What to expect from a 2 year old Labrador

By Isabella Storyclaire

last updated November 18, 2024

Contributions sourced from

Labrador Behavior By Age

When my first dog was an unruly puppy, a Labrador owner told me that the onset of adolescence would be worse. Then that hed improve quite a lot at a year old, and fully settle down at three years old. It wasnt really what I wanted to hear at the time. But with hindsight I can kind of see their point. In fact, whilst there will always be exceptions that prove the rule, there are also some reliable patterns of Labrador behavior by age. Puppies will be attention seeking and need lots of management. Adults will be active, friendly and easy-going. And seniors will start to slow down and show signs of old age. Heres a year-on-year guide to what to expect from your Lab as they grow up.

The development of Labrador behavior

Just like our own lifetimes, Labradors lives are characterized by distinct periods infancy, adolescence, adulthood and old age. Of course, it all happens much faster in them though, because they pack it all into and average of just 12 or 13 years. Youve probably heard the adage that one human year is worth 7 dog years. But the rate at which they mature (and their behavior changes with age) isnt uniform. A more accurate way to think about it is like this:

The first 6 months of a puppies life is roughly equivalent to the first 10 years of a human childs life.
Between 6 and 12 months old, they will enter adolescence.
At a year old, they are a mature adolescent.
Sometime between 2 and 3 years old they become physically and mentally mature.
And at 9 years old, they start to become seniors.

Labrador behavior by age: the first 6 months

Infant Labradors are champion nappers, attached to their primary carer to the point of clinginess, playful, and impulsive.

Sleep patterns

Young Labrador puppies are growing and learning fast, and they need a lot of sleep to support their development. However, its likely theyre still waking up in the night, or at least getting up early in the morning, in order to pee. So, they make up for it by napping frequently during the day. Which is alright for them, even though it can be cripplingly tiring for us! But hang in there most puppies are sleeping through the night at 14 weeks old. After that they will gradually start waking earlier in the morning too.

Clinginess

Infant Labs are often described as velcro puppies. Its highly likely that theyll want to be close to you at all times. There is a double whammy of reasons for this. Firstly, they are instinctively aware that they are still too small and vulnerable to survive alone. So they know its in their best interests to stay close to you, and make sure you dont forget about them. Secondly, Labradors have been bred over many generations to be innately people-focussed, since dogs who were naturally motivated to remain close to their owners made better workers.

Playfulness

Labrador puppies spend more time playing than at any other time in their lives. But lots of first time puppy parents are taken aback by exactly how ferocious puppy play behavior can be! Barking, growling, lunging, pouncing, and biting are all completely normal elements of puppy play. In the wild, they would be valuable practice for hunting in future, and the natural instinct to start practicing early lives on, even this long after domestication.

Impulsiveness

Puppies of all types are generally a chaotic presence. They have very little impulse control, so they rarely sit still for long, and they cannot resist temptation. Its up to us to manage their environment so that this doesnt become a problem. For example, dont wait for them to start playing with shoes, then try and teach them not to. Make sure those shoes are kept out of reach in the first place, and give your puppy plenty of suitable toys instead.

The sweet spot

There is a point when a Labrador puppy is roughly akin to an 8 year old child. They sleep well, use the toilet in the right place, understand instructions, and hang off your every word. Enjoy it while it lasts, but dont get complacent that your training is over, because puberty is just around the corner. A whole new stage of Labrador behavior is coming!

Labrador behavior by age: adolescence

Labradors adolescent period is characterized by becoming more bold, confident, and independent. If we think of it in terms of their wild ancestors again, they are no longer so vulnerable and reliant on the protection of adults around them. And time to start thinking for themselves, in anticipation of being an self-sufficient adult soon.

You might start to discover that the little puppy who never left your side off the leash will suddenly cross soccer fields to say hello to another dog. And that when you try to call them back, theyve gone deaf to the recall cue which worked so reliably a couple of weeks ago. These are all normal parts of growing up. During this stage, you need to protect your cues by not using them when your dog is likely to ignore you, and manage their opportunities to make unwanted decisions instead. For example, by using a long line, or exercising them in a secure field.

Adolescence is also associated with the onset of sex differences in behavior. For example, unneutered male dogs tend to carry out more scent marking than either spayed or intact females, or neutered males. And unspayed female dogs will start going into heat every 6 months or so.

