New lab owner and hoping for some tips

[airennig]

Hello there, I am new to this forum and was hoping I could get some advice from some "professionals"! Our beloved family pet Max just passed away early last fall (he was a German Shepherd and was an incredible member of our family). Anyway, our house was so empty without a dog, so we then did some research and searching and found our new beloved Ruby. She is a black lab and we got her at 8 weeks old. I love this dog to death, we all do. She just makes me smile and she is a smart, fantastic dog. I have a few minor issues that we are working on with her but was wondering if anyone who has experience with labs could give me some tips. She is about 5 months now and she is still very bitey and nippy when she plays. I feel like my boys (ages 10 and 13) ruin what my husband and I try to teach her because they love playing with her and they play too aggressively with her and it drives me crazy. She is so drawn to them because they are like her puppy playmates! Anyway, any advice on rules to lay down with them or in general so we can get rid of all the biting. So if I'm in the middle of playing with her or petting her and she tries to bite my arm or hand, what steps can I take to discipline and show her it is not acceptable? Mind you, she never does it really hard, so she does understand that. Also, like most dogs anytime anyone walks in the house she is just ALL OVER THEM! the jumping up, and she gets nippy to the person who just came in the door too. Is this just her saying hello? is she trying to get the person to play with her? Tips on how we can calm her down when people calm in the door would be helpful as well. Thanks in advance for any help!

[sheltieluver]

Sorry for your loss and congrats on your new baby. For the biting I use a firm ah ah no bite and put something in thier mouth they can have and praise if she's really fired up or keeps at it I ignore and walk away or you can try putting her in a time out. You can't allow your boys to play rough like that with her. Google some games that they can play with her and be there to interrupt any bitey behavior. She's only 5 months old and still learning. Sign up for an obedience class most will let you bring the whole family. Training is all repetition and consistanty.

[michael m]

I agree with the post above regarding how to react when the dog playfully nips/bites you. Let the pup know that this is not acceptable behavior by telling it "no bites" or other term you wish to utilize.

Regarding play with the other dogs, I wouldn't be concerned about that behavior, as they will set their own level of play. Puppies in a litter experience this all of the time with littermates and Mother. They learn which level of interaction/play is acceptable to which playmate or Mom.

Have your Spouse and Children use the same command you do to let the pup know that biting is not allowed with each of them. Be consistant with the rules of play... don't play rough one day and try to go back to "no bites" the next time. One other point, you pup is either teething right now or is close to that experience. Keep that in mind as well and provide soft items for pup to chew should you give it a toy to replace nipping at the humans.

Regarding people entering the house and pup getting excited... teach the dog to go to designated "place" whenever someone is entering your home. Get a bed or mat and sit the dog there and stay by it's side with a collar/leash on the pup before having the guests enter. Make sure that the dog is calm before allowing guests to interact with the pup and you must maintain control. You will give a release command and then walk the dog to them while they stand very still. Be ready to stop any "jumping up" by your pup with use of the collar/leash. Pup will quickly learn that this interaction will not take place until it is calm and quiet and that the reward for staying calm will be getting to greet your guests more quickly. You can practice this with your Family Members as well. If a doorbell is used, have your spouse or kids ring the bell and wait a few moments before entering the home or have them knock on the door if that is how your guests do it when they visit. Immediately say "place", and lead the dog to the mat where it is to sit quietly and then let them enter, again keeping the dog in place and not allowing interaction until the pup is calm, as detailed above.

Good luck,
Michael

[xracer4844]

I don't tolerate biting ever. It doesn't matter if it's just a puppy and it doesn't hurt. Teeth on skin or anywhere is unacceptable behavior and I make that absolutely clear. I also believe that the best time to stop biting is through the puppy stages. A few things you can do, is don't encourage biting. It's one thing to run around outside, and play chase, and things like that. I never encourage playing tug games unless you know how to win every time. Unless you plan on training your dog in bite-work, tug is not something I encourage to new dog owners, and is something we talk about with all new students. Tug is a dominance game. You are exercising the dog’s jaws, head shaking, and aggression. People think it's funny to play tug and lift their dogs off the ground and stuff. Just don't. That is as simple as I can make that .



It's also important to not allow children to be rough with the dog. Playing rough, and aggressively with a puppy (I understand young boys just play like this) will not do you any favors. You are teaching the puppy that rough play is acceptable. It's fun now, but when your lab is 60-100 pounds, jumping, mouthing, and wrestling against you...you won't think it's fun and cute anymore. Just tell your kids to stop. You, as your pack leader, can limit play. Your puppy will respect you for this. Give her breaks every 10 minutes or so, just put her on her bed and tell her to lay down for a couple minutes etc. THEN resume play.



