Oh yes, for sure. It's not unusual to have a bit of regression in toilet training. Sounds like you had a great day at the park, brilliant.
At pretty much 5 months old Chewie sure has become more of a handful! He is jumping a lot more and trying to countersurf. We are going to have to get a barrier for the kitchen ASAP. He seems to get "off" but obviously the counters are quite tempting. Toilet training is mostly very good, but I think he is marking now. He has done a couple of tiny wees on his mat in the living room. He hasn't had an accident anywhere else for more than a month. Not sure what we can do about this? Loose lead walking is up and down. He is often a bit slow to warm up in the morning- "What did you get me out of bed for mum?" Sometimes he just doesnt want to walk, but most of the time he is fine and trots along, giving us pretty good attention, i.e. looking for his treats! He pulls like mad if another dog is close by, but the distance that he will be calm at is slowly getting smaller using "look at that". His recall is brilliant most of the time. He recalled away from a group of hounds at the park. Admittedly he then went back to them and had to be carried off... he did also try to mug some picnickers at our local park. I feel like we are always apologising to someone! Oh, my husband has taught him to high 5, which is very cute.
Hey @Chewies_mum - great to hear an update. Sounds like you're making some great progress - the fact that Chewie is off the lead on walks is a major step. I worry I'll never be brave enough to do that though I'll have to bite the bullet one day. We are also sick of hearing the word "off" in our house - it is driving me bananas.
I have to admit I only let him off lead when there's the two of us. I definitely don't on our weekday morning walks because I'm too sleepy to give chase. Maybe you'd feel more confident if you were with other people? That also gives you a chance to play recall games. I was just telling my OH that I feel like a broken record going "off, off, off, off" ad nauseam.
We just got back from our first "manners" class and it was so disheartening. There were two other toy dogs there and he was so excited and bouncy, he forgot all the things that we normally do at home and on our walks. I was really hoping for other big dogs at this class, or rather... big dog people who understand what life is like with a big puppy. Instead we got a toy poodle and its smug parents who insisted on using a clicker in class, which distracted all the other dogs. We forgot our clicker, so Chewie was so confused and frustrated whenever they clicked. And then they were rolling their eyes at him barking and carrying on because he was frustrated. The trainer (we know her from puppy preschool) was lovely and did make the point that his behaviour was totally normal, but it's hard to not feel like a failure when it all goes put the window.
So... we made sure he had some exercise and a little food before training today and it did go better. His attention was a lot better, and while he did still bark, he barked a lot less, so we'll take that. Part of the problem is that he LOVES the trainer. He was so happy to see her he was bouncing all over the place He did really well with heel-walking, stay and stand. Is it always the lab owner feeling vaguely embarrassed by their puppy?
We had a pretty good day at "school" today. The trainer was particularly impressed with his road crossing and "stay." Chewie will now stay when you do silly things in front of him (he even did this in class, on a patch of grass next to the station with 2 other dogs around!), when you turn your back, walk behind him and walk out of sight for 5 seconds. He did get a little yappy in class out of excitement at seeing the instructor also known as "nice lady who gives me treats when I sit in front of her." Oh well. Keep treating for quiet! It was better than prior weeks anyway.
Maybe tell the instructor NOT to give your puppy treats for sitting in front of her? I personally flatly refuse to allow any instructor to handle my dogs! It only encourages them to expect treats from other people. (Fine if you have a nervous dog where that might help, super unhelpful for confident dogs though).
Probably good idea, although our next and final class is having a cup of coffee at a cafe so she probably won't be treating him. We will be though, in the interest of world peace! I missed his last class as I was in the emergency department having my ankle xrayed, but my OH assured me that his recall was fantastic and that he was able to do some basic weaving both on and off lead.
It is pretty horrible looking, but nothing major is broken, hooray! And, as an added bonus, Chewie has learnt to retrieve his dummy which is perfect timing, because I'm in no state to fetch it!
