Small issues and one big one.

[5-Salt]

Big issue:
My 2yr YLM has become agressive toward smaller children of the neighborhood over past 2-3months. No problem with my 9yr old daughter -ever. But when other kids 6-7yrs or younger approach him you can see him tense up and as they draw closer the heckles come up and when they are with in 1-2m he escalated to low growling or retreats.

Prior to 3months ago zero issues...I mean zero. Typical lab friendly to everyone.

About 3 months ago, he was heeled at my side in the house and we were chatting with the neighbors when he lunged at their 5yr old boy as the boy strolled by...no growl, no warning, no nothing.... I thumped him proper and he spent the night in the garage. I felt like crap afterward both for him and the neightbor boy.
I need to get this one under controll quickly before he get himself in real trouble. Presently, he has taken to moving away from kid he doesn't normally play with. When in the house we started introducing him children laying down completely with a lot of petting and affection from the child of is frustration and myself in hopes he will begin to associate fun with kids again. Spoke with breeder - no problem with any of his brothers or sisters so I figure it must be something I am doing.


Small issues:

Bumper handling... lately he has taken to cigar carrying bumpers and gets droppy as he heels in from retreive. First 2-3 retreives no problems but from there it gets sloppier and sloppier. He has been FF'd. Sometime I get so frustrated I cut trainging short and he walks home holding the bumper the entire time...rookie move I think but I don't what else to do.

Second, his lines are slowly getting sloppier and more random with each passing week. This is particularly the case on the return with him veering 10-15m to the my left. I have begun stopping him and giving him an over to get him back online, which when he arrives on theline he immediately turns and runs straight in.

Currenly we are working dbl T's and he is getting it very quickly.

Thanks for the help.

[Anna Scott]

Not sure how to help with the first issue other tan suggesting you get a copy of Brian Killcommon's book called How to Childproof Your Dog. Brian's book give you sensible no nonsences approaches to dog training. He also has one called Good Owers Great Dogs. Being childless the one thig I never do is leave my dogs unsupervised if there are children around. The girls love kids but you just never know, they are dogs and they have teeth.

[luvmylabs]

Is it when you are doing the TT that he gets this way? If so, there may be a couple of reasons. One is if he is not in good condition, he may be getting tired after 2 or 3 sends and this tends to make him sloppy holding the bumper. Other thing may be that he just dislikes drills and is bored. That will also cause sloppiness. With the wide lines back to you, has he been burned in that area during a drill? If so, you may have created a hot spot and he is trying to avoid it. As far as the aggression, don't have an answer. Did something happen recently? Did a child hurt him accidently? It could also be a dominance thing. Looking for his space in the pecking order. If he is in tact, he may be showing a male dominance thing. If it persists and you can't fix it, neutering may be the only answer. Best of luck with your problems.

Anne

[Tim]

I don't know if this will help, but my parents used to train dogs for obedience when I was a kid and they would never get angry with me or my brothers when the dogs were around. They said that the dog would learn to deal with others from their example since they were the alpha. Now this may be just BS or old school but if all else fails it may be something to watch for.

[5-Salt]

I don't know if this will help, but my parents used to train dogs for obedience when I was a kid and they would never get angry with me or my brothers when the dogs were around. They said that the dog would learn to deal with others from their example since they were the alpha. Now this may be just BS or old school but if all else fails it may be something to watch for.


Really Good thought - I have been pretty short tempered lately due to lack of sleep from crazy work schedule. I know I have been hard on everyone of late and I am sure the dog is struggling with like the rest of us.

Good news is...yesterday and today the dog has really warmed up to two smaller neighbor boys who were the biggest problem. They now receive the full tail wag, please please please pet me welcome from dog as is his normal temperment.

We've worked really hard to create positive experience for dog every time he's around other children over past three weeks. Lots of praise and affection everytime dog came in contact with kids appears to building the right state of mind for all concerned - a complete opposit of previous weeks.

I fear he was maybe rough handled by previous owner as a result of their children perhaps. Compounding matters, he is so well behaved/trained that all neighbor kids took extreme delight in giving commands all the day and perhaps he had his fill off being ordered around. We are now back to only me/daughter working dog with particular emphasis on his being left to rest and relax when it's his time. My daughter can be a bit of a task master at times so a lot emphasis on being respectful and not giving the dog a job just because you can.

On this issue, I think we need to remain ever vigilant but we definately on the road to happy dog/kids relations.