If biting starts, stop play. Shouting at the pup won't really teach them anything. Never grab their face or snout as you are actually not showing the dog that biting isn't allowed...you will just show them that they don't like it when their face is touched. (You would be surprised at how many students tell me they do this). Another important thing you can do is give your dog a time out. I'll assume you are crate training your pup - do not give you pup time outs in the crate. This will backfire on your crate training and set you back.



The doorbell story you just told, unfortunately, tells me a couple of things. At 5 months, I was already beginning to compete. Labs are very very very capable dogs at that age with the proper direction from you. Obedience. Obedience training is important. Not only for the dog but more so for you. Your dog will thank you. If you find a good obedience trainer (nothing like petsmart and big box store trainers who don't know very much about anything), someone who competes, has a great list of accomplishments etc. will teach you how to train your dog properly. They will teach you things like how to move with the dog, how to heel, recall, simple commands like sit, down, stay etc. (obviously the longer you take obedience the more advanced you will get). They will teach you things like, how to act in the house, the roles everyone has, and even things like first aid, how to hold a leash, and other valuable lessons. Our head trainer spends a few classes teaching without dogs doing anything. This information is so important to new puppy owners. Obedience training, more than anything, teaches you...not the dog. The training mostly happens at home on your own time. Get the whole family involved. Your boys may actually enjoy it. Let them listen to the trainer and learn. It's just as important for them to be involved as well. Obedience training will help your pup harness all of that energy, and give her the discipline that she requires to live a happy and healthy life.

I also look at obedience as responsibility. It is you as a dog owner to provide the best possible SAFE, life that you can. Safety being the key there. It is unsafe to have a dog that does not listen to you. If a dog decides to chase something into the road, I should be able to say STAY and that dog FREEZES and stops. I should be able to say down/stay. Walk away, make dinner, have a conversation on the phone or whatever, and that dog should stay. Obedience training is so important to me, I pass that on to every student I possibly can. It is just so important for so many reasons. That could be a whole thread on its own.

Another important thing I strongly believe in is NILF training. NOTHING IN LIFE IS FREE. Look it up. Google it. It’s basically the way I train every dog. A TON of people here train this way as well. In a nutshell – the way this works is, your dog needs to work for everything. When I brought our pup home at 8 weeks we began clicker training immediately. Every meal (3 times a day) every individual kibble was 1 command. SIT. CLICK. 1 PIECE OF KIBBLE…DOWN. CLICK. 1 PIECE OF KIBBLE. And so on. My pup had to work for every single piece of kibble 3 meals a day for months.

Back to your doorbell story. To me, and in my humble opinion, yes, your dog is excited and wants to say hello. This isn’t always a good thing though. A dog that gets manic, excited, jumping, biting, happy, jumpy–TO ME – is a dog that lacks discipline and exercise. There are a couple of things you can do to fix this though. EXERCISE. For a puppy age 5 months, exercise does not mean walks. You should not be doing any “forced” exercise like walks on lead until the puppies growth plates have closed (about 1 year old). Exercise for a puppy is off leash running. Chasing. Fetch. Nothing on leash.

I know that I’ve not written about a lot of important things. I wrote this fairly quickly so I’m sure grammatically it’s far from perfect. I tend to just throw ideas down and run with them. MOST IMPORTANTLY, welcome to this forum. It is a wonderful place full of wonderful people, full of experience, full of knowledge. You will get a lot more info than the simple things I`ve written about. Joining this forum is a great thing. Any questions you have, any problems you have, anything at all – the people here will have answers for you.

[airennig]

Thanks so much for all the great advice. I will definitely implement a lot of all of your suggestions. I think my kids need training more than the dog to be honest with you! They are not purposely trying to do anything wrong, they just have so much fun with her, but I really just need to put my foot down on acceptable play with her. She is not a super excitable dog other than when someone is entering the house, but I'm going to try what has been suggested above by Michael. I'm not sure this issue is lack of exercise, we have extensive property and are all very active with her, although lately with snow and bitter temperatures, maybe she is not getting as much exercise as she will in the spring, although I DO agree she lacks discipline. Maybe we'll do obedience classes with the kids and see if that helps. Anyway, we will keep chugging along... Thanks again and glad I found this site.