Nothing broken is always good news! Hope it's feeling (and looking!) better really soon. And GO CHEWIE! He's super clever, and he's got great timing
We have just finished our Manners classes. Chewie has come a long way with his "stays" and can now stay when you briefly leave the room and when you walk behind him. He is walking better on lead and only pulls when another dog passes close by or when a person gives him attention without asking me first (grrrr). We are working on LAT and hopefully that will improve. Our final class was at a cafe and he settled beautifully into a 'down' but would bark every few minutes because he was so excited. We clicked and treated the quiet moments and he did eventually quieten down a bit. We also went for an on lead walk this afternoon and he calmly looked at a cat and some turkeys. I find that the C & T when he is calmly looking at something works so well to remind him not to lunge and bark. He is a lovely, affectionate dog and such a fast learner. His main issues are excitability and overfriendliness. So... a normal lab. Our trainer has suggested that he might like doing scent work or search and rescue training for more stimulation. We do love training with him, so we'll see!
More good news! Our persistence at dinner time is paying off. Chewie stares at us for a little while then wanders off to his bed and lies down with a toy, or has a nap. This is such a change from the puppy who yapped and yapped every time I tried to eat something. Very proud of him.
We are now 8 months old. Oh my. In some ways he is so much better and in other ways he is more difficult. The good: No barking at mealtimes. No accidents in house for months. Mostly walks well on lead, including past people walking or running, unless they give him attention. Settles well after training or scent games. Recalls from people. He now runs into the water. Not swimming, but happily splashing around. Has learnt to spin left (verbal cue) and right (hand gesture and verbal cue). Will settle at my feet (for treats) while I wait for a takeaway coffee! This is important. The not so good: He seems more excitable now. I think this is a normal teen thing? In the mornings he is SO HAPPY to be awake that he races around like a lunatic. We are just trying to reinforce the calm... He pulls like mad towards other dogs. Recall not so great around other dogs, so we try to pre empt him getting to that stage. Still nips when excited. Not very hard, but still. Unsurprisingly he mostly nips my OH because he plays more roughly than I do. So as you can see, we are a work in progress. Hopefully we survive these teen months and come out the other side with a lovely, calm dog!
Sounds like we're at a similar stage @Chewies_mum. On the whole things are so much better - not least because we feel like we have a bit more of a routine going, but the over-excitement with people is still a real challenge as well as her unbelievably heightened sense of smell and insistence on chewing the kitchen chair legs when she wants attention. And she's SO strong now!! She's also started waking in the night and barking because she wants company. Otherwise though, despite still being completely obsessed with the questionable consistency of what comes out of her a*se every few weeks, things seem to be getting easier than they were......just in time for adolescence to kick in.
Hi, Chewie sounds EXACTLY like my 9 month Isla in everything! They could be twins! Lol We are very much a work in progress! I follow your posts with interest and Loopy Luna's
This is awesome!! Would you mind explaining how you went about training this? At the moment we feed Luna at the exact same time that we eat and stuff all her food into multiple Kongs to keep her brain busy and to stretch out the time it takes her to eat. It would be nice not to have to be reliant on this approach though. Any tips gratefully received.
We had a treat pouch with us while we ate and we would quietly drop kibble (his dinner) without making eye contact or acknowledging him for a quiet 'down.' We did this for a few months. Once he seemed to have that sorted we changed it up and gave him his dental treat as we started eating. He would go off and chew, then come and look at us for a few seconds and go lie down. I dont know if it's what we did, or just him realizing that he never gets fed from our plates and growing up a bit to be honest. We were at my in laws place yesterday (which is a whole other story with an extremely badly behaved nephew deliberately getting Chewie over excited...) and their two adult dogs begged while we ate, while Chewie just pottered around in the garden near us. I feel like Chewie, and all our labs, are so sweet and lovely but that a lot of people seem to not "get" them and are a bit unfair with them.I think I'm just grumpy after yesterday where my boy got told off because the child was being naughty. Repeatedly. All day. With no consequences.
