Hey everyone. I have a 12-week old lab named Dexter. We've had him for a month now.
Most of the time, he's a good boy who likes to cuddle, play, and sleep. However, sometimes, he gets really aggressive with me and my family members. Or at least, we think it is aggressive. He's been extremely aggressive and worked up three times. Once he even was growling loudly and baring his teeth and bit me quite a few times, enough to make me bleed in a few different spots. Whenever he is told 'no' or 'leave it' when he's chewing on something he's not supposed to or getting into something, he gets really upset and growls, smacking his jaws. You can hear them clap, even. He sits there smacking his jaws at you for a few minutes, and then if you get up, he'll chase you. He bites our ankles, clothing (he's ripped holes in quite a few different items of my clothing) and legs. He also tries to jump and bite your face, arms, and legs. It's extremely painful and he's growling the entire time. It's really concerning to our family, and we're close to giving up. Trainers have recommended things that just don't work. We've given him time outs, held his mouth and said 'no' firmly (this only seems to make it worse, though, so we don't anymore), gave him a pat on the bum with a newspaper or folded towel. We've stood up and made ourselves look as large as possible and said 'no' firmly and didn't back away. We've remained calm with him and just been firm, but none of it works. He tries to bite our faces and it's really scary. He can't do this when he's older, and we want to keep him, but we all feel so helpless. He's a big boy now (almost 30 lbs.) and getting bigger every day. It's frightening.
Oh, and he also gets two LONG walks every day. 45 min. to an hour and he's absolutely exhausted for a few hours after. He also gets time to play inside and outside in our back yard, so I really don't think it's a problem with exercise or boredom.
Any tips or suggestions on how to deal with this? It's hard to replicate in front of a trainer so none of them have seen it in action, because he doesn't do it so often. However, it is seeming to get worse. He's terrorizing our family and being a brat. Please help!
P.S., hope i'm posting this in the right forum! I'm new here.
Most of the time, he's a good boy who likes to cuddle, play, and sleep. However, sometimes, he gets really aggressive with me and my family members. Or at least, we think it is aggressive. He's been extremely aggressive and worked up three times. Once he even was growling loudly and baring his teeth and bit me quite a few times, enough to make me bleed in a few different spots. Whenever he is told 'no' or 'leave it' when he's chewing on something he's not supposed to or getting into something, he gets really upset and growls, smacking his jaws. You can hear them clap, even. He sits there smacking his jaws at you for a few minutes, and then if you get up, he'll chase you. He bites our ankles, clothing (he's ripped holes in quite a few different items of my clothing) and legs. He also tries to jump and bite your face, arms, and legs. It's extremely painful and he's growling the entire time. It's really concerning to our family, and we're close to giving up. Trainers have recommended things that just don't work. We've given him time outs, held his mouth and said 'no' firmly (this only seems to make it worse, though, so we don't anymore), gave him a pat on the bum with a newspaper or folded towel. We've stood up and made ourselves look as large as possible and said 'no' firmly and didn't back away. We've remained calm with him and just been firm, but none of it works. He tries to bite our faces and it's really scary. He can't do this when he's older, and we want to keep him, but we all feel so helpless. He's a big boy now (almost 30 lbs.) and getting bigger every day. It's frightening.
Oh, and he also gets two LONG walks every day. 45 min. to an hour and he's absolutely exhausted for a few hours after. He also gets time to play inside and outside in our back yard, so I really don't think it's a problem with exercise or boredom.
Any tips or suggestions on how to deal with this? It's hard to replicate in front of a trainer so none of them have seen it in action, because he doesn't do it so often. However, it is seeming to get worse. He's terrorizing our family and being a brat. Please help!
P.S., hope i'm posting this in the right forum! I'm new here.