Tatze is calm these days (for a certain value of calm lol!) she is 3 years old in April. She has a two hour walk in the morning and, after that, snoozes 'till mid afternoon - the puppy can't get any play out of her until then! Her walks are in interesting places - woods, lakes, reservoirs with plenty to sniff and dogs to meet and hare around with. If the pup comes the walks are shorter but they run and run. But she is not even slightly calm in some situations - like meeting new people or greeting my brother when he comes home. Such situations are tooooo exciting!
I have a super excitable dog too - and it can be exhausting. He is a bit better these days, but he seriously still has his moments. Him getting a bit older helped, but not as much as training helped. I also recognise your feelings of struggling with an excitable dog at gundog training - this can be very frustrating, particularly when you see others moving on, but you can't get the calmness required so you can actually start training your dog! I so understand that one. I do agree with the others that she does not seem to be getting a lot of exercise. But I wouldn't just up her walking time, I'd massively up her training time. My dog benefits the most when I just train. To be honest, from what you say she doesn't get to be off lead in new, exciting, situations - so you can't take her from an enclosed field on her own and expect her to be able to cope in a gundog class with a lot of other dogs and dummies. It's just too big a jump for her. When you are working with a seriously excitable dog you have to break things down into tiny steps and do a lot of focus and reward for calm at each step before you move forwards. I've done the most extraordinary things to desensitise my very excitable dog to other dogs and other toys. I spent an entire summer working with a trainer just to be able to get my dog to be able to walk round a field with other dogs in it. I've had to desensitise him to dummies and toys over months, step by tiny step. Recognising that progress comes in tiny, tiny bits (but if you stick at it, you'll get there) is a major thing with a dog that is excessively excited. What you have to do is pick the distraction that you want to work on - say a person, or another dog and work through being able to get and keep your dog's attention to that distraction. You can only really effectively do this in training set ups, you can't do it effectively out and about on walks. Over the months, the things I've done training set ups on include: people, other dogs (massive amount of set ups on other dogs), tennis balls (that took months), footballs (ditto), excitable children, joggers, skateboards, kites, remote controlled cars, people lying on the floor, people playing games with moving objects, any object thrown, people carrying sticks, tennis ball chuckers, golfers, anything thrown...the list is endless. I've also done a lot of desnsitisation to the environment of a gundog class. I've sat for hours (not all at the same time) with my dog on a harness, tied to a fence, feeding him for calm (or calmer) behaviour. I've walked calming circles for what feels like days around the edges of a gundog class....and so on. It's just what you have to do if you have a super excitable dog, I'm afraid. These days, he is much, much better. The other day, when my dog stayed calm when other dogs were jumping round his head, the person I was with said to me "my next dog is going to be a nice calm Labrador like yours". I resisted the temptation to laugh my head off, and just said "yes, he's a good dog".
LOVE that!!!! @amandamumma one day you will find yourself saying: I miss those mad puppy days. My puppy has become an old man, I miss the boisterous pup. And then every now and then, when something excites him -- usually a dog visitor in our garden -- he will zoom around the swimming pool and leap up the steps onto the patio and fly down again, legs tucked under him as he races around, and I am so relieved to have my puppy back! He also gets super excited still when we visit neighbours up the road, and they always say: Here comes mad Snowie. And they love it, cos their dog is so timid and doesn't get up to any mischief. Whereas Snowie entertains them with his antics, the jumping on the trampoline (at ground level) their favourite. I take no offence when they say "he's loopy" (or words to that effect) because I know it is the situation that is bringing out the excitement in him and most of the time he's a gentleman. There was one trainer at the old school who said: he's a young boy, give him time to mature. It was in response to my wanting to join the agility class when he was a little over one years old, thought it would be good for Snowie to burn up energy. Oh my word... at the tryouts to get into the class we were told to play with our dogs with the toy we had brought -- they wanted to make sure your dog was excited enough to do agility but had good recall. Snowie decided everyone else's toys were nicer and raced around at top speed collecting other dog's toys, at one time with about three toys in his mouth, and the only time I could catch him and get back the toys was when he had to stop to make a poo. There was one tiny consolation: at least the worst he did was steal toys and not come when called; there was a dog that attacked another dog in all the wild excitement. I felt so sorry for the poor owner, she was mortified. But I felt embarrassed and deflated when our name was not called to join the class. That particular trainer was very kind, though, said Snowie was still very young, to wait a couple of years till he matured, that we could always come back to agility then. I was very hard on myself thinking that my young pup should be a machine, doing everything he was told. Luckily I was in email contact with the owner of Snowie's brother (equally boisterous) telling me: don't worry, all will settle down. She was experienced with Labradors and was my encouragement, let me see the light at the end of the tunnel.
