Comments on: Dog Calming: How To Make Your Lab Less Excitable

By: pjwisely

pjwisely — Mon, 23 Jun 2025 18:37:10 +0000

I have 2 chocolate labs (they are siblings) current age 19 mo. Grace is calm, Joy is more excitable. After reading your article on How to calm your lab. I’m thinking she is not hyper., but more excitible (and it seems to interfere in our training because we have 2 sisters)…Help!
Do you have any articles or books that can help with training, walking, getting along with our cat, etc., we thought it was such a great idea to have two sisters but, we’ve had 3 dogs so far and lost all of them over the years but having sisters has been difficult.
Would appreciate any information to guide us in the right direction so that we can keep these sisters and our family as happy as can be.

With kind regards and aloha…

By: Sammie@LabSiteHQ

Sammie@LabSiteHQ — Tue, 17 Dec 2024 11:30:39 +0000

In reply to Donna. Hi Donna, it sounds like a baby gate between your pup and the front door might be helpful :). Have you checked out our barking center yet? It has lots of useful ideas for reducing barking at visitors. I do hope it helps. Sammie

By: Donna

Donna — Sat, 14 Dec 2024 19:59:25 +0000

How can I stop my dog from rushing to the door and barking when someone knocks?

By: Cindy

Cindy — Fri, 14 Apr 2023 12:44:49 +0000

In reply to Wendy. Omg I feel your pain my 8 month old lab is exhausting, she does not stop

By: Maryann Sistrunk

Maryann Sistrunk — Sat, 30 Jul 2022 11:53:25 +0000

How do u calm a Pitt mix from running and barking at thunder storms .? He runs so long and hard I think he’s going to give himself a heart attack.

By: Wendy

Wendy — Thu, 16 Apr 2020 04:34:49 +0000

Hello Katherine,
I feel your pain. I have a just over one year old chocolate lab, and yes, he is so wonderful and sweet and he loves to be with me, but also yes, he is exhausting. I completely understand when you say putting him to bed offers the same feeling of relief you experienced when putting your 2 year old child to bed. You expressed my sentiments exactly. I guess we just stick with it. Our dogs will grow up eventually.

By: Diana Lauder Sacks

Diana Lauder Sacks — Tue, 20 Nov 2018 07:17:37 +0000

I have a female Boxer/Terrier mix I rescued from the Harrisburg Humane Society 6 months ago. She had been turned in as a stray who had obviously had puppies fairly recently. She had no ID and they could not tell me much about her except she was about 2-1/2 years old. I have owned dogs in the past and they have been different mixed breeds who have lived with me until they got old, sick and passed on. This dog, Julie, is a different kind of dog — very friendly, very sweet, very quiet at home with me — but has episodes of excitability. She is having behavior training with two trainers and responds well for them and also me to some extent. But when she has the episodes of excitability (usually when she is in the company of several dogs at a time particularly at doggie day care where she goes one day a week and loves it, and also this week at a group training session with several dogs where she thought she was back at day care and just wanted to play and jump around with them). She weighs about 60 lbs and is a very strong dog. I am 80 years old and in good health but today particularly she was impossible to control. She wanted to get into the play area where the dogs were barking. She pulled me very hard and although she wears an easy walker harness she pulled her body next to mine (left a large bruise on my leg and may have hurt her own leg since she is limping a little). She knows where she is going for this one day a week daycare and starts getting excited and making lots of sounds half way in the car ride. I noted from your article that one thing to calm her down is to walk her around outside the building before entering it. The women who supervise the dogs say that she plays with all the dogs and one thing they have noticed is that she walks calmly outside with one of them when they go out to relieve themselves. I should probably also ignore her instead of responding when she starts getting excited prior to arriving at the day care. When we go out for a walk I have been avoiding areas where there are dogs or people and she walks very calmly with me. It has been suggested that she attend more daycare visits. I have a big fenced in yard but when we are outside she seems bored unless a couple of little dogs who roam free come to the fence and they exchange barks. She has toys which we play tug with. I always carry treats which seem to be effective although not when she is in the excitability phase. Other than the above we do not do much and could do more. I’ll speak to her trainers (whom she seems to respect more than me). Julie is a very smart dog who catches on very quickly; maybe the brain games would interest her or the training dummy. One trainer has suggested that Julie might be a good service dog with training such as law enforcement or a school or nursing home visitor. She obviously needs more than the love and affection I give her.

By: Pippa Mattinson

Pippa Mattinson — Fri, 22 Dec 2017 07:18:06 +0000

In reply to Divyang Thakore.

Many dogs will roam for miles if not contained within a fenced area. https://www.thelabradorsite.com/labrador-proofing-your-garden/

By: Divyang Thakore

Divyang Thakore — Thu, 21 Dec 2017 07:52:42 +0000

Dear Person
Thanks for the info.
We have a lab named Harry
He adopted him when he was 6 months old
He is with us since July 2015. We do not put him on leash
but that allows him to go out in streets and stay there for hours
When my daughter searches for him and he smells her around him
he comes back home along with her.
How to stop him going out and doesn’t come back for hours?
Please guide us and oblige.