nips or puts his teeth on one of us through play or tiredness a sharp OUCH stops it and he immediately licks where his teeth had been.

Recall - selective and slow more than anything. He's highly food motivated so if there's a treat in the offing he behaves like it's an army drill showing me he does bl**dy well know exactly what's being asked of him but I remind myself he's a teenager. It's going to take time.

For me I've found the reinforcement day in day out of absolute basics of sit, down, touch, stay really help as they can break a pattern of frustrating behaviour. Just before he takes himself to bed he has a half hour of wanting to dig and scratch at the back doormat but a SIT breaks that and is a positive thing so you can fuss him when he's done it. He's allowed up on our leather sofa but not to bounce all over our laps but to chill nicely so again down or sit reinforce this and when he does it we really fuss him.

Pulling on the lead. Good God I've had my ups and downs with this. His walks are snuffling "enrichment expeditions" - we may cover about two blocks in 45 minutes going back and fore, back and fore, stopping and changing direction, being called back to heel, trotting along then stopping dead and sitting. But he seems happy, he's mentally tired and he gets proper exercise off lead and playing. Took me ages to get my own head around that. His routine am/pm "walks" really are to tire his mind out (very keen sniffer), learn to behave safely in the street, pass and mainly ignore other dogs on lead and get his bowels moving

I think 9 months in, I've finally started to relax a little and not think I'm the worst dog owner in the world for not having the perfect at my heel loose lead non jumping non excitable super trained dog. He's had and has his moments of being a real pain in the ar$e but generally he is the loveliest natured boy who lately just wants to snuggle up, lean into my legs, or just be near us. Touch wood, I haven't felt puppy blues for a good few weeks!

I really rate the advice from Lez Graham for our lab www.thepetgundog.co.uk/ we've done lots of the exercises for fun and he loves them

We have a year old working line Lab. We’ve done it all ‘by the book’ re. Training etc and he’s frankly lucky he didn’t end up cooked in a curry several times this year. Eight months was peak arsehole ( when he got over excited, dived on my mum and broke her thumb). He needs a lot of mental stimulation, then he’s a dream dog.

He’s so much better now, at 13 months. Here are some things that have worked for us:
Practice recall every single day, with distraction, in different places. Don’t be afraid to let him off his lead. When ours’ runs off I just walk away and he soon follows. I can’t take mine on the lead as we are waaay off heel walking. He’s much better with DH.

Play to their breed traits and do gundog activities with them. Second Lez Graham and her book and Facebook group.
Find a good trainer for some one to one sessions. We had some via Zoom and they helped so much.
Teach ‘leave’ and ‘wait’. No food is taken until you say ‘take it’. Teach swap for anything they shouldn’t have. Mine is a ghastly thief but will swap most things for a yak chew.
Teach them to self settle. Jumping up, I just reward sitting to say hello. However, sometimes a glass of water has ‘accidentally’ splashed out of my hand and over my Lab’s perturbed little head 😉
Find ways to tire them out. You’ll never tire a Young, fit Lab with walking or even running. Ours’ does agility ( exhausts him), heel/ retrieve practice, swimming in fetid ponds and twice a week at daycare. All highly effective in getting a few hours’ peace.

Best of luck. I’m sure he will calm down and it really is worth all the effort when you have a cracker of a dog at the end of that hard first year.

We don't have a Lab, but a giant breed weighing in excess of 53kgs and recently she has been fitted with a Dogmatic for dog walks. It's a game changer.

Tire out his brain, you’ll never tire out his legs! I have two working line labs, one more high energy than the other. Agility, trick training (very short bursts when young and always end in a high when they’ve got it right) canicross when old enough (if you or someone in your family likes running! They have to use their brains to follow the trail/other runners) - anything to get his brain working. My youngest dog has done a 70 mile/3 day hike with me, didn’t tire her out at all…take her to agility or something requiring thought…she turns into a snoozador 😂 you’ll get there. My beloved boy is going grey and slowing down now, I’d give anything to see another puppy zoomie ❤️