Labrador Fears and Phobias

HI we have a 5 yr old female black lab who has over the last few months become very unwilling to go for walks, to the point where we are now literally dragging her out of the house. She is ok if we take her out in the car somewhere and on runs, but we think something has spooked her and she has totally changed behavior if we try to even get her out just to go to the toilet – wont play in the park with the ball etc and looks around nervously all time. We just came bk from a camping holiday and she was fine the whole time. Its becoming stressful for us and the dog, not sure what to do! she is very healthy and doesnt appear to be sick/in pain!. thanks

I have a 12 week old yellow lab puppy. He does not seem to want to eat any of his food, all he wants to do is drink water. (He gets his regular meals and water as needed) This hasn’t became an issue until this week. I bought him a exercise pen that he can also get to his kennel in so he is not couped up all day. When I come home from work he is all over me for the first hour then when I try to play with him he just sits there and looks at me like he is in trouble or something and runs off to his kennel or his bed and will go to sleep. he doesn’t respond to “come” when we are inside but when I take him outside to go to the bathroom he follows me around constantly and won’t do his business. I ignore him like he isn’t there so I don’t distract him but he seems to want to be as near as possible as he can. Idk what to do and wondering if he is developing separation anxiety. What do you think?

Hi, i have a 5 month old Springador (lab X springer spaniel) he has such a good temperment hes toilet trained fully, he doesnt bark or howl when left hes honestly perfect !! We do have one problem though and its something i never thought with his breed id have. He hates going out for walks, if he sees his harness and lead he will run away and hide or cower he seems to think its a bad thing. We then have to drag him out the door and off our street until hes normal again. Please help xxxx

Hi pippa,
I have a similar problem as yansita above. My Fox red male -Ollie is 22 months old. He has a wonderful nature and has shown no signs of aggression towards both dogs and people. He is always keen to make friends. He was bite by a large black dog approaching his 1st birthday and has experienced regular aggression from other dogs since from growling, snapping and attempts to bite him, even from dogs that have previously played with him. He has never retaliated not even growled. He has not been neutered as he has shown no aggression or excessive humping. Could it be his smell? He tends to make himself tall but his hairs never stand in end. Would having him neutered help. It worries me that eventually he will snap and it is really spoiling our outings.

Hi,

I have an 18 month old lab who this winter has started to bark at young children or people with push chairs or wheelchairs (at any time of day) and also anyone we come across on a walk in the dark. He’s a big softy but actually when he does this he can easily scare people (especially with parents with children!) it’s embarrassing but not sure why he’s doing it. I must admit I am a bit more nervous in the dark – is he picking up on this?! How can I prevent or stop this behaviour? Thank you 🙂

I have a 5 year old lab I adopted from the shelter a few months back, she’s adjusted to home life just fine but for some reason she wont bond or accept my dad into the “pack” so to speak… What can I do to help her accept him? I’m really desperate right now because it’s come to the point to where my dad is wanting me to get rid of her… PLEASE HELP!!!!!

I have a 1 1/2 year old male lab that is the definition of a mans best friend. He is loyal to me as well as very social to dogs that he knows. I have a problem taking him outside or walking him and another person or dogs comes around. When he firsts sees another human or dog he growls and barks in a deep bark. He will charge them while growling and his hair on his back sticks up like he is showing aggression. When the human or dog confronts him or he gets close to them, he becomes very submissive and his tail will go right between his legs. I get nervous that someone will call on him because at first sight he looks extremely aggressive. I’ve noticed since he has gotten older he will listen to me and won’t charge anymore but still growls and barks in a deep manner with his hair sticking up. I know anything you read about aggressive dogs is that the hair on his back will raises and my labs always does. Anyway to make him more relaxed or comfortable. I take him to play with multiple dogs and their owners and he still does this to new neighbors or new company.

Hello , I have a 6 months black lab . My problem is that he won’t pee outside the house , he would easily poop but peeing he would never do it . The other thing is that he is scared a lot , sometimes from cats, other dogs, and even people. anything who would approach him somehow in a faster pace than normal, is that normal , please assist if possible.

