6 month black lab behaviour

Hi Everyone, this is my first time posting on this site and I'm so glad to have found it, I'm really hoping you can help. I have a 6 month of female black lab, she's gorgeous in every way and is great with obedience but the two things I can't seem to get control of is her jumping up at people and her mouthing (I haven't a clue how to teach bite inhibition and she really is biting too hard!). My brother has cerebral palsy and can't use his one arm at all, so he isn't able to move it out of the way when she jumps up and 'mouths'. When we're out walking, I can hardly hold on to the lead to stop her jumping at passers by and she's pulled me over twice. It's never out of aggression, she just seems to think everyone should be her best friend! When walking as a little pup, so many people stopped to fuss her and I do wonder if this has anything to do with it. I just wondered if anyone had any suggestions to stop the jumping up at visitors to our house, but more so, to stop her jumping at people walking by when we got out on the lead. Also, how do you stop a lab from mouthing too hard? One thing I did notice was that at 6 months, her behaviour seemed to get worse. She is being spayed on Friday, will this make any difference?

Any help would be very much appreciated.

For the jumping. In the house however. When she goes to jump up someone, get the person to turn around and to ignore her until she is doing the required behaviour (either sitting or all four paws on the floor etc)

For mouthing, the way I taught my dog to stop (she was a 20 month old rescue GSD that did this - OW) is when she does it, leave whatever she is mouthing there, and say OW really loudly (not quite a shout but as if you had just been punched really hard). This worked with Jess, so hopefully it will work with your beauty

Thanks so much for your quick reply. I did try the 'OW' thing and it seemed to make her worse and even made her bite harder, it was as if it was part of a game and the more noise I made, the more excited she got. It's the same if she has a toy that squeaks, it makes her go bonkers and I end up taking the squeaky bit out.

Go the opposite way then and just totally ignore her.

If she does it, leave your "bite part" where it is and just ignore her as if she hasn't done anything. It will be hard to do, but if noise makes her excited, counter it.

That's something I haven't tried. It's so easy to react with a shout when they bite even though you know they aren't doing it to hurt you. I haven't had a large breed puppy before and the nipping that I've never noticed with my previous small puppies suddenly hurts quite a bit! I'll definitely give it a try.

Hi Sara welcome to Dogsey . Biting really is normal behaviour in puppies, if a puppy doesn't bite there is something wrong with it . Puppies bite for a number of reasons, to explore the world around them/during play/and when teething. I think your puppy is 'play biting' trying to instigate play just as she would with her litter mates or another dog.

This kind of behaviour should really curbed and channelled in the right direction when a puppy is quite small . Puppies should be encouraged to bite ever more gently until no pressure is exerted at all, this is 'bite inhibition', learning to developer a soft mouth and one of the most important lessons you can teach a puppy. Once BI is taught, as the puppy grows up and develops powerful jaws should she bite for any reason (say she is in pain/at the vets being treated /gets accidentally hurt) she will have learned never to sink her teeth into human skin.
Teaching a puppy bite inhibition takes time and patience and won't be achieved in just a few days also everyone in the household needs to adopt the same approach.


Link to teaching bite inhibition ..click here


Other problems discussed below...

continued...For jumping up at visitors try putting your puppy on a lead when they arrive and getting her to sit, when she does give her a tipbit and lots of praise (then eventually just praise). Progress to having her off the lead, ask her to sit, no one should speak to her until she is sitting, then give lots of praise when she does.

The same applies whe you are out, get her to sit before people speak to her, then give lots of praise and the occasional treat . I would also buy a good harness, you can buy ordinary harnesses and no pull ones. I find they give a lot more control over a dog than a collar and lead.

I don't think spaying will make much difference at all, most of the problems are training issues .

Ps here is an article on basic puppy training which might be of help

http://www.dogsey.com/dog-articles.php?t=14526

ETA As Jen says if she jumps up at you for attention fold your arms/turn your back/ no word no eye contact however long it takes until she is calm and has four feet on the floor, then ask her to sit, bend down So you are not encouraging further jumping up give lots of praise when she does Again this will take time, don't expect instant success.

Has she had her first season? 6 months is very young and having a season usually helps a mature mature a bit too.

Thank you so much for all your comments, tips and advice. Ruby and I have been putting them firmly into practice over the last couple of days and we've already started to make some really good progress (especially with jenn’s tip about completely ignoring her when jumping up).

In terms of walking on the lead, we had our worst day ever yesterday and I didn’t understand it at all. When we went for our usual early morning walk, Ruby’s behaviour was awful, she wouldn’t walk at all and just kept throwing herself on her back. Every time I went to right her and untangle the lead, she’d just kick at me really hard and bite me – it was just like a wrestling match! It wasn’t helped at all by a lady who had a smaller puppy, which was perfectly behaved, standing there lecturing me about big dog behaviour and how they need more than training, they need ‘proper’ punishment or they just turn into bad aggressive dogs. This really got to me and after a massive struggle, I was glad to get Ruby back home. Her behaviour during this walk made me even more worried about having her spayed today because I knew that jumping up, throwing herself on her back and pulling would not be good after surgery. I’m not squeamish and I can stand a lot of things at the vets but stitches (and microchips) are not two of them!!

I bought her home just a few hours ago after her op and all my fears have definitely been put to rest. I was so worried about the recovery because of her behaviour yesterday but I’m so shocked at how quickly she has got herself back on her feet and how she knows just how much she should and shouldn’t do. She was so pleased to see us when we collected her. Her little ears went back, her eyes went like giant saucers and she kept licking her lips and wagging her whole body but she never once jumped up. She absolutely hates her buster collar but she’s acting like a real grown up and just loves all the attention!

As soon as we can, we’ll be carrying on with the different tips you have given us and I really do feel that if I’m consistent (and persistant) with what we do, we’ll really get things sorted. I don't quite understand the throwing herself on her back and 'wrestling' behaviour but I'll just have to see what happens when I take her out for a walk when she's recovered fully from the op.

Minihaha - thanks for the articles and the advice on biting, it's really helped me to understand things and now I know what Ruby is doing is normal puppy behaviour.

Where abouts in Staffs are you? I'm in Birmingham, so if you want, we could find somewhere in between and I could try help with your lead training (I'm not a trainer but tend to have a knack for training dogs lol) if you want.

It is bad that she is trying to bite you. That part at the very least must be curbed as it isn't a habit she should be getting into.