Hello everyone,
I have a 1 year old lab mix who is the most social and loving dog. He LOVES everyone. However the last two weeks I’ve noticed some changes in his behavior.
He has been more aggressive when barking at my neighbor and the UPS guy. He barks continuously and will even paw the ground will his hind legs pushing up grass as if it is a territorial move. He has never done this before (unless following going to the bathroom). He kept barking at my neighbor when she came to the property line to speak with me and would not stop. I’d sit him down and he would settle for a bit and then get up and return to barking at her. And it was not his usually playful bark. A few days ago we had friends come over and for the first time EVER he hid under the bed and acted scared of both of them, but once we took him outside he turned back into his playful self and we didn’t have any problems for the rest of the night. This behavior was extremely strange.
Now I will say that right before I noticed these Behaviors he did end up getting a bacterial infection on his two hind paws and has been on antibiotics for about a week. The neighbor incident happened while his feet were still very red and I can tell they made him sore and uncomfortable.
In addition to all this he is testing me with obedience. We use an ecollar and he typically responds really well to it. The last few days has been horrible and he ignores it more and more often. He also blew through our electric fence when another dog walking began a barking interaction. He was not agrressive towards this dog, but he never blew through the fence before. I had the company adjust his settings immediately after and although he hasn’t crossed the boundary fully, he has definitely been extremely close, specifically with the our neighbor.
any tips on how to get this under control before he spirals out of control? I love his personality and do not want him to become territorial. Also, any one think maybe the medicine or issue with his feet can be contributing to his weird behavior? Or is my dog going insane with quarantine?
