Alfie is now a very large 6 month old puppy.I did the local puppy training classes and then recently we have been doing some gundog training(started off well but we now have an instructor who talks for so long about her own dogs that Alfies either trying to run off or lays down looking cheesed off) When I practice recall at home or in the forest he comes to his whistle really well. BUT when we are near other dogs hes GONE!! This morning as we approached the beach he was pulling like mad and I'm looking like a complete inadequate and as I look up I see the woman who took the first dog training classes that I went to looking at me!! She told me that I should not be using the training lead(that the gundog trainers told me to use) I must admit that when he pulls if he is excited I hate the noise from his throat,even if I stop and make him sit he does it then walks to heel but starts to tear off again. Anyway after this I went onto the beach where he ran after the two dogs that he saw,leaving me mortified again.After Id got him back on the lead I bumped into two women with a Labrador and I just burst out crying!!! I was so embarrassed and they were so kind and said that of course things would get better. Please could you tell me what Alfie should have..a harness a collar and lead or this training lead?
He should definitely not be on a slip lead (I believe that's what you're referring to) unless he can walk nicely without any pulling, lunging etc. It can be really awful for a puppy's delicate throat. Some "traditional" gundog trainers use them to give "corrections" (otherwise known as a swift tug), in order to "teach" the dog to walk nicely, but that causes them pain and so I wouldn't recommend it in the slightest. Until he can walk nicely without pulling, he needs to be on a harness, to avoid pressure on his throat. If he pulls towards the beach and you allow him to keep pulling you forward, he's getting rewarded for pulling (because he's getting close to where he wants to be) and so will learn that it's a behaviour that works. He'll then keep doing it in more and more situations. So, you need to make sure that the instant he puts any pressure on that lead, you stop and only move forward when the lead is slack again. Don't tell him to sit, wait for him to offer a slack lead. It may take a minute or two. If he's too excited to think straight, turn and walk him away from the beach (or whatever), praising him when he walks nicely. Then, have another go at approaching it from farther away. Again, as soon as he starts to pull, stop or turn and walk away. You only get to move toward the beach when the lead is slack. If you run out of time and don't get there, you don't get there. But never get there when he's pulling. He doesn't need a run on the beach, so don't feel bad about that. What he needs is mental stimulation, and you're giving him that by training him how to walk nicely. So try not to get frustrated about not getting anywhere, the training time is what's important, not the physical ground you're covering. Set him up for success by keeping his excitement levels within what he can cope with, and you'll get there. As for his behaviour of running off, there are two things here. One, you need to work on your recall (buy Total Recall if you don't already have it) and, two, you need to work on him not running off in the first place. You do that by keeping him on lead (a long line if necessary) and working on lowering his excitement levels around other dogs. Again, starting at a distance he can manage, playing with him yourself, and rewarding him for keeping engaged with you. If you're boring, he's going to look at how to entertain himself elsewhere, so make yourself the most exciting thing in his world, by playing training games with him and using lots of rewards.
Good advice above. The only other things I'd suggest is...why have him on the beach? Betsy is 5.5months old and has been to a small, quiet beach once. She probably won't go again for another couple of months. I wanted her to see the sea, and have a play that day, but my OH was there with my older dog, and Betsy was running round like a hooligan, completely engrossed in chasing my other dog, and ignoring me. There is nothing in this that I want her to learn, so that won't be repeated again until she can pay attention to me when my older dog is there in much less exciting circumstances. I took Charlie onto beaches with other dogs when he was a puppy, he had a great time. I then spent the next 2 years getting him back under control and training him not to run over to any other dog he sees. With Betsy, she is spending her puppyhood learning to focus on me, and later, when her recall and stop and focus are great, she can go on the beach. I honestly think half the battle is not so much training a young dog to do what you want, but stopping them learning things you don't want them to learn (e.g. what fun it is to leave mum, leg it across the beach, and play with other dogs). And ditto lead walking, really. If he can't walk properly absolutely everywhere else, he is not going to walk properly heading towards, or on a beach. Even now, I view walking my 3.5 year old dog along a busy beach, with balls and other dogs, on lead as a training exercise, I go deliberately to train heel and loose lead in that exciting environment (the most exciting I have apart from a Gundog shoot over day). No way I'd expect my 5.5month old puppy to be able to walk along a beach on lead and stay sane.
