As most of my regular readers know, we have a Labrador Retriever. She just turned two, two weeks ago, so she’s finally starting to calm down a bit, but not nearly enough for me!
She’s a pretty good dog, fairly obedient and definitely regards me as the Alpha in the house … except every once in a while she’ll try to pull one over on me.
Her quest for power usually takes place in the evening when I’m lying on the couch watching TV. She’ll jump up on the couch beside me and make her wookie (whooo whoo, grughhh) sounds to indicate that she wants to play and doesn’t want to take no for an answer. Then she’ll try to climb on top of me or over me to reach the top of the pillow that I’m usually lying on while on the the couch.
Once she’s perched near my head she’ll sit there contentedly, occasionally turning around to lick my face, ears and neck. Labs are kind of slobbery so I need to wipe my face after a lick attack!
The bruises I’m getting are from her walking over me when she’s instant on playing and getting really close to me so that she can give me a lick attack.
When she tries to do this I usually try to hold her back by putting my leg up to bar her from climbing over me but this past week she just keeps coming! She’ll even fake me out by looking like she’s just going to sit down beside me when I’ve said no and once I relax she just jumps on me! She’s a smart dog!
My husband thinks she just does this because she “loves” me … but I think it’s a little bit of doggy dominance coming out. As I said above she’s a fairly obedient (yet hyper and excitable) dog.
She weighs about 70lb and while my husband doesn’t seem to find her walking on him painful it really hurts me when she walks on my legs, stomach and even my chest. There’s been many a time when I’ve woken in the morning wondering why one of my boobs is sore and then I remember that my dog walked on it the night before! LOL
I also take medications for my Crohn’s disease that make my blood a little thinner so I’m more prone to bruising as it is, let alone having a large dog jumping all over me.
I have to find a way to stop her from jumping on me like this. When she does manage to walk all over me this is the only real time that she is being Alpha or has any kind of dominance over me.
Any suggestions from other dog owners out there?
I actually have a young 14 month old baby at home. I was just reading your blog post about your lab and wanted to get your opinion. How wild was your lab and when did it start calming down? Do you think it will be alright with our 14 month old?
Gel Mattress – Well our Lab is 2 years old now and while she’s calmed down quite a bit from her young puppy days she’s still a very active dog who needs a lot of attention to keep her from being bored. This includes taking her on long walks or somewhere where she can go off leash and run around for about an hour or so to tire her out. She’s just so full of energy that if we don’t exercise her she’s really hyper indoors!
In general labs are high energy dogs and they don’t really calm down until they’re about three years old or so I’ve been told. I’ve yet to experience this since our dog is only two!
If you have a lot of energy and you go out for long walks with your 14 month old and think you’ll be able to allow your dog some time to run or get exercise then a Lab might be right for you and your family. If you are more the stay indoors type or don’t have a lot of spare time to devote to a dog (perfectly understandable since you have a young child and may also work!) then you might want a calmer breed of dog right now.