[MayaTheLab]

Our 21 week old yellow lab has a few issues that we are having a hard time correcting. Jumping up on tables to snag gloves,papers, etc; chewing on shoes, and also chewing her harness/leash.

When we try to discipline her or establish dominance by putting her on her back or grabbing her head (not hard, just like another dog would do)- she thinks its playtime. So she gets a timeout in the crate and then she's right back to it. When she grabs something she is not supposed to have, we replace it with one of her toys. She gets alot of attention and near daily walks. We're working on training- she's got sit and crate real well, come is sporadic and down we're working on.

Anyone have any suggestions on how to better discipline her? I think she needs more dog socialization- she has no dog friends yet. She freaks out whenever she sees another dog while walking- not aggressive but very very enthusiastic.

[briteday]

You need to stop relying on methods learned from ...I don't know where but I'll take a guess, and sign up for some obedience classes taught by a professional.

I have had dogs all of my life. I am not the alpha or pack leader or anything else. But because food comes from my hand they know I am responsible for the resources that keep them alive. I respectfully schedule meals, feed them healthy food, exercise them daily, and put them in their crates at night. I believe we have a mutual respect for each other. I would do anything for them and they would lay down their lives for me. period.

So I think you need to change your attitude, discontinue the need for dominance, lay off the alpha rolling and body jabs (leave that to people on entertainment tv) and at least read some books or go to obedience classes so you can learn to understand life through a dog's eyes. Maybe then you will earn your dog's respect.

[Shalva]

Originally Posted by MayaTheLab

Our 21 week old yellow lab has a few issues that we are having a hard time correcting. Jumping up on tables to snag gloves,papers, etc; chewing on shoes, and also chewing her harness/leash.

When we try to discipline her or establish dominance by putting her on her back or grabbing her head (not hard, just like another dog would do)- she thinks its playtime. So she gets a timeout in the crate and then she's right back to it. When she grabs something she is not supposed to have, we replace it with one of her toys. She gets alot of attention and near daily walks. We're working on training- she's got sit and crate real well, come is sporadic and down we're working on.

Anyone have any suggestions on how to better discipline her? I think she needs more dog socialization- she has no dog friends yet. She freaks out whenever she sees another dog while walking- not aggressive but very very enthusiastic.

flipping a dog on his back or grabbing his neck is never a good idea..... we can try to discipline like a dog would but we are not dogs and those methods do more to harm your bond with your dog than anything..... and as you can see for many dogs it is a threatening position and it just serves to wind them up..... and at that moment she is getting your undivided attention so it can also be viewed as a reward..... she is playing you are not.... its kinda confusing .....

near daily walks what does that mean..... labs are active dogs and depending on her background this puppy could have alot of energy to burn off and NEAR daily walks are not nearly enough excercise..... you need to let her burn off some energy.... and that means doggy friends or going out and playing ball with her....

you also need to recognize that she is an adolescent and as such they get into things.....
It is your responsibility to keep shoes away from her and that means picking up shoes..... as far as stealing off counters.... I have a six month old golden who is into everything..... just today we were at the vet and he grabbed the vets stethoscope off the counter..... and was trying to grab papers.... etc. it is up to you to keep things out of reach..... if he can get to it while your not watching then he is being rewarded from grabbing things..... if he has something he shouldn't have .... then trade.... give him one of his toys in exchange for the thing he shouldn't have....... if he is going on the counter then make sure nothing is within reach.... when you catch him with his paws on the counter, a LOUD MAYA NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO and a yank off the counter is really going to make more of an impression..... you want to startle her.... or bang some pans together and yell MAYA NOOOOOOO and reward her with a pet for getting down....

the thing is you want to catch her doing good things and people are very quick to punish what they don't want but they aren't as good about praising for what they do want.....

I have right now the naughtiest puppy on the planet I can't believe how naughty he is..... at 5.5 mos. I caught him on top of my freezer the other day eating cat food.... but ya know if I leave stuff around for him to get into then its my fault ......

I would not flip her, I would not grab her neck.... you are not a dog.....

what I would do is startle her and make sure to praise her for doing good things...... and I would get her into training...... leave it would be a good one for her to know.....

get her more exercise and keep in perspective how old she is ..... I am constantly telling my puppy people to remember that a four month old puppy has been alive for 120 days......... thats not a long time.....
she is coming into her own..... and a tired puppy is a good puppy......
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[FilleBelle]

The "near daily walks" grabbed my attention, too. There is nothing that is truly this simple in life, but I betcha 90% of your problems with your pup stem from a lack of exercise. Labs are incredibly high energy and a few rounds of fetch just aren't going to wear them out. A walk of at least half an hour in the morning and another half an hour at night PLUS a few rounds of fetch in the yard is getting closer to what the dog needs.

