Arousal biting?

[Labradorium2000]

Good afternoon all.

I am looking for advice, please.

My one year old lab is displaying some annoying habits when I am walking him. Not always but often enough. I think it is when he does not get his own way. It can happen ( but doesn't always) when I am rewarding him with some kibble for good behaviour, like a nice heel walk or so .
He wants all the kibble there and then. I obviously don't give in and it starts. I always stay calm. Sometimes it is just the excitement of going on a walk.

He jumps up , bites my sleeve or the leash and shakes it.

He won't listen to anything when he is in that mood and twice he went for the pockets of my coat and tore at them , jumped up to touch the back of my head .

It was relentless. In the end I had to call my husband to come and get us because I couldn't find a way out of this situation.

I have spoken to a dog trainer and was told to manage the situation with a toy to divert his focus which worked until he had enough of the toy and kept dropping it on the way home (whilst on the leash and walking nicely) .

I wasn't allowed to have it either and he got agitated again and jumped up. It was stressful since I had to cross several roads and he kept dropping the toy. I somehow managed but it was so frustrating.

He does not growl or shows any other signs of aggression. He is very loving and not really jumping up at people unless they get overly excited over him.

Is this typical teenager behaviour?

Will he grow out of it, do I just keep managing those situations with tug toys and the like ?

Thanks for reading, this is longer than I expected.
Here is a picture of above mentioned teenager !

Vizslas do this too. The best thing I've found is teaching a really easy and reliable 'touch' so dog touches your hand with their muzzle when you ask. When they get into the crazy mood you can start asking them to do it and it totally changes their focus and mood as they're suddenly concentrating on that.

It works because it's so easy for them, which is great if they're over tired, which is when they show more of this type of ott behaviour.

My teenage collie did this. It stopped. I don't think I did the touch thing although that sounds like a good idea. It was just over arousal from being young and impulsive. She's smaller than a lab so easier to control on a short lead. I think my approach was to work on her down stay so get a sequence of sit, treat, down, treat, stay, treat and then keep the stay going for longer intervals to reinforce focus. It got her to switch off whatever got her hyped and back on to me. But tbh the touch approach sounds better.

Toys are great now she is older but in the bonkers teen phase would just hype her up more.

Thank you both! Will continue to work on stay ,down, etc. The touch thing also sounds a good idea. Hopefully he will grow out of it in time.

It’s really common in working breeds. I get it when I teach agility. I ask the handler to take the dog away to calm down with some sniffing, scattering treats etc. our pup can do it sometimes at the end of a walk when she’s tired and just overstimulated. Scattering treats stops her as does some focus exercises like touch, wait etc.

It is annoying though.

I walk a working labrador who went through this phase not long ago!

If he was "just" jumping and nudging at me, I ignored him completely. Stopped dead, no eye contact, no verbal correction - just turned my back and ignored him. Once he realised he wasn't going to get any attention, he gave up - it didn't take long - maybe a week.

When he started mouthing, distraction was the best option - either scattering treats in the grass or getting him to focus on me - as PP have said, the "touch" command is great for this. He was one last month and is much calmer now!

Thank you ! Scattering treats is a good idea.

I had this with my goldie, it only happened at gun dog classes. He was overstimulated and I did the scatter feed thing and hand touch which definitely helped. He's nearly 2 and hasn't done it for a while now.
You could also work on some impulse control stuff at home - sit and waiting while you throw out toy or treat etc.. I think this helped him not be so gung ho.

Thank you ,good to know that there is a chance he will stop doing it. I will see what I can do to help him to control his impulse better. He is definitely showing signs of being able to wait for things likeca toy or treat so I will work more on that part.

He will definitely grow out of it!

Also had this problem when ddog got too excited. I He would grab the lead and ‘play’ tug but with almighty strength. I switched to a lead that had a metal chain rather than fabric so he couldn’t chew or tug on it.

He would also jump up and bite and tear my jacket.

I agree with the scattering of treats but scatter them quite spread out so it takes him some time to find them to give him time to forget him excitement. Sniffing is a calming action for dogs.

But most of all, he will grow out of it.