Quiting with the punishment, and finding a good, positive reinforcement trainer is good advice. Perhaps you could try it?
When he starts this behaviour and jumps away from you get up and turn your back on him and walk away saying nothing and completely ignoring him he will then think something is wrong he should calm straight down and return to your loving friend don't use an electric collar or any other form of restraint they don't work it's a phase he's going through just pushing his luck to see how far he can push you keep doing this he will soon grow out of it seen similar behaviour loads of times hope this works for you it has for me when training problem dogs
Ok I know I'm a bit obsessed with the benefits of playing tug but I've really found it a great way to get real focus on me ( my last dog, a Lab, was too meek and mild to play it, but my previous spaniels loved it and were very obedient). The thing is, tug isn't a fight to get control of the rope, it's a short tussle (a few seconds at first) and then teach a release cue, by swapping for a food reward ( something really delicious at first) before the game starts again. So it's a way of teaching control. When you're out and about, if your puppy won't take food then I'd say he's too stressed so you need to be further away from the scary thing. I know that's not always easy to arrange, but possibly you could have him in the car and park at a distance so he could experience new things from the safety of the car at first ( still with food rewards) and this would also mean you weren't struggling to hold him on a lead.
If he won't engage for a super high value treat (something that you know he likes, rather than something that you believe he should) then you're simply too close to the distraction. You need to move farther away until you're at a distance he can cope with, and start again.
Have you read what I'm writing? I am using a very good trainer and I was begging for help. How about explaining to me how you would keep a dog from jumping up on you?
Thank you, I'll try to see what's coming a little sooner. It surprises me, though, what sets him off. Yesterday the neighbor parked a lawn mower beside my motor home after he mowed the lawn for me (husband had surgery and is off his feet). Ollie got really freaked out about that mower. I tried to walk him toward it while talking to him but he wasn't having anything to do with it so I didn't push him.
Good idea with the car! I did make him wait in the car (with me) until he quit whining and jumping up and down when we went to training. I wanted him to be a little calmer before I took him out. My previous lab, Aster, had such a gentle mouth that she once brought me a live mallard drake, uninjured, and dropped a baby pheasant into my husband's hand when he told her to "give it." Also uninjured.
Yes, it's hard when your dog is reacting to something that you can't predict. In that scenario, I'd walk away and feed some really good treats at a distance the dog isn't bothered by the mower and gradually build up to getting closer, but only move closer when your dog is really indifferent at the distance he is at. Don't feel you have to move directly towards it, either. You can try walking past it, but on the other side of the street, for example, so even at your closest, you're still a long way from it, and approaching at a less direct angle. You may find the book (that I recommend time and again and wish I had shares in) Control Unleashed by Leslie McDevitt a useful read. It's written about dogs used for agility, but I've found the techniques in it extremely useful for my two nervy dogs.
My girl (now 3 years old) used to jump up at everyone!! It took months and months of asking people to turn their back to her and not engage with her until she sat (she still jumps at certain people that she knows!). My mum wouldn't visit us for 8 months as she is petrified of dogs. It took about 5 visits to teach Harley not to jump up at my mum. I kept her on lead to start with, waited until she calmed down a bit then gave her a Kong and sat on the floor next to her. For the first few visits she wasn't interested in the kong, but by the third visit she realised no one would pay her attention whilst she was jumping. 2 years later I don't put a lead or collar on Harley when my family come and my mum even gives Harley treats now I use a K9 bridle headcollar - it has really helped me control Harley in new places as unfortunately I wasn't consistent when she was little for loose lead walking. This headcollar doesn't pull their heads sideways and they can't get any force to pull. She is much better in most places now, but I still carry it with me just incase. Good luck with your training sessions and just remember consistency is key (I learned the hard way!)
Yes. couldn't get passed the prong collar bit. Look, I appreciate you are asking for help, but there is no point in getting all shirty, defensive and blaming others because they pointed out you are doing something that is downright cruel to your dog. Ok. Take the prong collar off him. Stop kneeing him when he jumps up. Build up the connection and relationship with your dog. You do this day in, day out, by rewarding his attention on you, his focus on you, calm behaviour. It takes ages. You start in your home, and you work on it for a long time. If your dog has been rehersing bad behaviours, and it sounds like he has, then you can expect to spend twice as long correcting these. So if he has been jumping up successfully for 5 months, expect to spend 10 months correcting it. A very first exercise, just the first one - to write out the whole 10 months (or whatever) would take far too long - is this: Have your dog on a lead in the kitchen. Have a strange person come into view. If your dog moves from your side (you need to have trained and heavily reinforced a stay at your side in advance), then the person steps back, out of view. If your dog stays sitting, reward. Work up, tiny step by step, taking many days over it if necessary, until the person can walk up to you and have a conversation and your dog will stay sitting. Then repeat with a new person. Then in your front room. Then in your garden. Then your yard. Then in a quiet street. Then in another quiet street. Then in the pet store...I'm sure you get the idea.
