We are going on holiday tomorrow, for 9 nights, and leaving Indie with the dog walker who does home-stays. Since we got Indie at the start of April, she has spent a total of one night away from us, and I am panicking about leaving her for so long this time! We are only going because of forceful persuasion from my husband :/ She loves the dog walker, likes the other dogs she will be staying with, and the walker is great with her and her own dogs. So I am not worried about her welfare or anything like that. I'm sure she will have a great time My worry is that I have put soooo much effort into her training...every walk, pretty much every moment I am with her I am working to make her a polite pup instead of the wild crocodog that we started with. And I am panicked thinking that this can all be undone! It's inevitable that she will be allowed to do things that she is not allowed to do at home (sleep on the sofa, barge out the door when it's opened etc). But my main worry is about free running - we have had a horrible time of it the last month or so after our 'walking intervention' - now every walk with us, she is kept on a training line with her focus on us and she has not been allowed to run off after animals and sniffs. If she has 10 days of running about free with other dogs, will this undo all our hard work? Or is their a chance she could still understand that when she is with us, she stays close? I have just been so focussed on preventing her from getting any more experiences of chasing rabbits and running wild, in the hope that she might gradually forget how great it was...i am filled with horror at the idea we might have to start from the beginning with it...and apart from all that I will really really miss her Anyone else left their dog for so long, in a bit of a critical stage in training? Did you survive??
You can ask your dog walker to keep your dog on lead. We went away for 9 days this year, our boy is 2 so not to bad, but once we were home we did notice if we hadn't spotted a dog before he did, he would go running after the dog, completely ignoring our calls. I think he absolutely loved being with the other dogs that he thought every dog was his new friend. This lasted I would say a month or so, then all of a sudden we noticed that he was listening to us again.
I agree, sounds like it would be good to just ask that she be kept on the lead. But a 9 day holiday away from you shouldn't spell doom for training. You may, in fact, find that she sticks to you even closer when you come back, at least for a while. Before I had a service dog who could travel with me, I had to travel quite a bit on business and board my dog occasionally. He LOVED his caregivers and I knew he was safe so wouldn't worry (too much) but boy, howdy - was he ever the attentive little cuddle bear when he got home again!
I've just collected Ripple this evening from a week with the dog walker. She's already told me she had terrible trouble with his poo eating, I've been working really hard on keeping him away from poo so I imagine he's gone a few steps back with this . Everything else I will have to wait and see. Ripple was so excited to see us that he came home, drank a bowl of water and then threw up everywhere . Time to re-establish all his routines now.
Based on my experience with my older dog....running about free does undo all your hard work. Sorry. I wish I could say it doesn't, but it does. I wouldn't worry about the sofa, and the doors and stuff like that - that's very easy to put right anyway. The sofa and the doors are under your control, and a bit of extra training will soon sort it out. So don't sweat that kind of stuff. But chasing rabbits etc. No. Just have your dog walker keep her on her lead. Pay her extra to work on her loose lead walking if you have to do so. Charlie is nearly 4 years old now. I still pay for individual, on lead, walks for him with my dog walker and I always will. No-one has Charlie off lead apart from me (and OH in my approved places - who despite his failings has suffered enough at the paws of an out of control Charlie sufficiently such that he now to sticks to my rules ).
Ugh I agree, I thought deep down it would be really bad but was hoping that I was wrong. I don't think the dog walker can keep her on lead, she takes the daycare dogs for the pack walk that she does that is all off lead in woods - I have never tried to walk Indie on a lead with a pack of off-lead dogs in a wood but I doubt she could cope with that. Training line would be a disaster I think! In hindsight I should have perhaps given her to someone else who was able to do lead walks, but this is the only person Indie knows so I thought it would be less stressful for her to be left with someone familiar. But I regret it now
Don't regret It, although Buster did ignore our calls when we came back, seeing the pictures our walker put up on a daily basis with him walking/playing in the woods with his new friends meant so much to me, seeing him enjoy himself. Yes it took a bit of time to get back to routine and him to listen to us but we got there.