I have a 13 week chocolate lab puppy that we’ve had since 7 weeks of age. We have brought him everywhere with us since we’ve gotten him (our children’s practices & games) to socialize him. The last couple of weeks we’ve had some down time and now he seems to have developed a fear of men. He loves my husband but will not let any other guy pet him. What do we do?

Hi, I have a 10 month old red fox labrador, Lottie, who I’ve had from 10 weeks old. She is a lovely puppy, who fit in right from day one & is quite a chilled out puppy. I am in a wheelchair & she adapted brilliantly. I did all the necessary socialising early on but she was always shy with strangers from the start, almost indifferent, she’d go & lay down & not be excited at meeting new people which I thought unusual but not worrisome. I lead a quiet life so not lots of visitors so now when someone visits who she doesn’t know, she barks & it can be man, woman or child. She is more protective at home. She can be sociable on walks but will sometimes hide behind me. She is very sociable with all dogs. I just want her to be an all round confident dog.

I have a 9year old black lab we have had since he was a puppy. In the last 6months he has started biting. Just little warning nips, doesn’t break the skin and never to members of the household, it has been to people visiting. No aggression, they give him an instruction and he turns and nips them. I don’t know where this is coming from, he has always been a very calm, loving good natured dog.

Hi we have a 8 month old black male lab that is terrified of aircraft noise & motorbike noise. After going through our vets, they have referred us to a specialist. He is now on medication and a training program.We would really like to chat with other dog owners that have the same problem?

Hey there,
Great advice and now I need some help. Just adopted a 9 month old lab retriever mix on Saturday (the other day) and she has been so scared. She was rescued from a high kill shelter in GA, and transported for adoption in PA. We don’t know any prior history that she’s had up until now.

When we picked her up, she had to be carried from the transporter to the car, from the car to the house. She has pooped and peed in the spot we’ve originally put her in… We’ve taken her out to our garden, but she only hid in the grass.

She has eaten when we’re not around, but hasn’t drunk much water. We sit with her, speak to her in a higher pitched, nice tone. But she’s still trying to hide her face into the wall sometimes. How can we help her get used to us, and become acclimated?

Hi, I have a 10 month old yellow lab , he is called Marley he is so playful , loving , greedy, he genuraly loves everyone, apart from a young girl who is 8 yrs old. As she is a neighbour he does see her a lot , but she has a dissability when he sees her he hides behind me barks and barks at her his hair stands up he is the total opposite to how he is with everyone else im just wondering why this is ! please help

Hi we have a beautiful golden 5mth old Labrador x golden retriever puppy. She is very smart and great during the day but of an afternoon evening if we aren’t home (4pm onwards) even if we have only just ducked out to the shops, she starts howling until we come home. We have tried bones or treat balls but she really doesn’t like being outside of an evening. Is there anything we can do to get her to stop howling, other then having a neighbour come round? Or would it be better for us to bring her inside (she has a special bed she sleeps on in our laundry but knows that inside wherever her bed is that’s her ‘place’). She is our first and is really placid by nature and great with our kids.

we have a 2.5 year old lab he is just the most amazing dog in the world but my GOD he won’t stop barking. as soon as someone drive into driveway he starts…which is fine but he wont stop when told too. Also we just go a new lab puppy and our 2.5 year old is scared of her. he is slowly more interested as in he will sniff her if she is behind her crate but they have not played together and when she runs to get him he runs away. advise?

Hi!! I have a lab/collie mix. She is two this year and we just barely adopted her because I was a volunteer at the shelter where she was and we bonded over time. My finally decided to adopt her knowing that she is scared of people. We have brought her to malls, parks, public swimming pool, and expos for pets. She is still scared of people and it would take her 2 months to warm up to someone and that’s if she see them every day. So what do we do? She’s an amazing/ smart/silly dog and she’s perfect is just that I don’t want her to be scared. She can walk perfectly on a leash and knows all commands even some tricks it’s only if someone comes up to her then she will not listen to me. Help please???

