Ok so my Charlie is almost 1.6 years now (male lab) and i was busy with my life lately so couldn't follow up with his walks and training myself and it was all my husband's duty past few months but since he is not good at training a dog everything got messed up Charlie is all hyper active doesn't listen to the commands as he used to.....does whatever he wishes....again started chewing shoes and newspaper and other items whenever he sees one in his approach......walks like he is the boss...pulls like a horse.... all i want to say is that he seems way too naughty and way too disobedient these days..... Honestly im all lost i dont know where to start from i get cold shivers wheb i think about how and from where to start....im in India these days and we dont get dog classes here all we could find is a dog trainer.....do you really think I should call a dog trainer - not sure how they works here and i have heard that some dog trainers even beat the dogs sometimes - i dont want my dog to be punished like that at all....i dont know what to do....you can see my frustration and confusion even in my post....please friends i need help....i love my baby like anything and i want him to be a healthy happy obedient good dog....please help me out
The answer really is to spend time with your dog. At his age he'll be full of energy and in my opinion needs a minimum of 1 1/2 hours exercise a day. So either you or someone you trust (whether family or paid help) need to do this. As regards training - pick something , like lead walking, and work at it every day. Many people simply refuse to move until their dog stops pulling. If the dog pulls they stop again. Or if you have a safe off-lead area you could walk and play in this and every so often put Charlie on the lead and do a few steps of walking to heel by luring with treats. In this method you slowly increase the distance and fade the lure (making it a reward at the end.) Keep things out of Charlie's way that he might chew and shouldn't, and provide safe things for him to chew. Many people use filled kongs, some of us use rawhide chews, I use pet shop bones ( which some people dislike as they believe they can damage teeth.) Only use a dog trainer if you can be sure he will use kind methods. I wouldn't send your dog to someone but perhaps employ them to help you train. Hope you can find a way to make things better for you all.
Take a step back. Make a list of the behaviours you want to improve. Move the newspapers etc so that he can't reach them. Then go back to square one. Use the articles on the main site here. You will need perseverance, but you WILL get there.
I won't repeat the good advice so far but I would add that if you trained these things before you may well be pleasantly surprised how quickly he remembers. Good luck, take a breath and make a start. It will get better
Sounds like this isn't your dog's fault.. Your dog isn't naughty or disobedient. A lack of training or confusing or unskilled training is always the human's fault. The good thing is, you will be able to fix all these problems just by going back to what you were doing with him before. Just don't be tempted to blame your dog. .
This is so very true....I fully agree that its all our fault and not his :-/ He is such a lovely and nice dog but its all coz of our tight schedules that we kinda stopped giving him that proper training daily our fault only Thanks @Joy, @Boogie, @bbrown and @Oberon for your kind advices <deep breathes> Im gonna start again from step one
You'll get there Is there a way of helping your husband to learn about training, so if you have to leave him in charge again he won't undo all your hard work? Would he be willing to watch and learn from you?
You've been given good advice so far, just want to say try to not to be overwhelmed by it all. Pick one or two things and work on those. When you start to see encouragement to do more. Try to stay positive. And don't think you have to devote hours a day to this - I mean, if you have that kind of time, great. But otherwise even breaking it up into 3 fifteen minute segments would be fine. Or whatever you can manage. The important thing is to start, and to keep going. It really would help if he could get more exercise or walks, so if you could hire a dog walker or come home at lunch and walk him or whatever that would really help. Good luck, and keep us posted!
This is where the hard part comes....my husband loves charlie like a baby and his extra love spoils my charlie :-| I tried showing him what all he should follow to keep charlie a good trained dog but he always ends up spoiling him more :-| It's seems kind of vicious cycle for me !!!
Yes we take him out for walks twice a day and i'll start with walk training first....once he starts walking the way he used to then i'll start training him for other things at home....yes im thinking about finding a good dog trainer who can help me out in this whole process!!
Husband training required! Get him to read this - http://www.thelabradorsite.com/labrador-behaviour/#stealing Lots of men learn better by reading than listening.
I really like this advice! My first puppy had a massive attention span (not that I realised it as he was my first puppy) and I'd work with him for 30 minutes a couple times a day. Cut to my second puppy, and this same tactic just about blew his little gasket. Nothing seemed to work with his training and where I used to love working with my first puppy, the second kind of became a chore. I may have mentioned this before, but I (I'm so ashamed) used to refer to Brogan as "Sweet but dumb as a box of rocks". Then I noticed that he did seem to learn anything I taught him right before meals (my dogs always have to do some little trick/task before the food bowl goes down). So we upped the walks/hikes, which we already both loved, then broke up the training into little 5 minute bursts 3-4 times a day. It really made a huge difference and both he and I had much more fun. Also some good advice that I got early on which I've found helpful when you are feeling frustrated: always end on a positive. So even if you feel like a session has been pretty abysmal, for the last couple tasks, take it back to something that your pup is great at and loves doing. For me it was always a recall with a front sit because my dogs both LOVED that. Even if I'd wanted to bonk them on the head 20 seconds prior, an enthusiastic recall ending with a sweet face with big eyes looking up at me as if to say, "Hey, I'm so cool - I LOVE doing that!" really went a long way.
