Community Chat

[benzgirl]

Oh my...I am a little upset right now. Our wonderful big guy, who has only been with us for five weeks, acts like two different dogs depending on if he is with me or DH. I have been observing this behavior since we rescued him. With me he is a gentle giant. As you may know, labs have a 'soft mouth' and only once has he placed my entire hand in his mouth - - and it was done in a non-aggressive way - - and he did NOT apply pressure. The incident took place while we were interacting and I was loving on him. The problem seems to be that with DH, Buddy can be quite mouthy. He has never clamped down, and I will bet my life that he doesn't have an aggressive bone in his body. But once the two of them get into this "play mode", the game escalates. Can anyone share advice how to stop this behavior. DH will take two fingers and smack his snout while telling him "no bite". The problem is that once Buddy gets into this "mode" it is impossible to correct him. We have owned large dogs all our lives and he is not our first lab - - but he is the first we have ever adopted as an adult so we don't know his back story, which might reveal the reason he behaves differently with men and women. I REALLY look forward to your responses and will monitor this thread and answer any questions you may have for me. TIA....