[growinupinfl]

My Lab Mix, Bergson is starting to act borderline crazy when people walk in the house, drive by the house, go to the neighbors. He is nolong Barking like crazy, fixating, growling.. His tail touches his undercarriage, and goes into fear/aggression stance.


He also is now pulling on his leash instead of walking next to me, and acting like he has no home training what so ever, not even sitting when told.

He has been perfectly fine on the leash since 8 weeks old. Has walked around the local college campus with me, and just let people walk by him. We do have other dogs in the house, and he is good with them. But now around strangers, neighbors, family he is acting like a butt.

I know he needs more activity than he has gotten this week with us being busy with Christmas. But could lack of activity really cause him to go off like this.

My daughter wonders if he is getting a testosterone surge that is making him more aggressive. Me and the vet do not want to neuter him until his is older because of the benefits of hormones on large breed dogs. I'm wondering if it because my daughters Pit Bull recently had puppies and he is feeling over protective? I don't know, but here is what we are doing now.

We are going to start obedience classes after the first of the year for him to get his good citizenship certification.

I am thinking if I work with some impulse control as listed in the sticky by Criosphynx it might lead him to think a little more.

Other than this behavior he is a very well behaved boy, he chews on his toys, an entire crate full of them. He is smart enough to actually pull them out one by one and what looks like categorizes them. I mean he will make a pile of bandannas, a pile of fuzzy toys, a pile of chew toys...He is house trained, goes to bed when told, and he follows other commands that it is weird for him to follow like "leave the bunny lettuce alone and go eat your own in the living room" and he goes to his lettuce in the living room and eats it. He figured out the foot petal on the dog food bin, we tell him leave the dog food alone, and he does. But this behavior he has started is insane and not tolerable.

Any ideas? I would appreciate it.. I put the link below to Bergs profile. I would appreciate any help you guys can offer. Because him going fear aggressive for every car that passes the house, even when he is in the house, neighbors walking by, sounds, people coming in the house is getting REALLY OLD really fast.

Berg the Mixed Breed

 

[LynneMarie]

Did it all start since the female was pregnant?
It could definitely be hormone related since he is not neutered and just now coming to that age. Does he hike or squat? Hiking a lot of times indicates male sexual maturity.

 

[kait18]

just a few questions before i attempt to give input...

what benefits exactly do you and your vet think he will have by neutering him later? truely have never heard of such a thing ... :/

how long has he been living with the unaltered female? is the male she was breed to in the house? is there any other unaltered male in the house?

does he have access to the puppies and momma?

did this start when the female was pregnant, after she gave birth, after any other signifcant change in the household other then the puppies (feeding schdule, walking schedule, new person moved into the home,etc)

i know you said he was fine before, but did he ever show any signs of uncomfort in any of the situations you mentioned earlier? it could be as small as locking eyes on something, going into freeze mode, dropping tail, dropping lower to the floor, etc)

those are just a few of my questions for now..

from just the op it seems as something major happened to him personally. not sure if it is truely a change in hormone levels which should not be taken lightly, but could be he just hit a stage where he has to be retaught everything... "SOME" puppies do go threw a stage where they forget some to all of the earlier training and have to be restarted as if they were taught nothing.

 

[idealistinfire]

I've heard that puppy fear stage is normal for many dogs, and it typically happens between 6 months to 1.5 years. I would research classic counter-conditioning techniques for reactive dogs and restart basic obedience and see if that helps.

 

[seebrown]

Could be lack of exercise + lots of changes in the house (xmas tree up, puppies, diff. schedule). My dog's reactiviy blew up after we moved states.

Has he always been insecure and it blew up, or is it completely unexpected? If unexpected, have you asked your vet about bloodwork and thyroid check?

 

[Shawsea]

I can see the flame war coming, and not even remotely saying this is the problem, just providing info in regards to idealistonfire's fear theory, Michael Ellis has a fairly brief lecture on Fear Development in puppies that might be of interest, it is mostly about correction but does cover enviromental stressors as well. I'm pretty sure it is on youtube.

 

[Tess]

He sounds very tense and stressed indeed.
Is the mother with pups in the same house with your lab?
I'd say yes, that could really add to the tension for him, along with the hassle of Christmas and the lack of exercise. Yes, just a few days of confinement can really bring out latent behaviors.
There are likely all sorts of scents and pheromones going on for him.

Hormones also are kicking in for your dog right now.

What do you do when he goes postal?

 

[growinupinfl]

Did it all start since the female was pregnant?
It could definitely be hormone related since he is not neutered and just now coming to that age. Does he hike or squat? Hiking a lot of times indicates male sexual maturity.

He still squats for the most part, occasionally hikes his leg when he watches our fixed female Papillon do it.

what benefits exactly do you and your vet think he will have by neutering him later? truely have never heard of such a thing ... :/

how long has he been living with the unaltered female? is the male she was breed to in the house? is there any other unaltered male in the house?

does he have access to the puppies and momma?

i know you said he was fine before, but did he ever show any signs of uncomfort in any of the situations you mentioned earlier?

Here is a study that explains why we are deciding to wait. There are various implications of increased cancer, and musculoskeletal disorders.



He has been living in the house with momma since he was 6 weeks old. They are buddies and play together up till two days before the puppies arrived. The male was just a breeder stud that does not live here.

He can see her when she goes potty, and walks around the house and back yard for exercise. He does see one of the puppies often because I have to bottle feed her, but Momma is cool with him being around the pup, and he has licked the puppies butt. Momma saw him and was ok.

He is the only unaltered male in the house. Everyone else is altered, he is also the only larger breed male. Momma is going to be altered soon as the puppies are weaned. I am not in the breeding business if you want to know how we came to having a pregnant dam please read my introduction letter

[URL="http://www.dogforum.com/introductions/hello-our-large-human-canine-packs-26082/"]http://www.dogforum.com/introductions/hello-our-large-human-canine-packs-26082/


The only sign he ever showed before once when we were walking on campus he growled at these two girls. He was cool with every other person that walked by, but these two, tail between the legs, he literally ran between my legs. Strange made me want to stay clear of those two also. No that is wrong he would get uncomfortable with people reaching for him, walking through door ways of unknown buildings and such.

I know that he would be more comfortable around people after a few miles of hiking through the woods. Then he is just like yeah whatever, I'm good.

idealistonfire's fear theory, Michael Ellis has a fairly brief lecture on Fear Development in puppies that might be of interest, it is mostly about correction but does cover environmental stressors as well. I'm pretty sure it is on YouTube.

I looked and there is a bunch of videos by him on fear and I will be looking at them. Being a psychology major I actually get the classical conditioning thing. But need some help on generalizing it outside of food and saliva.

I try calling him back, going over to him try to get him to make eye contact with me, which sometimes helps, hold him back, talk soothing to him, and when he is still flipping out because someone came over, I pick him up and put him in the back room, because the person coming over needs safety too..

Today we worked on impulse control, and let him run with his best puppy friend through ponds and puddles in the rain. Messy and happy, hopefully he will be happier, I guess time will tell.

 

[Shawsea]

@growinpupinfl, sent you an FR. I actually have the polar opposite problem but can forward links I think could be pertinent as I go: As for the reaction to the 2 girls, honestly if it is a rare thing I would concentrate on your other problems first, if it was all the time it's a problem, but even my Wolf Monster who feared nothing and loved people and dogs would go werewolf occasionally, for no apparent reason, just didn't like what she sensed.