New behaviour in 18month Maya

Hi,

Maya is 18 months old and was spayed at 9 months. She is a great wee dog (labrador) and we have no problems with her. Except, recently, the last month, her behaviour has changed slightly. She has taken to rolling in dog poop! Not her own, only other dogs or foxes and she is really crafty....she manages to sneak away and get it on her on many walks, usually her neck!
The other thing she has started doing, is climbing up on our knees. She has always been content to lie in her basket or her crate but now she doesn't just want up beside us, she wants right on top of us, with her whole body sat on us! We love her but she is a bit big and heavy for this! She also seems to be needing a lot of hugs and petting, far more than usual.
She doesn't show any aggression at all and will go to her basket when told.
Lastly.....she will not poop outside the garden anymore. I take her for a big long walk and she does nothing. When we get back to the house, she paws at me to get out in the garden......but get this.....she STILL won't do it, unless I have a poop bag in hand, ready to pick it up immediately! As soon as she sees me with the poop bag, she gets all excited and poops in the garden, then gets all excited again when I pick it up and bin it! I always bagged and binned it outside the garden too so it is not that she doesn't like it left out.
I mentioned the spaying as I wondered if this is a hormonal thing.....a spring thing....I am just a bit lost.
There was one incident where a little dog barked at her and she was terrified......that is the only thing I can think of that put her off pooping outside.

Any thoughts gratefully received!

Rolling in poop thats pretty natural , our dogs do that a lot of the time , I have to watch them like a hawk .
What exactly happened when the little dog barked , what was Maya doing. Sometimes the smallest thing to us can seem profound to a sensitive dog so it could have well have started off with the other dog scaring her and affected her and made her more clingy.

Dog behaviour does change as dogs mature though I'm not sure if this is hormonal.

Alison

Thanks for replying.
Maya was just out with me, chasing her ball. She really doesn't like this dog.....I think it is because she is very small and barks a lot. The dogs Maya is used to are of similar size to her and not big on barking.
However.....we had her out in the woods today and she pooped outside......first in ages! You could tell she was nervous about it but we told her she was good and gave her a treat