Dog behaving unpredictably

suomi

I'd like some advice on my dog's behaviour.

She's a 7 year old Nova Scotian retriever called Lola. She's always been a bit timid and nervous but most of the time she behaves well and never causes any trouble. However lately whenever she gets frustrated she tends to act unpredictably and I'm starting to get nervous around her now. Latest example is when we went for a walk yesterday. It started raining really heavily so we turned back after about 20 minutes. She didn't like this but walked nicely next to me anyway. Once we got near our building, a guy walked past us and Lola suddenly grabbed his leg and wouldn't let go until I pulled her away from him. Luckily he was wearing thick tracksuit bottoms so he didn't get hurt. This has happened once before in similar circumstances when she got annoyed about doing a short walk instead of the usual long one. The weird thing is, she didn't seem annoyed or angry, she didn't growl or bark or anything like that. It happened really suddenly.

The problem is that I now feel like I have to walk long walks with her every time now just so she won't get annoyed and possibly attack someone, which I know is completely messed up! She's not an angry dog, she's really friendly and laid back but then stuff like this happens and it makes me worry that it might happen again and next time someone could get hurt. Is there anything that could be done about this sort of behaviour at her age? She's too smart for her own good, it's like she takes it out on other people when she's mad at me.

DBB

Hi suomi,
It seems unlikely that she's taking it out on you for not getting a long enough walk. Sure, there may be some frustration going on that's causing this, but I think you'll probably need to dig a little deeper to find out exactly what's going on
And to do that, I suspect your going to need an outside, expert eye to try to suss out what's happening.
Are you in Finland (Sherlock Holmes here is going by your username )? If so, what part?

suomi

DBB wrote: »

Hi suomi,
It seems unlikely that she's taking it out on you for not getting a long enough walk. Sure, there may be some frustration going on that's causing this, but I think you'll probably need to dig a little deeper to find out exactly what's going on
And to do that, I suspect your going to need an outside, expert eye to try to suss out what's happening.
Are you in Finland (Sherlock Holmes here is going by your username )? If so, what part?

We actually had a trainer come over and take a look and she said the reason she's behaving like this is because she's insecure and nervous and she senses we don't fully trust her so that makes her even more nervous. I guess I was just wondering if there's anyone here with similar experiences and if they managed to get rid of that sort of behaviour.

Haha yep I am in Finland, I guess my username is a but of a giveaway if you know any Finnish. I'm in central Finland, Jyväskylä to be exact.

DBB

suomi wrote: »

I'm in central Finland, Jyväskylä to be exact.

Lol, would you believe it, I know Jyvaskyla! I spent a number of weeks in the university many moons ago, had a ball there :P

I'm not all that convinced of the explanation that she senses you don't trust her, unless I'm translating things wrong. Whilst she might pick up on you becoming tense in certain circumstances, sensing that you don't trust her puts her cognitive skills on a whole different plain that I'm not so sure dogs are capable of, bright and all as they are!
Was the trainer a certified behaviourist too, by any chance? Because I'm inclined to think it's a behaviourist you need more so that a trainer. There's a super behaviourist in Finland, he's an english chap called David Appleby, but I have no idea whereabouts he's based (I think Helsinki, but I know that's a fair journey for you, but perhaps he does clinics elsewhere, or knows someone who does?)... here's a link to his website that you'll be able to make sense of I'm sure!
http://www.abklinikka.com/

One thing I would also say is that as this is a recent and relatively sudden change in her behaviour, you might want to make absolutely certain that there isn't a niggling underlying medical issue that's making her feel more anxious, or more likely to do things that she wouldn't normally do.

In the meantime, from a training perspective, I'd be inclined to get into the habit of harnessing her mind whenever a person is walking towards you who is going to pass closely to you... by this I mean that as a person is approaching, you would get her focusing on you in a sit, waving a tasty treat above her nose if need be. As soon as the person passes, pop the treat into her mouth. As she starts to get the idea, you can start walking her past people whilst getting her to walk looking at you... I'd also get into the habit of walking between her and any passers-by, it's something I do as a matter of course as people tend to lure my dog towards them as they pass by reaching out to her.. which is not always a good idea with a GSD and an angsty parent!
You might just find that using a headcollar to control where her nose is facing might help, something like a Gentle Leader, but do make sure to acclimatise her to it gradually. Using this, you can gently lever her nose so that it's directed away from anyone who's walking past you.

Also, I know she likes her walks, but how does it work tiring her out via other means, such as activity toys, scatter feeding, chasing a ball etc? I know the duck-tollers (I'm assuming yours is a Duck Tolling Retriever? Would LOVE to see a pic of her, there aren't many of them here!) tend to be right little busybodies, so I'm sure keeping her occupied is not as easy as with other breeds!

suomi

DBB wrote: »

Lol, would you believe it, I know Jyvaskyla! I spent a number of weeks in the university many moons ago, had a ball there :P

I'm not all that convinced of the explanation that she senses you don't trust her, unless I'm translating things wrong. Whilst she might pick up on you becoming tense in certain circumstances, sensing that you don't trust her puts her cognitive skills on a whole different plain that I'm not so sure dogs are capable of, bright and all as they are!
Was the trainer a certified behaviourist too, by any chance? Because I'm inclined to think it's a behaviourist you need more so that a trainer. There's a super behaviourist in Finland, he's an english chap called David Appleby, but I have no idea whereabouts he's based (I think Helsinki, but I know that's a fair journey for you, but perhaps he does clinics elsewhere, or knows someone who does?)... here's a link to his website that you'll be able to make sense of I'm sure!
http://www.abklinikka.com/

One thing I would also say is that as this is a recent and relatively sudden change in her behaviour, you might want to make absolutely certain that there isn't a niggling underlying medical issue that's making her feel more anxious, or more likely to do things that she wouldn't normally do.

In the meantime, from a training perspective, I'd be inclined to get into the habit of harnessing her mind whenever a person is walking towards you who is going to pass closely to you... by this I mean that as a person is approaching, you would get her focusing on you in a sit, waving a tasty treat above her nose if need be. As soon as the person passes, pop the treat into her mouth. As she starts to get the idea, you can start walking her past people whilst getting her to walk looking at you... I'd also get into the habit of walking between her and any passers-by, it's something I do as a matter of course as people tend to lure my dog towards them as they pass by reaching out to her.. which is not always a good idea with a GSD and an angsty parent!
You might just find that using a headcollar to control where her nose is facing might help, something like a Gentle Leader, but do make sure to acclimatise her to it gradually. Using this, you can gently lever her nose so that it's directed away from anyone who's walking past you.

Also, I know she likes her walks, but how does it work tiring her out via other means, such as activity toys, scatter feeding, chasing a ball etc? I know the duck-tollers (I'm assuming yours is a Duck Tolling Retriever? Would LOVE to see a pic of her, there aren't many of them here!) tend to be right little busybodies, so I'm sure keeping her occupied is not as easy as with other breeds!

That's such a weird coincidence! Lots of foreign students here though so no wonder. Glad you liked it here.

Thanks for the link, I'll take a look! You're probably right, maybe she's been doing all this stuff for some silly simple reason and I'm just overthinking it. She is just a dog after all!

I have been using a head collar with her but she really hates it and it makes her very annoying to walk with! She's constantly pulling and rolling around on the ground trying to get the thing off her. I find she's much calmer and easier to walk with with a regular harness. I used to do that thing with the treats, I'll try it again next time! Thanks a lot for the advice.

She does have her toys and stuff and I take her swimming regularly so I think she has enough activities. Could always do more though! She definitely needs lot of attention and playing etc. I'll see if I can attach a couple of pictures!