The key to most behavior problems is approaching things using the dog's natural instincts. Dogs see all the people and dogs in the household as a pack with each having their own rank in the pack and a top dog. Life is much easier if the 2 legged pack members outrank the 4 legged ones. You can learn to play the role of top dog by reading some books or going to a good obedience class. A good obedience class or book is about you being top dog, not about rewarding standard commands with a treat. Start at
Raising Your Dog with the Monks of New Skete For more on being top dog, see
Establishing and Keeping Alpha Position
The jumping can be corrected, but only if you can keep others from giving her attention when she jumps up. Consistently is very important in correcting jumping and other problems. Quickly correcting her each and every time she jumps on somebody is very important. Something bad has to happen each time. People are successful with a number of different things. One of the most gentle is to grab her front paws and hold her up. The traditional knee to the chest or step on her paws work well too. Stepping back and turning your back works very well. In each case apply ''Bad dog, its name off!'' in a firm, but not loud voice. Go ahead with it even if she is too quick to add a physical correction.
The solution to the chewing and fouling the house is to crate her when you aren't around. It is only natural that a puppy resists its crate at first. What the puppy
wants more than anything else is to be others, you, anyone else in the
household, and any other pets. In our modern society, even if we are home,
other things distract us from the attention an uncrated puppy must have. The
only real solution is to crate the dog when you aren't around. The dog may be
happier in its den than loose in the house. It relaxes, it feels safe in its
den. It rests, the body slows down reducing the need for water and relieving
its self. Dogs that have been crated all along do very well. Many of them
will rest in their crates even when the door is open. I think the plastic
ones give the dog more of a safe, enclosed den feeling. Metal ones can be put
in a corner or covered with something the dog can't pull in and chew. Select
a crate just big enough for the full grown dog to stretch out in.
Leave it some toys. Perhaps a Kong filled with peanut butter. Don't leave
anything in the crate the dog might chew up. It will do fine without even any
bedding. You will come home to a safe dog and a house you can enjoy.
A dog that has not been crated since it was little, may take some work.
Start out just putting its toys and treats in the crate. Praise it for going
in. Feed it in the crate. This is also an easy way to maintain order at
feeding time for more than one dog.
The "shut the puppy in a safe room" is a fallacy. Very few houses even have a
safe room. How many of us have a room with a hard surfaced floor and nothing
else? Most rooms have electrical cords to chew if nothing else. In addition
to destroying anything a bored puppy finds to chew, it may choke or have
intestinal blockage from the pieces. I had a friend that left her dog in a
"safe" room. It ate a hole in the floor covering. The safe rooms fail to
give the dog the comfort of the enclosed space their instinct requires. Nor
do they restrict activity extending the time the dog can go without relieving
itself.
The above are fundamental techniques I suggest for almost all behavior problems and should help with barking too. The truth is, Labs usually don't bark that much and I don't have methods of controlling barking that I have been successful using. It isn't even in the manual for them. The manual does have a suggested reading list which I put in the sticky at the top of the dog forum. One I have read is The Other End of the Leash by Patrica McConnell.
She suggests the first step is not to yell at the dog. After all, usually if one dog starts to bark, any others around will to. So yell at your dog when it barks and it is happy to have you bark with it. Quietly tell it enough and walk over to it with a treat, doesn't need to be very big. Let him know you have it and use it to lure him away from what he is barking at if anything, and praise him as he shifts his attention to the treat and away from barking. Once away from where he was barking, give him the treat.
Unlike much of my other advice, this is not something I have tried and found works. It does come from a reliable source and I would trust it more than something I found on a website I know little about. I just hope she isn't smart enough to figure out if she barks, she gets a treat plus your attention.
Many vets are now spaying females at 4 months. The sooner the better for her.
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