Archived Forums

You're welcome. I lurk around here quite often. Ping me if you want to. But, most importantly, stay calm. Your DH sounds very sensible (and never underestimate the DH!). So chill and if you think that I can help then ping me. Peahen,

We have a Staffordshire Bull Terrier who was a year old when we got her, and we haven’t managed to train her terribly well. Our agency said we would have to get her assessed as a matter of course. The trainer / assessor they sent out gave her a glowing report. Our AS is very jealous of her and has thumped her twice as well as fallen on her while she was asleep in her basket (she looked surprised but fortunately remained docile each time). I love dogs but would never trust one not to bite if it felt threatened. The best advice I’d give is to find someone in your wider circle who’d be prepared - really prepared - to take in your dog if your child was cruel to it, and also get your dog trainer to give you advice on integrating your child to the household. The dog needs to know its place at the bottom of the pack and the trainer can give useful tips as well as helping the child recognise dog body language. Good luck with it all :-)

Hello, ok we have a lovely lab retriever cross and he loves to greet everyone. He rarely jumps up. Now, he’s a specially trained working assistance dog. The training re door is like this. Put a mat down so he can see the door from it. Get him used to the mat, make it lovely with a toy, a friendly tummy rub, a chew etc just use it with him any time of day Then practice telling him to sit and ideally lie down on the mat. If he does it heap on the praise & give a small treat (bit of banana or carrot & sausage piece if he does it brilliantly, then make it harder to achieve so he gets a sausage piece only if he does it 3 times brilliantly. ) Then get your hubby to practice ringing the bell outside. You tell you dog to go to his mat and down and new word WAIT. Sit in front of him and his mat and give him a tiny bit of eg shredded chicken on his mat. Let dh us his key and come in and you just focus on your dog- waiiiiit waaaiiiiiit wait. Each tiny shredded bit given to your dog as long as he is lying on that mat. When dh is in the lounge settled, clip on your dogs lead and take him to say hello to dh and then run him in the garden with his ball etc. Lots of praise. Next after he’s done that ok a few times You and dh swap roles. Then you start getting a friend to do the bell and you answer it, getting your dog in position first. Keep saying Waaaait using the same long and low tone you used before. Dh sits with dog next to his mat. When he doesn’t bounce the visitor then he gets a little pile of chicken at the end :) I’m sure a good dog trainer will help you with all this stuff. Labs are often bright dogs and they actually enjoy having a bit of a task to do.

I had a small dog who was similar to your description of your lab, fine except with people who encouraged the jumping and that little bit of encouragement then panned out into jumping at others in other situations for a while after they'd been. bottom line though, if the dog is still jumping at people who encourage it he/she needs to be trained out of that as, from your description, he then feels encouraged to continue that when out and about. my son is terrified of big dogs entirely becoz when out for a walk with our own small dog a big dog was allowed to run at him and knock him over as a teenager (albeit a very small growth restricted teenager) and that dogs owner said its ok, he wont hurt him. well, actually yes, he was hurt, not physically but its taken me another decade to help him regain his confidence around dogs. its not a deal breaker in adoption, labs are particularly intelligent dogs I think and very trainable, but would say that the jumping, whoever its with, needs to be attended to, and i'd suggest someone who is experienced and qualified in dog training rather than other friends with experience. and echo the long walk, as long as it energises hubby and you and doesn't send you to sleep like you're hoping for the dog!!

Sorry im a wee bit late to this party but as we have recently adopted and have an older but very friendly lab i thought i would share. we did most of the things suggested but we did let our dog greet the guests as we normally would but under control. He was assessed initially at our very first home visit by a senior SW. He saw how friendly he was and that he settled after visitors came into the house although he does like the attention, but he does eventually go and lie down especially if we give him a bone to chew on. This is a huge change for your dog but as long as they are part of the transition process i am sure they will be fine. our lab is 8 now and has grown out of many of the behaviors and habits you have described, but this will not necessary help you for the initial home visits. however the more your SW is in and out of your house the better as they will get to know your dog and your dog them. Our dog was a concern for me as he means so much to us and there is no way we could be parted from him, but so far it has all worked out well so far and my fur kid and new little one adore each other, he really helped settle him in the early days. Good luck.