Thanks for your comment

[5-Salt]

Is it when you are doing the TT that he gets this way? If so, there may be a couple of reasons. One is if he is not in good condition, he may be getting tired after 2 or 3 sends and this tends to make him sloppy holding the bumper. Other thing may be that he just dislikes drills and is bored. That will also cause sloppiness. With the wide lines back to you, has he been burned in that area during a drill? If so, you may have created a hot spot and he is trying to avoid it. As far as the aggression, don't have an answer. Did something happen recently? Did a child hurt him accidently? It could also be a dominance thing. Looking for his space in the pecking order. If he is in tact, he may be showing a male dominance thing. If it persists and you can't fix it, neutering may be the only answer. Best of luck with your problems.

Anne


Conditioning is not a problem as his worked 5-6days a week plus lots of bike ride runs and fun play. I think he could win a race at the dog track as fast as he runs. Might be warmer weather is adding to his work/mental load?

He definately is in-tact. As well, his brother also exhibits some small dominance issues from time to time according to breeder. I remember the day we picked him up, my daughter was running him back to piles at breeder's kennel. After they were done the dog bumped her to the ground and sat on her. My daughter gave him a light thump and put him right back to work - since then he has alway been very respectful of her but, no doubt he likes to stretch the envelop with new member to the pack. I hoping to not have to neuter - his dad is FC & AFC and his mom earned her master hunter by 21months old - when he finishes his tests he will make a good stud and I would definately like to have one of his pups for next addition to our family.

Bored on drills may be case..not sure what to do as we are working on new stuff at present. He definately learns fast and I am a rookie trainer so that is likely the case. Any Sugestions??

Burn question you raise, is that a location specific thing (place of training) or location specific to the drill itself? Sometimes is the past I have nicked him on low setting we he cheats the bank of goes around an obstacle but it's pretty rare as I saving those line clean up issue until we master much of the current works. The place I train is a 100acre grass seed field that look identical from one end to the next so I have chaulked his outbound line issue as his lack a clear target to drive to - the return line however he has me as landmark thus my question.

[luvmylabs]

I was wondering, since you are doing TT, whether when you forced him your timing might not have been exact and you created a hot spot where he got forced. Hot spots are usually location related. If the dog got a burn in a specific spot and did not understand why, they will flare away from that spot for a long time afterward. Sometimes it is not boredom so much as just disliking drills. Our male learned things really fast but hated drills. Would do the drill right the first time and then would mess up the repeat every time. That could account for your sloppy holds. That was one of our male's favourite tricks when sick of a drill. What I did with that problem is throw a couple of happy bumpers part way through the drill. Happy's them up and takes their mind off how much they dislike the drill. You can usually tell when they are starting to lose interest or are getting bored. I had one female that was bored enough with the TT I had to change locations. After that she breezed through the rest of the TT with no more problems. If you find yourself stuck on a particular thing, change locations. That has worked for me a couple of times.
I'm glad the aggression is disappearing. Only thing I would be concerned with breeding him is whether this is something that runs through that line and any pup you get have the same aggression issues. If both brothers were raised by the same person, it might be environmental but if raised by different people, I would be concerned that this trait might appear in any pups he bred. Good luck.

Anne

[5-Salt]

I really haven't had to force him to go. Sometimes I give a nick or low volume constant to get him to sit at the T rather than his hard turn and continuing on to the bumper.

He learns so quick and has a ton of drive. I need to slow him down so he sits and take the correct over instead of the one he chooses. Beyond that never really hit the collar. Of late his has been so good about not breaking or if he does, he comes right back after about 4 steps with an ack or no.

I just think he like to big round up so when he comes to heel he doesn't have to slow up any. For the longest time he would pop my knee or step on my foot when came in. So finally, I start popping him in the chest with my knee as it was just a matter of time before he injured was going to hype-extend my knee. That and I would step on his foot gently to get the point across. Over time he just seems to be getting a little round and rounder and beginning to a nuisance.

I think I need to set up a 150-200yrd corridor with a couple obstacles to get him back to the fundementals -start him in close and stretch him out until he gets it right. I need to work the same issue on bank cheating on his returnsas well. Land or water his pretty clean and straight on the outbound.

[browndog]

One thing I had to do during the DT was move to a new field. My pup was running wide on the way out and on the return and also popping at the short T. Once I went to the new field (big parking lot actually as it was winter and most spots were covered with snow!) there was no problems and we finished up the DT in a couple of days.

Hope the aggressiveness to kids is still cleared up - sounds like you got some good advice from the others.