The secondary fear period

Some adolescent Labradors also go through whats known as a secondary fear period. As they become more independent, and stop relying on others to look out for them, they instinctively become more cautious about new and unfamiliar things as well. In the wild, its a tried and tested survival adaptation. But it can be frustrating to deal with if it also means they start becoming reactive in situations when they previously werent. If this happens, the key is not to push them to handle more than they are comfortable with given them space, and and gradually restore they emotional response to a positive one using treats.

Labrador behavior by age: adulthood

By the time your Labrador is 2 or 3 years old, their physical and emotional journey to adulthood is complete. Hopefully, if you socialized them carefully as a puppy, and trained them consistently until now, they have become all the things you dreamed of. And at last, they have reached a point where if you treat them consistently, their behavior will remain consistent too.

The Labrador breed is famous for being friendly and easy company. They are exceptional at learning and remembering new cues, and famously food motivated, so teaching and maintaining good manners should be straightforward. They have lots of energy and stamina, so theyre great buddies for running, hiking or cycling with. But without enough exercise they might resort to unwanted behaviors such as chewing furniture, barking or digging in the garden.

Factors which will affect the behavior of your mature adult Labrador include:

The temperament of their parents
Socialization they received as a puppy
Training
How much physical exercise they get
How much mental stimulation they receive
Diet
How much time they spend alone
Health factors
Positive and negative experiences

An example of how health factors and experience can affect behavior is if a Lab experiencing joint pain from hip dysplasia is jumped on by a playful younger dog. This could make them reactive towards encounters with other dogs in future, because they want to warn off another potentially painful experience.

Labrador behavior by age: the senior years

In veterinary terms, Labradors are considered senior from roughly 9 years old onwards. However, many Labs remain active long past this point. The average retirement age of Labradors working as gundogs is 10 years old, and this is more likely to be due to physical factors such as arthritis or deafness than not being mentally up to the job any more.

Theres no reason why old age alone should change a Labs behavior. But, old age is associated with a broad range of physical changes, and increased likelihood of illnesses, many of which can cause behavior changes. For example

Senior dogs are more likely to be diagnosed with diabetes, and are less able to fight off infections like UTIs. Which means their toilet habits might change, including needing to get up in the night to pee again.
Sensory changes such as sight and hearing loss mean they might become less responsive to your cues, or less confident in unfamiliar situations.
Physical changes like loss of muscle mass and degeneration of their joints means they might slow down, and be less interested in things they used to enjoy, like walks or playing fetch.
The older they get, the more likely dogs are to show signs of canine cognitive dysfunction (CCD), which his akin to dementia in humans. CCD may include behavior changes such as night waking, forgetfulness, and becoming disorientated.

Take your senior dog for regular veterinary checks to help manage these changes, and for practical advice on making their golden years as comfortable as possible.

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Labrador behavior by age summary

Labrador behavior by age can be viewed in terms of four distinct periods puppyhood, adolescence, adulthood and senior years. Adulthood is the easiest, and (thankfully) the longest too! Whilst all the other stages present their own unique challenges, they are just that stages, which will pass. Knowing what to expect makes them easier to manage, and realizing they are transient helps us appreciate the privilege of spending a lifetime with our Labs.

Let us know how your Labradors behavior changed over their lifetime using the comments box down below. Have you got any tips for surviving the puppy and adolescent stages? Or for making their senior years

The Labrador Site Founder

Pippa Mattinson is the best selling author of The Happy Puppy Handbook, the Labrador Handbook, Choosing The Perfect Puppy, and Total Recall.

She is also the founder of the Gundog Trust and the Dogsnet Online Training Program

Pippa's online training courses were launched in 2019 and you can find the latest course dates on the Dogsnet website

Labrador Behavior

Your Labradors behavior wont always be perfect. This is a characteristically friendly, outgoing and loyal breed, but they have their downsides. Tendencies toward chewing, digging and biting as puppies are commonplace. And despite their often extravert natures, they can still be fearful, anxious and suffer from terrible separation anxiety.

Labradors are renowned for their superb temperament. But even the nicest dog can have issues with behavior crop up from time to time. In this guide we are going to look at some common behavioral problems in Labs, and help you to resolve them.

Some of these problems might seem trivial to others. But when it is you that is losing sleep, dealing with complaints from neighbours or repairing destroyed furniture, it is not trivial at all.

In this section we take a look at common Labrador behavior problems. Youll find articles, tips and advice to help you understand Lab behavior and solve your dogs problems fast, effectively and kindly.

