3-year-old black Labrador Retriever neurotic behavior
We have a 3-year-old black Labrador Retriever named Jetson. He is treated as part of the family; however, he is causing us increasing concern with his neurotic behavior. He is obsessed with people playing, swimming in the pool, etc., and with play objects such as balls, sticks and Hacky Sacks™. He becomes terribly focused on these objects; for example, he once rammed a door to get outside to people playing Hacky Sack, and on another occasion he had the beginnings of literal muscle meltdown because he does not know when to stop. People are unable to play ball games or swim in the pool around him. We try to play, but he not only has to be included, he has to dominate the activity. This becomes more intense as the number of people involved increases. We are frightened to lock him inside or tie him up because we believe as he surely will do damage to himself. He usually is a beautiful, loving, relatively sedate dog but is excited very easily. He has obtained level 5 at obedience school and is very quick to learn. He is not yet neutered. Do you think neutering may help, or are there any other less drastic measures you might suggest?
Well, your dog certainly sounds intense! If he were an employed field dog, he'd probably be an overachiever retriever! Because you have gone through obedience training with him, I am less likely to leap to the conclusion that this problem stems from your family's failure to establish authority over the dog. He sounds more like an over excitable, somewhat obsessive-compulsive dog that might benefit from a combination of drug therapy and behavioral modification. Systematic desensitization involves starting at the lowest level of stimulus, such as presenting a ball but not bouncing it, and reinforcing a quiet lack of response while interrupting his train of thought as he begins to react excitably. It is a complex process, because you cannot increase a challenge level until the dog is completely non responsive to the prior one. It is slow, tedious work, and you must prevent set-backs by not accidentally reinforcing his patterned excitability. This work would be facilitated by a drug therapy program prescribed by a veterinary behaviorist, in combination with the behavioral modification. Castration probably is a good idea too, although not a behavioral panacea; it can help to reduce sex hormone-influenced excitability but not obsessive-compulsive behavior. There are very specific "smart bomb" psychotropic drugs that help reduce excitability and actually enhance learning abilities with minimal if any side effects. I think it would be worthwhile for you to pursue this issue with your veterinarian, who should be able to refer you to a veterinary behaviorist.
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