We went away for three weeks when Snowie was one years old. Our house cleaner moved into our house and looked after Snowie - he adores her, she him. She only walked him on lead and only let him off in the small park near our house. He was very happy in that time it appeared. We, however, missed him terribly! When we got home he was overjoyed to see us, it was just wonderful - he certainly did not forget us! I don't recall it made any difference to how he responded to us on walks -i.e. training was not undone (erm... he was just as naughty!). But for our cleaner, it made a huge difference and her bond with him became stronger and he was easier for her to walk (she looks after him three times a week). But one thing I'd make very clear is how you want your dog managed should she need the vet. I was worried Snowie might get stung a bee (he had before and swelled up and scratched frantically) and told our cleaner that if he's overly itchy he must get to a vet asap. Which did happen and the vet gave him a cortisone injection. However, he had not been stung by a bee but instead had fleas - mild scratching and no swelling or any indication of a bee sting (we got home the next day and it was very obvious from all accounts). I was very annoyed that the vet administered cortisone willy-nilly without first inspecting for fleas (apparently she barely examined him - we stopped going to her thereafter). I can't blame our cleaner - she knows how we worry about Snowie. So before you go you might want to leave instructions for health care for your dog walker and the vet. Enjoy your holiday! It will rush past very quickly. But I totally understand your not wanting to leave Indie. My favorite holidays are when we take Snowie with us!
Ah I remember the first time I left Dexter,I cried all the way to the airport and we are notorious ( and ridiculed ALL THE TIME ) for cutting trips short and coming home early! It could be worth talking to your dog sitter to see if you can come to some kind of arrangement where she could just take your dog for a lead walk seperately? My dog is a chaser and has a pooor recall from new dogs .I messed putting these right completely with my inexperience and lack of knowledge ,it would really help you if you could work something out to prevent your dog getting the chance to self reward...but.....on the other hand ,don't stress yourself if you can't ,you sound happy and confident with the care your dog is getting while you are away and that is so important xxx
We go away several times a year without the dogs. They don't forget anything. Tatze goes to my friend who uses all the same commands and the pups go to other puppy walkers who use all the same routines and commands - this is effective in keeping them on track They never forget you. Our pups go to school then we see them six months later - they remember us every time ...
I don't think the problem is with the dog forgetting regular training, but the problem with practicing chasing behaviours is very real. Being someone with a dog who finds chasing massively reinforcing, I wouldn't allow this to happen for nine whole days. This really could cause pretty big ongoing problems. So, if the dog walker is unable to walk Indie on-lead with the other dogs, I'd be paying her extra to take Indie out separately.
Thanks everyone. I emailed the dog walker, I just have to wait to see what she says. I have stupidly left this very late really to spring a whole new walking regime on the dog walker, up until last night I was fixated on how stressed Indie would be away from home and how to minimise her going into hyper adrenaline crocodog mode, so I thought the dog walker was the perfect solution as she knows her and her house. But then I suddenly realised the problem with walking I guess I am on damage limitation now...
When our dogs have been kenneled for a week, I haven't noticed any loss of training when we picked them up. The kennel boards mostly gun dogs, and lets them run free together on 70 acres 2x per day. Admittedly our dogs may not be as well trained to begin with, but I haven't noticed any backsliding.
I bet she won't be you know ....Dexter stays in our house when we go away and he looks bereft when we leave,he won't get up to see us,he won't wag his tail when we talk to him .....then my sitter sends me a picture of him 5 minutes after we've left and he's absolutely fine.....well,actually he's usually moved himself into her room and onto her bed! X
Yep, so true! We went away for two weeks and left Ella with our friends (and her bestest friend Hamish - choccy lab). I was sure she'd miss us and was worried she wouldn't settle. A few hours later we got a photo of her fast asleep on their bed! I was so relieved but, at the same time, a little upset that she didn't even seem to miss us!