We will begin by giving you some general behavioural information and taking you through an FAQ of common Labrador behaviour problems and their solutions. We will then give you links to our most popular Labrador Behaviour articles where you will find detailed answers to your behavior questions.

Bad Behaviour or Bad Training?

Sometimes the line between a training problem and a behavioral problem can be blurred and in fact many behavioral problems, jumping up for example, can be resolved through simple training measures. Others are more complex and require deeper investigation.

Knowing why a dog behaves as it does, and what caused the problem in the first place is not always helpful. Sometimes it is simpler to just treat the symptoms in front of you. For example, some labrador puppies will become quite aggressive around food at an early age. Others will let anyone take their dinner.

Knowing why one puppy is different from another isnt that helpful, the process required to treat food guarding is always the same. At other times, a good understanding of what causes a behavioural problem, and steps may need to be taken to manage the dog, perhaps avoiding the fear trigger.

Resolving behavioral problems

Treating Labrador behavior issues is normally tackled in one of two ways

Problems such as jumping up, running away, night-waking, dragging you along on the leash, and food guarding, are all best resolved by training. Problems such as chewing, counter surfing, bin raiding, boredom barking, eating poop, passer-by barking all need managing by restricting the dogs options and/or providing him with alternative entertainment

Fearful and anxious Labrador behavior

Fear related problems caused by lack of socialisation and/or abuse, can sometimes be treated by desensitising the dog to the root cause of its fear. At other times a management approach may be more appropriate. For example, a rescue dog that has developed a deep seated fear of children may simply need to be kept away from kids. The trauma to the dog of trying to desensitise it, and the time factor required to do so may be too great. It may be simpler to keep the dog muzzled in public and rehomed away from small children.

If some aspect of your labradors behaviour is worrying you, do have a chat with your vet. He will have seen many similar problems before and if necessary will be able to recommend a suitable behaviourist who will advise you on retraining or managing your dogs problem.

Analysing Labrador behavior

Our understanding of dog psychology has improved greatly in recent years, but perhaps there is sometimes a tendency to take an analysis of individual dog behaviour too far. We are quite quick to put rather human labels like separation anxiety on to dogs where once we would simply have stated my dog doesnt like being left alone and left it at that.

If a problem with Labrador behaviour is disrupting your family life, it needs fixing, no matter what the root cause. Not only for the benefit of the dog, but also, in order that peace and harmony can be restored. Dogs do not fare well in households where everyone is stressed and upset.

Not a problem dog?

Whilst we cannot help loving our dogs, if we can avoid labelling them as having this problem or that problem, and just deal with any behavior that arises in a practical and appropriate way, I suspect their lives might be easier.

No two dogs are the same and there is a wide range of what is normal behavior. But ultimately, if your dogs behaviour is spoiling your pleasure in him then you need to take steps to put this right.

Behavioral problems in Labradors can normally be successfully resolved. The chances are that your Labrador is not a problem dog and that if you seek help, his behavior can be dramatically improved with training, or managed well enough to enable you to live peacefully together. Lets take a look now at some common Labrador behavior problems and what you can do to resolve them.

How do I stop my dog jumping up?

Jumping up is quite cute in puppies, and of course many of us allow them to do this until they start knocking people over. Curing jumping up is not too difficult, but it requires patience and persistence. If you have a jumper take a look at this article, there is a really useful video at the bottom.

Help! My dog is nipping my arms and it hurts!

There is a lot of information on biting in small puppies on this website. But it can be very worrying when this behaviour persists, or reappears in an older dog. This is a common problem in families with a young dog aged between 6 and 18 months. At this age, your dog is still mentally a puppy, but he is now a very big puppy, and the biting really hurts. Most biting in older puppies is associated with over-excitement and inappropriate play (rough housing) with the dog. Check out these two articles for further information as well as the biting information link above.

How can I stop my dog whining?

Dogs often learn to whine when they are crated or left. In fact, we often inadvertently teach them to do this, by rewarding the whining (letting the dog out or going back to him) in order to get some peace.

Its all very well knowing how we went wrong, but how do we put it right! Happily, there is quite a straightforward training programme to teach your dog to be quiet in his crate. You can find the instructions here: click for quiet. Youll also find more information about noisy Labradors in general, in this article: Noisy Labradors- getting to the root of the problem

How do we stop our dog stealing our stuff!

Labradors love to carry things around in their mouths. This is partly because they are natural retrievers, but also partly because they soon learn that picking up your stuff gets them a whole load of attention!