I agree that a good step towards getting the dog to leave your gloves, papers, and shoes alone is to put your gloves, papers, and shoes where the dog can't get to them. The leash biting is a more difficult issue, though, in my opinion. Could you try a head harness? Harder to bite when you can't swing your head around so much!

[Shalva]

Originally Posted by FilleBelle

The "near daily walks" grabbed my attention, too. There is nothing that is truly this simple in life, but I betcha 90% of your problems with your pup stem from a lack of exercise. Labs are incredibly high energy and a few rounds of fetch just aren't going to wear them out. A walk of at least half an hour in the morning and another half an hour at night PLUS a few rounds of fetch in the yard is getting closer to what the dog needs.

I agree that a good step towards getting the dog to leave your gloves, papers, and shoes alone is to put your gloves, papers, and shoes where the dog can't get to them. The leash biting is a more difficult issue, though, in my opinion. Could you try a head harness? Harder to bite when you can't swing your head around so much!

head harness might be ok but I would be concerned about someone jerking the lead to get puppies attention and harming puppy.....
one thing for the walking is that with a retriever wanting to bite the lead is very common..... they like to have things in their mouths and I see this often with my retrievers.....

I soak my lead in bitter apple so it tastes terrible before we leave the house and that usually will take care of it pretty quick.....
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[FilleBelle]

Excellent point about the retrievers, Shalva. Now that you mention it, I have a neighbor with a young yellow Lab and he has the lead-biting problem, too (the Lab, not the neighbor). My neighbor gives him one of those orange cylinders that are used for training retrievers and the dog carries that during the walk. Can't put a leash in your mouth if there's a big piece of plastic in there instead!

[Shalva]

Originally Posted by FilleBelle

Excellent point about the retrievers, Shalva. Now that you mention it, I have a neighbor with a young yellow Lab and he has the lead-biting problem, too (the Lab, not the neighbor). My neighbor gives him one of those orange cylinders that are used for training retrievers and the dog carries that during the walk. Can't put a leash in your mouth if there's a big piece of plastic in there instead!

we use white and black instead of orange but yeah.... retrievers like having things in their mouths.

[TooneyDogs]

A long time ago I ran across a chart that showed how much exercise a high energy dog should get, a medium energy and low energy dog. I wish I still had it or even remember where I saw it but, I do remember the high energy requirement....12-17 miles every day. For the daily jogger, that's a perfect match.
Mine are now low energy...they're older...but, so am I.... and we only get in a 1-2 mile daily walk.

[FilleBelle]

Ohmigod, Tooney, I had a heart attack just reading that! I am so thankful my boy is such a couch potato. Even so, he was getting an hour in the morning and an hour at night prior to the ACL injury.

[Shalva]

Originally Posted by TooneyDogs

A long time ago I ran across a chart that showed how much exercise a high energy dog should get, a medium energy and low energy dog. I wish I still had it or even remember where I saw it but, I do remember the high energy requirement....12-17 miles every day. For the daily jogger, that's a perfect match.
Mine are now low energy...they're older...but, so am I.... and we only get in a 1-2 mile daily walk.

I have a high energy breed and am definitely not a jogger, we walk and play ball and stuff but I find that training and learning new things tires them out faster than almost anything else
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[AkiraleShiba]

I am not even supposed to have a high energy breed and I need to take him out for walks twice a day in addition to back yard play.

Rain, snow, subzero, you need to take your dog out. That way he will be quieter in your house.

Putting your dog on its back will only bring terror to your dog, you want him to listen to you because they respect you not because of fear.

[rosemaryninja]

Originally Posted by MayaTheLab

Our 21 week old yellow lab has a few issues that we are having a hard time correcting. Jumping up on tables to snag gloves,papers, etc; chewing on shoes, and also chewing her harness/leash.

At three months old this is not a sign of challenging the position for leadership in the household. At three months old this is trying to invent new games to play and trying to grab your attention.

When we try to discipline her or establish dominance by putting her on her back or grabbing her head (not hard, just like another dog would do)- she thinks its playtime.

Please don't do this to your dog. It's not at all a good way of teaching dominance and you are more likely to end up creating fear in your dog. It has been proven that the "alpha roll" is no longer relevant to domesticated dogs; so she doesn't understand you, she's just becoming afraid.

So she gets a timeout in the crate and then she's right back to it.

Timeouts in the crate are not a great idea; you don't want her to end up associating the crate with bad things. You can time her out by leashing her to the doorknob of a small bathroom or a separate room. You want the crate to be associated with safety and comfort.

When she grabs something she is not supposed to have, we replace it with one of her toys.

Be careful with the timing on this or you may actually be rewarding her behaviour! Read the sticky in the "First time dog owners" forum on getting your puppy a toy box, it will be quite effective in training your pup to keep out of your stuff.

