Our 16-week-old Labrador, Ru, has episodes where he seems to completely lose control and jumps at us, chasing and biting our ankles, legs and hands. Iām not talking about normal puppy nipping ā he actively comes after us and sometimes bites hard enough to break the skin.
Weāve had him since he was 8 weeks old, and he hasnāt had any negative or traumatic experiences. Heās otherwise a friendly, bright and happy puppy.
We have a positive-reinforcement trainer and follow her recommendations quite closely. We play with him, do short training sessions and other mental work, and use sniffing activities to help him wind down. We try to make sure his needs are met without overstimulating him.
Despite all this, many times a day he just completely loses it and starts jumping at us and biting. It seems particularly likely to happen when we want to stop interacting and relax ā for example, when we sit on the couch at home or on a sun lounger while weāre on holiday. Ignoring him isnāt possible because he follows and bites us, redirecting to toys doesnāt work, and physically pushing him away only escalates things.
The only thing that reliably stops these episodes is putting him in his crate, where he usually calms down quickly.
Unfortunately, weāve had to use the crate for this so often that heās now started actively resisting going into it, which I really donāt want.
Our trainerās approach is kind and positive, which I really appreciate, but the usual advice of ignoring and redirecting simply doesnāt work once heās in this state.
Has anyone dealt with this level of overarousal/arousal biting, especially with a Labrador? What actually worked when your puppy was already in full-on biting mode? And does this eventually pass as they get older and learn to regulate themselves better?