[OHfemail]

Welcome and congrats on the new addition. Five months is a very bitey stage, usually due to teething. It helps to have something close by to re-direct the nipping on human parts. Make it a game with the kids involved - when Ruby starts the biting, give a gentle command and immediately put something in her mouth that she can chew on. We literally had chew toys in every room! It just takes consistent work, but it should be a learning time for everyone. We also have an 'exuberant' greeter, and had Gabby in many obedience classes for the madness. I'll be honest and say that it took her about 2 years before she seemed to 'get it'. She's great in the house and knows to 'sit back and wait' when someone comes to the door. She can still be a crazy nut case when we're out and about, but we know to look for the signs and get her calmed down before it's out of control. Training, training and more training!

[Labradorks]

I had a boyfriend with kid when I got Sam. They were around the same age. We had a rule that when the puppy was around, no sitting on the floor. That's when the puppy decided they were fair game and wrestling ensued, which meant biting. It's simple and it worked -- puppy = get up off of the floor. They were also instructed to shove something in the dog's mouth when he got nippy. Kids, even though smart and mature, cannot grasp many things. Their timing is off most of the time or they let the dog bite until it hurts and then they do something about it. Shoving a toy in there worked for us and it was super simple. All play had to be with toys. Keep-away, fetch, hide and seek...no wrestling. If the kids allowed the puppy to bite on them, they were scolded by their dad and sometimes even sent to their rooms. We weren't asking for much and it's something they could easily handle. We also did not allow the puppy out with the kids without adult supervision. The dog grew out of it completely around 18 months.

The no tug-o-war rule is a bit outdated, in my opinion. I think it was a Monks of New Skeet thing, like alpha rolls. As long as the game is polite (both the puppy and the humans) and controlled and the dog knows the "drop it" command, tug is a game you can play. If the dog becomes too wound up or in any way is impolite, a simple drop it and put the toy up will suffice. It's a great way to teach a dog boundaries, self-control, and respect. And they like it. It's also something we do in competition for stress relief. However, kids, especially adolescent boys, may get more would up than the dog and they feed off of each other. So, while tug is not a bad thing, the combo of your puppy and your boys might be!

Lots of good advice on the doorbell. I have two adult dogs with obedience titles and I still haven't figured out that one... :|

[airennig]

I had a boyfriend with kid when I got Sam. They were around the same age. We had a rule that when the puppy was around, no sitting on the floor. That's when the puppy decided they were fair game and wrestling ensued, which meant biting. It's simple and it worked -- puppy = get up off of the floor. They were also instructed to shove something in the dog's mouth when he got nippy. Kids, even though smart and mature, cannot grasp many things. Their timing is off most of the time or they let the dog bite until it hurts and then they do something about it. Shoving a toy in there worked for us and it was super simple. All play had to be with toys. Keep-away, fetch, hide and seek...no wrestling. If the kids allowed the puppy to bite on them, they were scolded by their dad and sometimes even sent to their rooms. We weren't asking for much and it's something they could easily handle. We also did not allow the puppy out with the kids without adult supervision. The dog grew out of it completely around 18 months.

The no tug-o-war rule is a bit outdated, in my opinion. I think it was a Monks of New Skeet thing, like alpha rolls. As long as the game is polite (both the puppy and the humans) and controlled and the dog knows the "drop it" command, tug is a game you can play. If the dog becomes too wound up or in any way is impolite, a simple drop it and put the toy up will suffice. It's a great way to teach a dog boundaries, self-control, and respect. And they like it. It's also something we do in competition for stress relief. However, kids, especially adolescent boys, may get more would up than the dog and they feed off of each other. So, while tug is not a bad thing, the combo of your puppy and your boys might be!

Lots of good advice on the doorbell. I have two adult dogs with obedience titles and I still haven't figured out that one... :|

You hit the nail on the head in your post regarding the kid's behavior with the dog and I will start being more firm about these behaviors. STAY OFF THE FLOOR. the minute they get down on her level it's all over and their both rolling all over the floor playing rough. I do try to always shove one of her toys in her mouth and redirect and it is just making sure the kids are doing the same thing ALL the time. Thanks for the advice!

[voodoo]

prettu sure you are gonna need a collar and leash to train the no jumping on guests coming over. also teaching place is gonna take alot of time at least with my dog it does. the biting goes away with age, but you need to ignore, stop playing if he does get nippy. dont reward bad behavior. a timeout in crate when dog gets nippy is one of the tools I used.

[michael m]

I mentioned that you can use a "place" command when the doorbell rings or someone knocks at the door... that place could be the kennel/crate, if she is already trained to go to her kennel/crate on command. As with any place training, make sure to reward the dog at the spot you want her to go when guests arrive, the reward again for sitting quietly, then again while greeting guests in calm manner. The dog will probably learn quicker than you think.
Sorry I didn't mention sending your pup to "kennel/crate" in my first reply as it might save you some time and reduce additional training.
Michael