Hi All, my wife and I have a 19 week old purebred field lab. She is 45 pounds and very healthy and up to date on vaccines.

Most everything is progressing fine. She is housebroken, crate trained, and responding well to beginning target and fetch work. (We have three of Ed's videos).

Except for one intractable problem- On walks, after about the 20 minute mark, she often seems to snap and 'go ballistic', rocketing off to all points of the compass to the end of her six foot leash, and biting her leash, and aggressively hopping and bumping and flashing her teeth and growling loudly at me.

In the past I have taken her cheeks and lifted her front paws off the ground with varying degrees of intensity with varying degrees of success. She is just to big to do that now. I have also frequently tried stepping on her leash to radically shorten it, speaking to her calmly till she calms down. I have also, as these outbursts grow more intense with her growing size, grabbed her throat and held her while speaking forcefully.

These outbursts come out of the blue and I'm not sure what else to do. I don't want to hurt her, obviously, but can't have this behavior.

It is only getting worse. I need to know is this prey drive or aggression, and how to deal with it effectively. Is she a candidate for a prong collar, or do you think this will make the situation worse? What about an electronic collar? Any suggestions would be appreciated. Thank you. Chas

In my unprofessional opinion, that sounds like a pack drive issue that requires a correction with prong collar.

The talking softly actually encourages and reinforces the behavior and grabbing her throat is also going to make things worse...you might even get bitten.

These may help:
http://leerburg.com/pdf/theoryofcorrections.pdf
http://leerburg.com/playem.htm?name=flv/ProngCollar.flv
http://leerburg.com/playem.htm?name=flv/dogcorrections.flv

It's not prey and I doubt it's aggression. The first thing I would consider is it's just frustration. Just going for a walk can be pretty boring for a 19wk old high drive dog like her.

I think I would actually do the opposite of what you are thinking and put her on a long line to give her a little more freedom to check things out and not really go for walks until she's older.

 Quote: scott garrett

In my unprofessional opinion, that sounds like a pack drive issue that requires a correction with prong collar.

The talking softly actually encourages and reinforces the behavior and grabbing her throat is also going to make things worse...you might even get bitten.

These may help:
http://leerburg.com/pdf/theoryofcorrections.pdf
http://leerburg.com/playem.htm?name=flv/ProngCollar.flv
http://leerburg.com/playem.htm?name=flv/dogcorrections.flv

I disagree with the prong and corrections. This is a 19 week old puppy.

True story:
When my husband and I were dating, he had just recently purchased a field Lab puppy from awesome working lines. He'd had 2 Labs prior to this, neither from pure field lines. When the pup was around this same age, my husband called me. It went something like this.
Him: "There's something wrong with my puppy."
Me: "What's wrong with your puppy?"
Him: "He's aggressive!"
Me: "How so?"
Him: "He'll all the sudden just go crazy, growling and nipping and acting like a crazy monster!:
Me: "Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!"

I thought it was so funny, because most high drive puppies go through these crazy moments. He just didn't know that because he'd never had one before. After multiple Mal pups have come through our house, he's now well-schooled on the subject.

Please don't correct this puppy with a prong collar or by bullying her. Please re-direct her behavior or do as Steve suggests for the time being. So long as you give her a "job," she'll learn to direct her energy into that job and not onto you. You bought a field line Lab and she sounds like a good one.

Do you have plans to work her? What specific lines is she out of?

Totally agree with Konnie. My Lab, also field line and also very high drive, was a little nut as a pup.

Re-directing worked really well with my dog. Fun, short sessions of OB, fetch, and we used the tug a lot. Depending on what your plans are for your pup, tug may or may not be a good idea.

The Building Drive and Focus DVD is a must-have, IMHO, and especially if you have a high-drive dog. For a novice (such as me) it really helped me learn how to channel all that energy into something positive.

And I hate to break it to you but your pup is likely to be pretty high-energy for a long time. Mine was and still is at age 3.

 Quote: sarah morris

And I hate to break it to you but your pup is likely to be pretty high-energy for a long time. Mine was and still is at age 3.

LOL! The dog I mentioned above is now 7 years old. People still ask if he's a pup because he doesn't look or act a day over 12 months old - trim, sleek and still as nutty as ever, although he did develop a nice "off switch" and is a great house dog.

The Theory of Corrections says to start with an extremely low level correction and Ed's always saying "prong collars are power steering for dogs". From there, I'd start to look at things like is the walk boring for the pup, etc.. Referring to the pack drive vs. obedience correction, this seems like a pack drive issue that should receive a correction. I'm not saying the pup needs to have its head yanked off but, it does need to learn that that is disrespectful behavior.

No. I still disagree with you, Scott. This puppy is probably so darn bored or frustrated (or both) that she's creating her own game.

Why buy a high drive dog if you're just going to shut it down for expressing that part of its temperament? IMO, not fair to the dog.

Redirect is the way to go 100%. Start training this girl using +R (the drive to retrieve is a wonderful thing for behavior shaping!) and work her brain. She needs a "job."

 Quote: scott garrett

The Theory of Corrections says to start with an extremely low level correction and Ed's always saying "prong collars are power steering for dogs".

That may be so, but this dog is not pulling on the leash. She's expressing boredom or frustration (or both) after walking in a straight line for 20 mins.

 Quote:

From there, I'd start to look at things like is the walk boring for the pup, etc..

You're suggesting that he skip the step of teaching the dog how to walk nicely on a leash using positive reinforcement and go directly to the prong collar? How will the dog know what the prong collar means unless he shows her what the proper behavior is as well as how to avoid the correction? IMO, it is an error to skip these steps.

 Quote:

Referring to the pack drive vs. obedience correction, this seems like a pack drive issue that should receive a correction. I'm not saying the pup needs to have its head yanked off but, it does need to learn that that is disrespectful behavior.

The behavior may be disrespectful, but that's just the symptom of the overall problem of frustration and/or boredom. A prong collar won't solve that problem.

Also, "pack drive" is a term typically used to describe the dog's affinity for its pack. I think you mean to use the term "rank."

Have you tried wearing her out before you go on walks? A quick game of fetch prior to her walk may do wonders for her leash manners...