Mum! Hes got my Teddy squeals your five year old, and all of a sudden, everyones attention is on the dog.

Avoid chasing your dog whilst he is carrying something as dogs love being chased, and this will only encourage him to run faster. The best way to get things out of a dogs mouth and returned safely to their owner, is to swap for a tasty treat. If you do this on a regular basis, youll soon find your dog running up to you, to offer you the things he finds on the floor, rather than running away with them.

Initially youll need to use amazing treats like chunks of roast beef. So keep a little pot of yummy left overs in the fridge for this purpose. Once your dog starts to bring you his treasure on a regular basis, youll be able to fade the treats down to the occasional bit of kibble or dog biscuit.

Obviously it helps if you can train your family to put their stuff away, but you cant nail down everything in the house! You may find your dog is less inclined to pick up your cushions etc, if you give him some soft cuddly toys of his own. Or you may need to pop a baby gate across the sitting room, to keep him away from the sofa and chairs until you are there to supervise.

Help us stop our Labrador raiding the trash can!

Some behaviours are so common as to be normal, and bin raiding is a universal problem for Labrador owners. It is a rare Labrador that does not consider the kitchen bin to be a source of wonderful edible delicacies! And of course, he has all day to figure out how to get in there, whilst you do not have all day to figure out how to stop him.

Teaching a dog not to raid a bin in your absence is rarely possible. And punishing the dog when you return home and find the contents strewn across the kitchen floor, will only serve to make the dog fearful of you on your return.

This usually results in a dog offering appeasement behaviors which we humans tend to interpret as guilt. Whilst the dog is of course completely oblivious to any concept of right or wrong when it comes to helping himself to food. The best solution for bin raiding is therefore to place the can where the dog cannot get at it, or purchase a Labrador proof bin.

How can I stop my Labrador running after other dogs?

Most Labradors are very friendly indeed. And one of the biggest problems for many young Labrador owners, is getting them to come back when there are other people around, or other dogs to be played with.

Teaching a dog to recall in the real world, where there are lots of temptations, is a skill. And it is one that you can teach to any dog provided you do so in a structured way. Check out our recall training centre for lots more information on recall in general, and this article: Proofing your recall which will help you teach your labrador to recall away from other people and other dogs. You might also find it helpful to read: Why has my recall broken down?

My Labrador wakes up too early

Early morning waking, or night waking is another annoying problem behaviour that may start in spring or summer as the lighter mornings set in. Sometimes there is a clear trigger for night waking to begin, but the waking carries on after the trigger is removed.

In other cases, the early waking puppy just carries on early waking, with the addition of some increasingly demanding barking to hurry you downstairs. We look at night waking in some detail in this article. Night waking how to restore the peace

How can I stop my dog eating poo?

This horrible habit is surprisingly common. We have devoted an entire article to what you can do to prevent or cure it. You can check it out here: Why dogs eat poop and what you can do about it. Eating poo is not the only horrible habit that Labradors may indulge in. Take a look at this article: Why do Labradors eat rubbish for more information and help.

My dog is over a year old and still chewing up our home!

We all know that puppies chew stuff. Especially when they are teething. But many people do not realise that Labradors can be particularly destructive towards the end of their first year, long after they are firmly in possession of a full set of adult teeth. This article: How to stop your Labrador chewing things takes a close look at chewing and other destructive behaviours, and what you can do to resolve them.

My dog is so naughty

We all like a well-behaved dog. Many people write in to us to ask how they can get their dog to listen to their commands. The answer to that is with a structured training programme. Behind every well behaved Labrador, lie many hours of training. Getting your dog trained may seem like an effort at times, but training brings huge rewards.

A trained dog responds to your commands or signals without hesitation, not just at home, but when you are out and about, or visiting friends too. Getting to this point takes time, information and some effort. Youll find the information right here on this website. Check out How to cope with a naughty Labrador before you start. Then skip over to our training section. Dont worry about whether you will succeed, it isnt as hard as you might think. Once you make a plan and get going, training is actually a lot of fun. For you and for your dog.

Getting started with Labrador training

The pleasure of a well-trained and obedient dog are immeasurable. Training your dog is quite a journey and youll need to help and support along the way.

So do join the forum where you can chat with other labrador owners all at different stages of the training process. It is great to start training whilst your dog is young, but remember that a dog of any age can be trained. It is never too late to begin.