We have a chocolate lab who has become terrified of “bad” weather! We’ve never had a problem until about month or so ago…. I don’t know why this has started because we’ve never had this problem until recently . Any help with this would greatly be appreciated!!

Hi, I have a 15 month chocolate lab who has become scared of raised voices (ie an argument in the home) or a change in tone. She will very quickly take herself away from the situation and has begun shaking when she finds herself in these situations. HELP Pleaseeee.. Thank you 🙂

Hi there,
i have a black lab – 6 months old. We have problems when we go for a walk with older dogs, that seems to attack him no matter what he is doing. Is this a common problem or just my dog smells funny 🙂 Also we were attacked by 2 huge dogs (Cane corso) that injured badly my husbant because of the dog.

Thank you 🙂

Hi
We have a 6 year old lab (male) who my daughter who wascavet nurse brought home as approx 8 week puppy stray. He is our third family dog and for his first two years we also had a collie/lab cross (9years when ee had the puppy) . We went to puppy training with him nd he is well socialised, an absolute joy to have, apart fom he barks lot at home. During the last two days he has become exceedingly strange. He ran off from my ife whilst on his walk and ran home, never any problem bfore , recall always perfect. Now this morning trying to hide and will not come to eithr of us, growled at me my wife and barked at me?
No changes at home or routine, no one has harmed him or shouted at him? Any ideas before I take him to vets for a check up.
(P.s. he had his annual lpto jab last week?)

My choc lab is about 21 months old. The first time he went on a bus he was fine just layer loving saying hello to everyone as they walked past. But ever since it’s an impossible battle to get him on a bus or in a black taxi. Which is hard because my wife doesn’t want always leave him home if I have the car at work. Not even his favorite food tempts him. Any help would be great. Ps he has no problem getting in our car

My black lab has recently become kind of hostile. It all started when we all became a part of a new living situation and the arrival of a new irritating dog. Before all of this he was a great dog, great with everybody. Now I don’t want him around me, quite frankly I’ve become a little afraid of what he’s going to do. He’s not “my dog” per se, but I do want my buddy back. Please advise me on my next steps.

Hello,
I’m raising a yellow lab puppy for Leader Dog for the Blind. He’s 13 months old and is still having accidents, in the house and recently in his kennel (which hasn’t happened since he was a few months old). The vets at Leader Dog neutered him 2 months ago thinking that would fix the problem (they usually don’t neuter their puppies until 13-16 months of age, in case they want to breed). He literally has to pee every 30 minutes, still, if not more often than that. They have tested his urine and found nothing abnormal. They have recommended measuring and limiting his water, which we do but nothing is helping, and it seems to be getting worse. I have another dog at home (a jack Russell) who has pretty bad anxiety. I’m wondering if he has anxiety as well and it has to do with him having accidents. Any help is appreciated.

I have a one year old lab collie cross and for the past year she will not go out for a walk.she wants to nut as soon as we opened the door she wants to come back pulling and crying we have been to vets nothing medically wrong and have even tried anxiety pills still didn’t work .she will go to a field and walk though.we are getting very frustrated and I think the dog is aswell.

i have a female lab abt 3 years old…she always want two persons with her while going for a walk….
is there any solution for her habit??

I have a 9 year old black lab who I am not sure if he is over excited in the car but he licks the windows as we are driving down the road and just drools. It is gross! I won’t even let him in my car anymore. Is is anxiety or excitement? What can I do about it?

Hi! I have a 9 month old Labrador who is very amicable to all. He does’nt even bark at strangers when they enter our house But barks at small children who run around.
And then he does’nt even bark back when the streetdogs do. He seeks for friendship to them. Please Help me! Lemme know what We should do to change him! I’m Helpless…

