Maniac at Night

[Gail & Max]

Max is 10 months old and every night after we get home from our shop he turns into Satan. The growling, bearing of his teeth and trying to bite are the worst parts. I know part of this is like a child's fussy period before bed but how do you get the snappiness to end? This has to be the poodle in him, I've never noticed this behaviour in the Retrievers before. When he gets to this time of night all you have to do is point your finger at him and he will "smile" at you with all his teeth and gums showing. Will he outgrow this idiocy or is there something that can be done to stop this behaviour? HELP!

[Adina P]

I'm a little concerned about the growling---that sounds serious. If he was 10 weeks old or 3 months old I wouldn't think much of it, but at 10 months this might be reason to get a behaviorist involved--in other words professional help MIGHT be needed. Some questions that might be helpful to anyone else reading this:

How long is he home alone?
What type of exercise does he get and when?
What training has he had? Classes? Private trainer? Something else?
When did this behavior begin?
How do you handle it NOW?

[Adina P]

I want to add that my Rosco was a horrible HORRIBLE nipper until he was about 1 year old. He ONLY did it to me (not my hubby). What worked for us was working HARD on obedience training daily for about 40 minutes (we were following a very specific program so I don't recommend anyone spending 40 minutes randomly in training). Thru obedience training Rosco learned to trust AND respect me and is very obedient and a fabulous dog who does therapy now!

[Gail & Max]

Max only nips at me also, not my husband. I am the one who takes him to training and I hope to restart on Sunday, (weather has been an issue here lately) Hopefully this will help get rid of some of his aggression.

[Adina P]

Sounds like we have a similar dog! Rosco was pretty mellow and low energy aside from the nipping...but those episodes were bad. He really scared me a number of times and left bruises on my thighs and even aimed for my stomach...growled and got really aggressive looking (I don't think he bared teeth but was very vocal and adamant about turning me into a wrestling partner).

He's GREAT now and when he DOES get that same energy, instead of treating me like a dog to wrestle with he finds a bone to chew on--and I didn't even teach him to do it!

[Gail & Max]

Max is with us all of the time, on average he would be home alone 4 hours per week, an hour here, 1/2 hour there, that type of thing. He is with us at our shop all day and is actually pretty good. He gets over excited if a child comes in but other than that he is pretty good all day - thankfully! He gets 3-4 10 minute romps per day between 8:30am and 5pm. When we go home he stays out and plays in the snow for up to an hour, doing zoomies, digging in the snow, eating snow, etc. and 5 out of 7 nights we go for a run down at a field near our house. He's completed Level 1 obedience training and actually he listens really well. We got Max when he was 6 months old and he has had this aggressive behaviour since we got him. It has calmed considerably though. He came from a home with 5 kids ages 2 thru 16, with a 5 yr old with autism that screamed every time that he barked. So I don't know if he was abused there or not.

Max wears a prong collar with a short leash attached all the time so he can be corrected and thats what we use. We are planning on starting Level 2 training in the next couple of weeks.

[Liza, Halle and Finn]

My Kachi is 10 months old (GD) as well. If he doesn't get enough exercise during a day, we pay later that evening with his 'out of bounds' behavior. Also, Kachi has always showed his teeth when he gets scolded. (He also mutters under his breath when he gets scolded which is actually quite funny!.) Even if he is lying down in a submissive pose, looking away, he'll still show his gums sometimes!!

Also, Kachi gets really grouchy, and snippy, in the evenings, when he is hungry. I have found that if I feed him around five or 5:30pm, and then take him on a nice walk a little later, he is really mellow in the evenings!