[/quote]She gets alot of attention and near daily walks. We're working on training- she's got sit and crate real well, come is sporadic and down we're working on. [/quote]

When a dog is bored, she will look for things to do, and that most likely means destroying your things, getting into trouble or even in some cases, running away. You need to tire out your dog sufficiently so that she feels physically and mentally stimulated, and not bored. Even lots of cuddling and attention at home will not occupy her as well as a nice half-hour walk around the neighbourhood. I'm pretty certain that two of these a day will cut down on a lot of the bad behaviour you've been seeing.

Anyone have any suggestions on how to better discipline her?

Physical force should rarely be used in dog training and even if it is, it should certainly only be used by professionals (because timing is key when applying physical force to encourage/discourage a behaviour) and it should not be used on puppies. Try to concentrate more on body language and tone of voice. Dogs understand this better than you think, and certainly better than they understand a human grabbing them and rolling them on their back.

I think she needs more dog socialization- she has no dog friends yet. She freaks out whenever she sees another dog while walking- not aggressive but very very enthusiastic.

Yup, why not take her to the nearest dog park? It will be a great way for her to meet new dogs, increase her level of socialisation and burn off some of that energy as well.

[celestine]

Hello Everyone.
I kind of have a similar problem. I have a 5 month old rottweiler and he is a ball of energy. At home he is crazy! In public, he is well-behaved. Never barks at other dogs, doesn't pull on the leash, has very good dog manners. But at home he is psycho. Running all over the house, lying on top of the cats (most of the time he'll throw, I mean literally, throw himself on top of one of the pet beds. And when I ask him what he's doing and he gets up, I find there has been a cat beneath him. I'm working on his training. I take him for daily walks...I had to stop for a while because I was sick...but we're picking it back up again. He is a very quick learner. He knows sit, down, wait, come, up (to bring him to a sitting position from lying down) and bring it. We're working on others. But he's so hyper with his brother. My other dog is much older and doesn't want to play. He's never been a frisky dog. He is a pit/chow/gsd mix and would rather lie in the pool on a float. He's 7 years old. I haven't gotten the rott pup fixed yet. I was hoping to wait until he was a little closer to maturing.
I do realize it was foolish to get a male dog since we already had one. They are both very dominant. This is a problem. They will never be allowed to be left alone while no one is supervising them. I don't want a fight in the future.

But what am I to do with them? It was my husbands decision to get a rottweiler. It was his breed of choice. I did my research before we got him so I know about the breed (plus I dog sat some rotts as a side job for an animal clinic). My question is...what do I do with the excess energy? I've scheduled a friend to meet us for some puppy play time (she has a 1 yr old great pyr/lab mix), I take the dogs separately for walks, he does sleep in his crate and other times when he can't be watched. He gets a lot of affection, but it has to be dished out equally to both. When our older dog wants to be left alone, the puppy keeps jumping on him...even when he's been given a warning nip. How can I stop him from doing that? He doesn't care if you give him time out or not. He will do the same thing once he's done his "time". Any suggestions or questions are appreciated. Thanks!!!

[MayaTheLab]

Thanks for all your replies I appreciate it.

We do need to exercise her more I know that but we do what we can within our schedules. I bought an easy walk harness last week and that made a big difference in her on the walks. I also want to get my friends 1.5 year old lab over for some playtime.
I do have her respect, she follows me all over the house. Training is going well, use plenty of treats for that. She's up to 26 pounds and looking good.

We have a toybox upstairs and will put one on the first floor as well- good tip on that. Also thanks about leashing her in another room instead of the crate. When we put her in there for a timeout it is never for more than a few minutes and it is not leading her there, I use the command 'crate' and she goes there herself.

[Shalva]

let me just say that I DO use my crate for time out..... to me there is a difference between angrily throwing puppy in the crate and giving an overstimulated puppy a time out...... so I do use the crate for an overstimulated puppy it has a kong in it and it gives pup a chance to chill out.....

everyone can only do what they can do as far as time and walking .... having your neighbors come would be a good idea if the dogs get along .... but my suggestion would be to train your dog...... and I don't mean like class I know you have done that..... but a thinking dog is a tired dog.... I have flat coated retrievers who are generally a bit higher energy than a lab adn we don't have growing up to look forward to as they don't genearally grow up..... so I spend time teaching them things.....

the dogs dont know that learning to touch the bottom step with their nose is not useful behavior..... they don't know that learning to spin is not useful..... they don't know that playing dead when I shoot them with a finger is just silly or raising their paw for a treat is just a trick..... yet the learning process wears them out..... and they relax better after 20 minutes of training than the longest walk in the world (you can't tire this breed out with a 4 hour walk, at our farm we throw a bumper (the black and white plastic thing in meghans mouth) up a very very high steep embankment, probably 150 feet through high hay to tire them out when we are at my in laws and they tire for a few minutes but then are raring to go again).......but training will help to tire them out.

good luck labs can be tough dogs..... when they grow up they can be nice dogs but they can be tough, I wish more people knew this.
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