Hi,
I hope you can help, we’ve got what appears to be a very unhappy 9 year old female Lab.
She belongs to my mother in law who is very worried.
Her behavouir is strange when someone stands by or touches the windows… she will grab something ( a shoe or toy) and circle around the house with a huff?
Lately she has been trying to dig in the corner of the bathroom? She will be happy in the garden or with the family then will get up and go and dig in the bathroom corner, when she was moved out of the bathroom she would start in the living room and so on…. Eventually she fell asleep in the garden for 2 hours after this digging attempt which lasted about 2 hours.
Also reports of her being able to walk down the garden path but if a flower is sticking out at her head height this will scare her as if she didnt see it was there?.
My poor mother in law is so worried about her, she does’nt feel taking her to the vets and saying ‘ She is mad, or losing the plot’ because she is digging will help as the vets will judge.
In the 9 years we’ve had her this behavouir has only started in the last year, before we’ve never noticed anything of this sort.
We know she hasnt lost her sight and can still hear prefectly well.
Any tips to help her live out her elderly years as happy as can be will be a much needed helping hand 🙂
Thank you,

Hi there,
I have 22month old yellow lab, who barks at 6 in the morning, and 11 at night. We have tried spraying him and telling him command ‘no noise’ however, this doesn’t seem to be working.
He is our first dog and he was done just before he turned 1. Everything seemed to be calming down, we managed to stop his jumping up and him from being hyper, but then he started chasing cyclists, joggers, going for mopeds and trucks. He has also lunged at a bus before, and seems to have a terrible fear of tyres or anything that moves and we have no clue as to why! We cant stand and talk to one of the ladies from the park without him being naughty, while her lab sits there nicely and just watches.
He still pulls on the lead, while we go to dog training, he’s fine on the lead in the hall, as soon as he’s out the hall its back to normal. We have tried a harness, a halti, treats on his nose, a short lead, a bungee lead and an flexi lead. Nothing seems to be working.
I personally don’t agree with full choke chains, but have looked into a half choke, and I still don’t like the idea of it.

Please, we need some advice!
Jess

Sir I have 7 month old golden female lab .shi is not barking at unknown person either shi try to go near them and mouthing how to teach her to bark at unknwn person….?

I have an 8 year old chocolate lab whos always been very social and kind with everyone, I live with my parents and recently went away for a week leaving her with them, while i was gone she took up a habit of grabbing her toys and walking around the house crying, ive been home a week now and its still continuing, i take her on walks and drives and shes fine till we get back home and the crying, nesting, hiding begins again. shes also wanted to be alone and she snapped at our other dog the other day. Ive taken her to the vet and I know shes not pregnant or anything so What can I do to help her? Is this a form of separation anxiety?

hi we have a 9 month old chocolate lab.. who we got at 8 weeks old and has lived with our 4 year old terrier since then..he was fixed at 6 months old.. he will sit give the paw, does not jump , we can take his food and ball no problem.. he comes when we call him right away.. he never barks and loves anybody who comes into our house. a nightmare on the lead but it is approving with new harness. the problem we have is when he was 4 months old a greyhound ran at him and knocked him over in our local dog park at scared him badly.. slowly over the last few months he has developed a fear of medium to large dogs .. he recently has started to snap and snarl when dogs run at him or come up behind him and tries to hide behind me and his hair stands up and his tail goes between his legs… i am concerned as he is quite large dog and he could do a lot of damage if he did attack another dog. he has also got into a few fights with our terrier over the ball. ( the terrier has attacked him first ).. i have taken the ball away and he only gets for a hour a day when we play with him in the garden.. i dont bring the ball on walks with us. anybody can take the ball off him with no problems. he adores our 6 year old daughter and he has never growled at anybody. any tips i would be grateful thank you

Our 16month old chunky Labrador has suddenly developed a phobia about getting in the car. It followed an incident when the end of his tail got trapped briefly when I closed the boot! He did go in to start with but even though we’ve enticed him with cheese and his biscuits, he won’t go near the car now. Help!

Thank you for th video. It did help a little bit but my puppy doesn’t seem to respond to treats outside. She does in my home but outside she is still very sketchy and afraid. Any tips?

Hello I have a 3yr old chocolate lab that my wife and I recently rescued . He is VERY timid . We do not know for sure if he was beat or not , very shy and afraid of EVERYTHING. We love him so much and are just basically looking for some answers to try and help him not to be so afraid of everything. Please help!!