Thanks, Naya. My daughter (she's 37) was here the weekend my husband had surgery. We put the leash on Ollie and Katie walked him all over the house, fed him treats, made him sit by her chair, ignored him but kept him close and worked at it for over an hour. He seemed quite calm. Then she unclipped the leash and he leaped into her lap (she's 5 months pregnant!) like he had never seen her before. I need her to live closer so she can come over every couple days instead of every couple of months! I tried a gentle leader at the training center and Ollie went crazy. He rolled, spun and bucked like a rodeo bull for about ten minutes and then just shook. He did about the same thing with a harness the next week so we went back to a chain and nylon training collar. It works fine when he''s calm, not so much when he's not calm. Thank you!
I did, and provided an excellent link for you too. It's going to take time and hard work to catch up on missed socialisation, but it can be done.
I appreciate that and I read the article and found it very interesting but it didn't address how to do it right, only what was wrong.
As I said, the rest of the site is full of excellent articles on training. Here is a link - http://www.thelabradorsite.com/labrador-training/ I got Tatze at ten weeks old three years ago. I have always had dogs including an Irish water hound, a Manchester terrier x, collies, a Jack Russell and Cavaliers - all rescues except the collies, which were farm dogs. I was shocked by my puppy Labrador's craziness and came to this site for help. Turns out this is normal for puppy Labs! I have since discovered that this is true, as I now raise pups for Guide Dogs. It sounds like your pup has missed out on essential 'outside world' socialisation and is both excited and scared by what he sees. You are making it 100 times worse by hurting him with a prong collar. The vets assistant should be struck off for hurting a dog imo. But you can turn all this round - 1. Get rid of the prong collar. 2. Start playing the sounds of the outside world to the pup, very quietly at first (this is done for ours in the nest) 3. Train him, using all the techniques in the articles I linked to, to respond to your voice commands and hand signals - making sure he enjoys it. 4. Slowly start taking him out and looking at traffic/people/dogs/ everything else at a distance until he become familiar and less tense/excited. It will take, time, patience and determination - but I know many people who took on rescue dogs who were tense/scared and they now have lovely, socialised dogs.
Hi Kelly A couple more articles here for you to read. Not sure if anyone has mentioned this, but get your puppy a house-line so that you have a way of controlling him when he gets over excited indoors. I hope you find the following helpful http://www.thelabradorsite.com/no-more-jumping-up/ http://www.thelabradorsite.com/how-to-cope-with-an-overexcited-labrador-puppy/
I hesitate to jump in here since I am always asking for help myself. This forum has been helpful to me but I am struggling with our own puppy raising issues so no "expert" advice here. The answers are always things that take work and have steps that are small and hopefully lead to the next step and then you see some progress. My boy is about the same age as yours and he is quite a handful, two handfuls! He is so excited when going out and very strong. He just wants to get to the people to love them or other dogs but in a fashion that could cause problems. My own fear of him getting lose or hurting himself or someone else has been something I have had to work on. We are very rural also and his outside contact is more limited. Someone here suggested the Control Unleashed book and we are working on some of the exercises in there in addition to the Happy Puppy book. Total Recall is ordered and will be next. One thing the Control book has gotten across to me is how tiny the steps need to be for success and then you can build on that. We do the mat and he only gets treats now when on the mat. Before the food bowl goes down, on the mat, before a kong, on the mat. Now he runs to the mat when I am fixing his food but I never thought we would get there. NEVER! The Control Unleashed book has an exercise I am working on that I think would help you maybe. It is "Reorienting" I think it will be the basis of lots of good training. My boy is very food motivated too but when he is really excited to get to someone new, no food or kong or anything will get his attention. I get it! But small steps that will train him to focus will lead to him paying attention in more excited situations, at least I hope so. We did try some harnesses that didn't help so we do now use the Gentle Leader although I am not a fan of it. My puppy didn't like it either and did the same behavior you are talking about. I swear he did. But the video that came with it is helpful if you do the steps. Now he sits for it, although he does frown at it and me. I can put it on easily with quite a few bits of hot dog and praise. The hot dogs are KEY to getting his attention and cooperation still but thats ok for now. Lots of treats, out for short walk, back with treats. Repeat a few times a day and he got used to it pretty quickly. This is turning into a long post, sorry. Your puppy is still young and things can turn around! I think of mine as a two year old toddler who is strong as an ox and wants his way. He would be the child in the grocery store ripping stuff off the shelves But he is my child and its one tiny step at a time.
Thank you, Celin! Having someone actually understanding what is happening and keeping it on my level is very helpful! I asked for help for a specific situation because it was so totally unsafe to take Ollie to the vet that day and I had hoped people had ideas for that sort of situation. Ollie is my fourth lab (I've also had one golden) over the past 25 years and I've never had a dog act like this. I understand training takes a lot of time, consistency and more consistency and tips are appreciated, but what I was hoping for was some ideas of how to keep us both safe in a situation where there was no choice but to take him to the vet by myself. He got his cone of shame off this morning and is one happy boy today! I think I'll work with the Gentle Leader when we go to the trainer this week if I'm able to. Thanks again.
When are you next going to the vet? As you know this sends him through the roof. I would be planning to go back many times before your next appointment. Put him in a harness or flat collar and lead. I would ask your trainer to come with you and help you. Take a huge amount of treats with you and reward every step that stays on the floor, reward every time he looks at you. If he gets over excited or stressed move away from whatever is winding him up til he's calm again. Don't expect to fix it in one session and it won't get fixed in training class either.
