Hey all! I just recently (Sunday) aquired a year old chocolate lab male. A little back story, he has been living outside for a couple months in a dog run with the people who got him as a puppy. He's had no leash training, or manners, but was worked with slightly on house breaking back when he was inside. I got him a prong yesterday and can actually walk him on a leash now! (It was very bad before. He's come very far in a day) I had him on a harness as his old collar was much too small, but he can weasel out of that. So working on the leash training. However he has a few other things. He's not yet neutered but I plan on waiting until he's 2. I got him doggy diapers so I don't have to worry about cleaning up accidents during potty trained. But he is obsessed with attempting to hump and sniffing/licking my female dog. I've worked on it by correcting and separating when he does but I can already tell he's a bit thick headed. Any tips or tricks for this? I'm considering purchasing a shock collar as his previous owner said they used one to work on getting him to walk nicely next to him, they said they got him to the point where they just had to beep occasionally. I'm not sure on good shock collar though. I've already gone over my budget as he had several unforeseen expenses already. So I'm hoping to find a cheaper but sturdy one. I'm hoping to find one that can beep, vibrate, and shock to allow multiple options. I've never worked with one but am fairly confident I can get the hang of pretty quick. I'm also concerned already that he's probably the type to start jumping on counters and such, I could see him getting into the trash as well. Thinking this is gonna be a good learning experience.
We don't support this type of training on the Labrador Forum, since it involves using pain and discomfort to force a dog to do what you want - which is ethical or supported by modern dog training. Please use a FRONT-FASTENING harness if you would like to achieve control in an effective and kind way. Please don't put diapers on a dog and force him to urinate or defecate on himself, that is really cruel and not going to teach him anything at all. Potty training involves occasional accidents, but will involve fewer if you take time to crate train and to supervise closely. There are many threads about both these subjects, on the forum. Your dog is not thick-headed - you are not using proper and knowledgeable training techniques, and so your dog is failing to learn. Sadly owners always want to blame the other end of the leash.... 'Correcting' your dog for trying to play inappropriately with your other dog, isn't going to teach him anything. If he has been confined in a dog run and not met many strange dogs, he is not going to have a very wide repertoire of behaviour or communication skills yet and you are going to need to separate him from your other dog and allow short and supervised meetings which you INTERRUPT (not 'correct') when something untoward happens...
He is 100% supervised when out and around the house. The dog diaper is so if he lifts his leg and marks he doesn't leave a mess to clean up. I would never leave a diaper on a dog just so I didn't have to worry about potty training. But he is a male used to be outside and so I fully expect him to attempt to mark. I take him outside regularly so he has chances to pee and poop appropriately. The kennel training is going good so far and I'm leaving him in for shorter amounts that I'll start to extend. I will not mention prongs or other aversives. But I'm not going to use a front facing harness on a dog that can slip out of them and freaks out with them on. He was pulling so hard on his normal collar he was choking and whistling. And was going to injure himself on a harness, slipped out of one near a roadway and that could have been horrible. I tightened it after that but he still fights if he feels any pressure. As for being thick headed. Yes he definitely is. I've had a wide range of dogs and he is definitely not getting things very fast. But that's fine and I can work through that. Just going to take longer to teach general manners and house manners. He already learning and doing better, nothing about training techniques. As far as correcting I use a verbal ah-ah and separate when he becomes inappropriate during play. They are never unsupervised or just run amuck and I'm going to do a lot of 1x1 time to make sure he bonds and works with me. I just got a longer tug toy so they can play with that better once he gets the hang of it. He's definitely going to improve fast but I also know he isn't like what I have worked with dog wise in the past and it's going to be a learning curve.
Hi @DMer It's not possible for a dog to weasel out of a properly fitting dog harness. As Jo suggrsted buy one with a front attaching ring. Make sure the harness does not change the dog's gait. When the dog pulls the dog will turn towards you. When the dog comes up next to you. If the dog heads north you head south. When the dog comes next to you, reward with a food treat. Rinse and repeat. Re counter or bench surfing, clean the bench top of all food, or use a stair gate to keep the dog out of the kitchen.
Not possible to gate the dog out of the kitchen due to the floor plan. But food isn't kept out on counters. I just have already had to stop him from jumping on things so I feel like it's going to happen. As far as leash work I have used that method. The problem is right now he just fights it to the point where he would hurt himself or me in other options. He's stressed enough and it's such a new environment that food is not holding his interest. Leash work is going good now. Although I'm sore from the first two days, he is a big strong guy for sure. That said I was panicking a bit the first couple days but he's actually doing much better than I was expecting him to. I'm worried he's going to start pushing boundaries in the next couple weeks as he gets settled in but I'll work on things in the mean time. I was planning on doing more of a two week shutdown to avoid overwhelming him but he seems to be taking everything fairly good. Was actually chewing on his bone in his crate for a little bit and ate some more food last evening. His sit response is also getting much better. So that's exciting! I'm hoping this is going to go much better than it was looking at first. Behavior wise working on attempted marking in the house and his humping/licking on my dog is one of the bigger things I'm worried about now. I haven't had a lot of experience working with intact males. Definitely not working with ones at this age that haven't had much done with them. Also going to have to eventually work on off leash but I'll wait awhile for that.
@DMer haave you tried NILIS, nothing in life is free. He does not get his meals in a bowl. You use the kibble he would have received as food treats. Try the harness again and use his food allocation for training purposes. Just stand like a tree, if he pulls. If he just turns his head in your direction, rather than pulls, say Yes and give a treat. Reward the smallest bit of the desirable behaviour. And work from there.