You are correct, she does not get a chance to be with other dogs in new and exciting situations; I suppose I feel afraid that she'll either run off or get too physical with other dogs (with really boisterous playing) - I recall another comment earlier in this thread around not encouraging the unwanted behaviour by putting her into that situation and another saying the opposite, i.e. she needs to get used to other dogs in order to desensitise her to distractions such as other dogs and people. There are very limited opportunities in the areas around here for off-lead dog walking and we have had several cases of Alabama Rot in the obvious places I'd take her, so maybe a couple of starting points are to post my location and ask other members if they have any suggestions as to where to walk her within driving distance; whereabouts would I do that in this forum? Also, I think I maybe need to be with a new trainer? I feel that I need someone who understands where I am coming from too. I know that I have to learn as well as my dog, but all training so far feels wrong somehow.
You need to both have your dog around other dogs, and not allow her to be rewarded for behaviour you don't want. This means you have to be in a controlled situation, a training situation, with your dog on a lead or long line at first (it is best to have an instructor show you how to use a long line properly). It is very tricky to arrange other dogs to train around, that's for sure. I think either finding an instructor that will provide well trained dogs (which is what I did), or finding a very small, quiet class, might be the thing. You could post in 'off topic' or in 'dog friendly places' to ask for suggestions for places to walk your dog off lead. Although you might also consider looking around your local area to see whether you could rent a fenced field or something like that?
I use this website to look for new dog walks, I have found quite a few already! It is worth paying the one-off small fee to get a bit more information as well as postcode location. Surprising really what is on your doorstep! http://www.drivingwithdogs.co.uk/wa...ingRegion=13&listingCategories=#listingSearch The easiest way I have found to navigate is scroll down until you get to the UK map, then click on your area. This brings up a map of just your section..eg southwest, then you can zoom in to get more detail.
Thank you for this, I have checked it out and I know the places in my area - lots of dogs and walkers around, so ok up to a point, nowhere I can let her off her lead apart from maybe one location. I will try that! I get nervous when other people are about as some hate dogs and can get really annoyed if they are accosted/greeted (depending on your point of view ) by a dog; I just imagine what they'd be like if mine was offlead!!!!
Yes, I do visit a secure dog field but not every day, that would be the ideal - and of course there is a cost attached. While I have 10 mins I will post regarding off-lead walking suggestions and maybe getting a dog walking group together? I'd feel more comfortable about walking on unfamiliar public footpaths with others who might be familiar with the route.
I feel your pain as my Milo is a super exuberant type of dog too. He is just so friendly and wants to meet and greet everyone and everything! He just loves life and hasn't a mean bone in his body just some naughty ones lol. I made the mistake of letting people fuss him when he was a puppy so it took a while to discourage him from jumping up at strangers as he got into the habit. I usually carry treats so if we need to go past another bouncy dog or interesting situation I can distract him. Getting him to sit and treating while people with dogs pass is often what I do to avoid jumping up. I think Julie's idea of walking up and down/sitting in a particular patch and getting your dog to focus on you rather than distractions like other dogs is a brilliant idea. I don't have many friends with dogs so it has been hard to try to get him calm around other dogs. I think it is almost a case of almost getting these dogs to be a bit blase about all the stuff they currently find exciting. It is really hard to persevere but you will get there in the end. Don't be too hard on yourself. Many of us here know what it is like to be owned by a bouncy lab! If it is any consolation we struggled in puppy training classes as all the other dogs were tiny or large really docile creatures! I never went back after puppy foundation as I felt really demoralised. Having said that, he did pass! I haven't many places where I am happy about Milo being off lead really locally so understand your problem about not being able to give your dog off lead exercise. He has a mix of walks - some on lead round the estate, others off lead or on the long line. I've gone back to using a long line (30ft) so he can have more freedom but we can grab or step on the line if we see another dog or person approaching. I am concerned that where we walk by the canal there are often cycles,dogs off lead, people with pushchairs, old people etc and it isn't worth the risk of him bounding up to them. Perhaps a long line might help you? I've recently bought some new agility equipment. A height adjustable jump and set of weaving poles. With the tunnel we have we have made a little course in the living room. This seems to tire him out. I'm also trying to do little bits of training as these bouncy labs need mental stimulation. I've made a snuffle mat too - you can find instructions on the internet - which he loves as I scatter kibble for him to find. A treat ball or kibble hunt outside or hidden inside always keeps them busy. this might get rid of some of the excess energy. Wishing you all the best. Sue x
Thanks @suze12, what you say really strikes a chord with me. I need to go back to basics with training but - yes, I am hard on myself because all I see is everyone else's dogs being well behaved, docile, etc. and my girl is not. However, I love the idea of a snuffle mat, she's all about the nose so she'll love that I think . Maybe I just need to lighten up and do some nice, happy training or fun activities for a change... might do us both good!
Hi there, all of what you are saying sounds so familiar i have just come back on to the forum for the same reason.Although your post is a month old i had to answer. Milo is 2 in May and i adore him but i didn't realize so many ups and downs (although are worth it when he gives me that loving Lab look ). He can be the perfect dog and then OMG (no comment). I have been taking him one to one training for a year and he has come along way plus my input everyday but i really do believe it is an on going process constant training until at least 4 as at the age of 2 i believe they are just naughty teenagers .Those of you who have kids know the stages of development and i do believe dogs are the same. Keep up the training persevere but most of all enjoy !!!!!! They soon grow into boring Labs that prefer to sleep this is the fun stage. (They grow too quick ).
