HELP! Pic attached! Dog is obsessed with bitch all of a sudden!!

[Chesspeece]

Hi!

We have 2 labs. Dog 3 intact, Bitch 3 spayed.

They have lived together for just over 2 years and are not litter mates.

Last couple of weeks Dog has become OBSESSED with bitch. He follows her around, licks her bits, ears, face constantly. If she is chilling or asleep he stands guard over her. He cannot bear anyone else touching her, never aggressive but forces himself in between you and bitch. If she is in her bed he lays on the floor next to her, we have stone floors so he must be cold, last night he stayed there all evening!

Sometimes he just sits and cries at her while she is asleep. 😢

If she is on the sofa he stands or sits guard next to her (pic attached of current situation!!)

If we separate him from her to give her a break (dog gate to the kitchen) he barks and howls and cries! He has knocked over things in the house bolting to get to her if she gets out of his sight. He eats his food then stands over her waiting for her to finish!

All of this is very new behaviour! If I didn’t know better I would say she was in season or expecting!

Bitch is fed up, but otherwise in good health and going about her normal routine. But she is sick of him.

We recently had a new kitchen fitted which turned the house upside down for a bit but it’s all done now and nothing else has changed here.

He is well trained but is not listening to us at all about this. Sometimes he will dutifully do his trick or come to being called but as soon as possible he rushes back to bitch!

Any advice as to why this is happening?! To help him chill out?!

Dog 3 intact,
That's why. His hormones are kicking into overdrive. Might be time to get him done as well.

I was thinking this. These are labs 3&4 for us and we had a dog & bitch before and old boy never acted like this!

Stupid question but Dog knows Bitch is a girl even though she is spayed? Bless her she has no idea why the sudden interest 😂

Are you planning on getting him done? That will solve the mystery.

He's in lurvvvveeee and his hormones are going crazy.

That's sweet. Has she only just been done? My ddog got all licky with my friends dog who's just been neutered. Seemed to wear off the longer she'd been done.

It wasn’t the plan, we have usually kept boys intact but I think it might have to be the case for him.

I think he is in love but he is wayyyy too keen and coming on wayyy to strong and bitch is not interested in him like that!

No, she was spayed about 2 years ago, just before Dog moved in

I’ve little expertise as on my first dog, a golden retriever who is 2 and intact, and he behaves like this with various dogs in the park. It’s getting better with training but it’s often boys - I see it as dominance behaviour but maybe I’m wrong. He used to try to hump often and when he licked their bits I knew that was coming next, but thats improved with correction. There’s one neutered male dog whom I know if he sees him I have to get him on lead immediately, as he’s obsessive like this - the owner wonders about her dogs hormones as he receives this attention a lot. Needless to say I plan to get him neutered soon.

Spayed bitches can sometimes still give off in season hormones - a bit more common in smaller dogs (because the op is trickier and so easier to leave some tiny bits of tissue behind) but I think I've seen it in bigger dogs too.

My guess would be a combo him being in tact and her having this 'silent' season of sorts.

See: kennettvet.com/spayed-female-dog-still-has-heat-cycles/

@Chesspeece I think that maybe the only solution, and tbh we are on male dog number 5 here and have had all of ours done and no major changes to personality and they do tend to calm down.

We had to get our last male done as he lives with his mum who was spayed after pups and he was constantly trying to mount her.

I didn’t know this, it definitely seems like this type of behaviour tbh

Yeah, I think it might have to happen, will speak to the vets in the week. He is exhausting himself worrying after her. And it’s so annoying to try and work/ live with a Randy teenager 🤣 the only break we all get is out in the fields! DP is considering moving into a tent over there 😂

As PP says, spayed females can still have silent "heat" cycles. Combine that with an intact male and, well, there you go.

I'd get them both down the vets for a good check up as well - it could be that she's unwell in some way and he's trying to protect her.

Could be hormones/lust but unless he's mounting her or mounting cushions etc I'd be inclined to want to rule out any hidden health issues with your bitch. We've had a multi dog household (entire male with 2x entire females) and a multi cat household (4m, 2f, all neutered) and the only time any of them went clingy or guardy was when one of the others was ailing...If it turns out not to be unrequited love then it might be worth keeping an eye on her health in the coming months. They often sense things long before we do.

Not trying to be alarmist, just going off our own experiences that when one was ailing everyone went off their food and started hovering over the poorly one.

Sorry - cross posted with another suggestion of ill health...

I will definitely call the vets, they were only seen in July for pet health club, boosters etc and both are all good. Bitch seems well in herself but I did wonder if he knew something we didn’t, she makes this Marge Simpson disapproving noise a lot at the moment 🤣

He definitely isn’t mounting her or trying to hump her or anything like that. Just all behaviours as above. I took Bitch out on her own yesterday for a break and she was flying bless her but it also know how stoic they can be as we lost a lab at 4 to Leukaemia, didn’t know a thing until 5 days before she died 😢

His behaviour doesn't really scream "hormones" to me, I have to say - unless I've missed it, he's not humping her or licking her bits or anything, he's going for her head/face area and protecting her - it sounds like he can sense something isn't quite "right" and is wanting to keep her safe.

It could be anything from a UTI to an ear infection to something more serious, but I think she definitely needs a thorough check over. A lot can change in two months, and many of these healthy pet "checks" only do a quick glance over, unfortunately, they're not enough to spot any real issues unless the owner mentions a concern in advance.

Great minds think alike @AubrieDog

A friend has something like this, albeit with two males. The one getting the attention actually had a nasty ear infection but wasn't really showing signs.

I can see that, I’ll get them both booked in this week for a chat with the vet. Really hope there isn’t anything wrong with bitch, she is honestly such a darling.

fingers crossed all for just a horny teenage lab! 🙈

If there is something wrong it's likely something minor - if he's fussing around her head and face, maybe her ears or teeth are causing problems, or she could have a UTI? Of course, it could just be behavioural but always worth getting these things checked!

Could be resource guarding if illness in your girl is ruled out. He may see her as ‘his’ and want to guard her from everything and everyone else.

My dog used to resource guard food and the sofa (was an absolute nightmare because he was very unpleasant about it!) so we used a behaviourist to get on top of it and now he doesn’t do it anymore. He started to guard me when I got pregnant, just hard stares and body-blocking me but we recognised the signs so used what we had learnt from his previous resource guarding issues to nip it in the bud, and he’s fine now. It can be bloody difficult to get a handle on resource guarding so you might need some help from a behaviourist, and consistency is key.

Also have a chat with your vet re whether it’s worth castrating him, as this could all just be hormonal.

My male intact Spaniel had this behaviour to a male neutered Labrador when he was younger (in addition to typical interest in bitches in season).

It was more problematic with the neutered male as it was a dog he saw a lot of. Neutering him stopped the fixation and guarding behaviours - no other dogs or humans were allowed to come between him and this neutered male 🫤.

(Just to raise awareness that I guess this behaviour does not always just simply manifest to fertile females.)

Thank you all for your advice. Hope we will get to the bottom of it!

You could ask the vet to chemically castrate you dog which lasts about 6 months before committing to the op just to see If that is the problem.