Hi! I have a 6 month old black lab that we just adopted about a week ago. She suffered “puppy anxiety” the first few days but now she’s really come around in the house and with my family. BUT she absolutely HATES the outside. She was ok outside untill she heard motorcycles now we literally have to carry her outside and almost drag her around. It makes us feel horrible but we don’t know what to do. Will she over come this? Any tips on what we can do to help her? Thanks in advance.

We have a chocolate labrador who is 2 and a half. He has been well socialised with humans and dogs and is a big pet who just loves everyone. He has no aggression with food, toys or over-possessiveness towards us when other dogs approach, or when anyone comes into the house (dog or human). Lately though, he has started really barking at random strangers when we walk him. He’s a big lab and people get scared. He has been neutered at just under a year and this is a recent thing. Is there a reason for this, and what can we do about it? There doesn’t seem to be any pattern to it and the people “chosen” are totally random. They can be loud or quiet, close or far away, moving or standing still, male or female.

I have a 3 year old labrodor who is seemingly well behaved.My brothers dog is staying with us for awhile and at meal time we have to separate them as my dog becomes aggressive.When we introduce them back into the same area she will still be quite aggressive with him.sometimes straight away,sometiimes a good 5 minutes after they have eaten.This only happens at meal time and during the day they play like any normal dogs would and even sleep in the same bed.
I am at my wits end as to how to control this behaviour and stop the aggression.

I have a 3year old black lab who has become so affraid of going out for her walk. she has always enjoyed her walks but she become very nervous and shakes uncontrolably, please help as she is a lovely natured dog and has never had problems before..Thanks

I have a 2 year Lab that is so friendly and fun with the girls, but when a guy show up he gets really angry and sometimes afraid, i keep telling him calm down and it’s ok he is your friend but he refuses that this guy make a move. and if we succeeded to make him love the guy as soon as he got distracted in anything and came back to us he start all over again. Can you please lead me on how to change this behavior i am willing to be patient and to do everything to stop this behavior, because many times i want my dog to stay with me and my friends but i end up taking him home because of this and i don’t like this. Thanks in advance

Thank you, I’m just really worried that my labrador will bite him. I’m sure he will settle, we’ve only had him for 2 days

Hi,
I have got a 5 year old lab and have just got a Jack Russell pup wins 9 week old. It seems that the lab is frightened or the puppy. If you look at it or allow it anywhere near him. He’s snarled at the pup a couple of times and snapped. What can I do to get him used to the puppy? I’ve tried to get him to come to me while I gold the pup on my knee and played on the floor with them but he just won’t acknowledge that he’s there.

my labrador puppy’s front leg is little bented what can i do for this problem plz give me better suggestions.

hi,
Ihave a 4 months old lab pup .when I take her out to a walk ,she jumps on strangers and lick them and also when an unknown person enters our house she behaves normally and dont bark on him/her .how to change this habbit of her and make her bark on every unknown person.

Help! I have a 4 month old choc lab who appears to have issues when out on walks, always seems to be on guard and barks at cyclists, young children and men. As she has got older her recall is poor hence most walks are on the lead. We have 2 young boys who she plays with nicely and her behaviour at home is good.
Please give me some tips to have a happy dog that can be let off the lead to explore like dogs should!!

Hi I have a male lab pup (8 weeks old). He play bites us considerably but with certain mentioned and practiced techniques, it has reduced. But he still runs after my 6 years old daughter and tries ti nip her every time she pets him. She is really scared to play with him now. Please let me know what I can do.
Thanks
Dr Archana

Hi,
We have a 1 year choc lab and everytime he goes for his walk he is pooping uncontrolably. He has started doing for the past 3 weeks.
He has always been a nervous pup but this was never as bad as it is now.
we have been to the vet quite a few times but he has no health problems(God Bless!!)
Any suggestions for correcting this ?
Thanks
Palash

Hi I have two choc labs who are 5 years old and as soon as we leave the house they howl for a good five minutes, any suggestions for dtopping this
Thanks
Debbie Porter

My dog does not like guys he eather barks at them or hides behind me he used to live with my dad and now with me.I want to get him to be a servive dog but this is a isue with his fear of men.Do you have and adivice?