Hi, I know what you mean, Isla is miserable and the only reason we let her have a second season is because our trainer recommended we wait for her to mature a little. Good luck with Maggie
Hi, I agree completely. We would rather not put Isla through an operation but she seems so restless and unhappy while in season and also we are worried about pyometra if we don't have her spayed. Really not looking forward to it though
sorry she's so miserable, poor thing. Maggie is just kinda quiet and wants me to sit with her while she chews her toys, I thought shed be more bugged not walking everyday. She isn't bleeding that much, maybe more to come. She is driving our other dog crazy she's a long hair chihuahua and she has been chasing her smelling her back end area. She's so annoyed. I put a diaper wrap thing on if I don't want to be watching for a drip. There is some animal that now comes around at night and howels a few times then leaves. Not sure if it is related. The worst part for me is not being sure when it is really over. We are having the laparoscopic spay ovaries only in January.
Hi,Maggie sounds like she is coping well. I don't know much about the laparoscopic spey and when i asked my vet for her opinion on what was best for Isla she was unsure and not very helpful! Isla is bleeding much more on her second season. I tried a diaper on her but she was having none of it!!.i think it can be different lengths of time for individual dogs but usually lasts about3weeks in total. Good luck with Maggie and i hope she's over it soon
It's been a few months since I updated my training log, so I thought I'd jot some things down seeing as it's the start of a new year. @Saffy/isla I'd love to hear how you're getting on too as we always seem to have similar progress . What's new? Since I last logged, we've had a few challenges and it feels like progress has stalled a bit. She was spayed at the beginning of this month which was a tough decision to make, but after lots of reading, it was the right choice on balance. Luna being Luna, she took twice as long to recover than she should have done, which means she's not had an off lead walk for a month now. She also stayed with a dog boarder and her 3 labs in October (just 2 nights over our wedding weekend) which I don't think she liked, and she was unsettled for a few weeks afterwards with seemingly zero memory of her loose lead training, so we're back to the beginning with this again. I've recently started her on Zylkene and popped an Adaptil collar on her which seem to be taking the edge of some of her sensitivity, and her tendency to over-react and go over threshold at the drop of a hat. What's working? Her ability to settle during the day continues to be great. My other half works from home, and he says that she'll sleep next to him from 10am when they get back from their walk to 5.30pm when I come home. Needless to say, she's then mad as a box of frogs when I'm home so I'll do some training with her in the evening and she'll settle down again after her tea. TEAM - we've started the Fenzi TEAM awards which we both love. It's really helping us to build a bit more of a bond. I have to keep the training sessions short and the criteria for progress very small, but I'm finding that her ability to concentrate is improving every day. She seems to love spending time with me, so I can't ask for more than that really. LAT training - she's learning that turning to me on walks rather than obsessing over the "thing" is rewarding. It's requiring a lot of cheese and hot dogs but we seem to be getting there. Lots more work to do on this but we're getting there. What's not working so well? Car travel. We thought we'd cracked it after 6 months of slowly training her to be happy getting into the boot, but after a holiday to Norfolk recently, we're back to square one. I think I'd spent too much time getting her happy to jump in, but not enough time getting her happy with short trips. I have a hunch she's feeling travel sick, so I might just try some anti sickness tablets to test out that theory and go from there. Gun Dog Training. Because we'd stopped all car travel until we went to Norfolk, we've not been able to get to class for about 6 months. All our class mates are now in the next class so this is a bit disheartening. I've been keeping up with the clicker retrieve, hold practice and recall at home though, so hopefully we won't have too much to catch up on. Loose lead walking. Arggghhhhh this one is so frustrating as it feels like I've been training this for over a year - oh, hang on, I have! We WILL get there - it's just improving at a glacial pace, and no sooner do I think we've cracked it, than she's turned back into a grass eating sled dog. Visitors. I really need to crack this one as my family and friends are starting to hate visiting, and it's really getting me down because no one ever gets to see her sweet nature. She doesn't just jump up once to say hello, she repeatedly jumps like a thing possessed, especially with men, even when they're totally ignoring her but especially if they're sat down at the table. I've tried lots of things including getting people over for practice, using a house line (she'll just chew the lead and get frustrated), asking for a down stay (too over threshold to concentrate), rewarding feet on the floor (she'll take the treat and then jump again), clicking for calm (clicking gets her excited). We'll get there, it's just taking far longer than I'd like. I may just need to issue friends and family with bite suits when they come through the door. Barking at the door. This is one that's getting increasingly worse since her spay. She's a lot more jumpy and sensitive to noises than she was before. I've created a little training plan to try and address this, so we'll see how we get on. So, although compared to a year ago we've made progress, the last 3 months haven't really yielded much in the way of progress - if anything progress has taken a knock back because of some of the choices we've made as owners which is galling. The training mountain ahead feels really big for 2020 and my confidence is a bit knocked currently because I feel we should be in a more solid place than this at 20 months. But it is what it is, and I will get there with my usual determination.
Hi @LoopyLuna - I really love reading your training logs! I just wanted to say I am going through almost all the identical things (minus Gundog training & car travel). Our pup is 15 months old and is almost an expert at settling in the house as well as with his LAT training on walks but the jumping is a big problem. I know how you feel. I used to love hosting guests and now it just causes me anxiety and extreme preparation beforehand. Depending on who we have coming over, I prepare some good chews and let him rest in another room away from the commotion if it’s going to be too much. The alert baking and sensitivity to certain noises has gotten steadily worse over the months. I’ve started kenneling him 5 minutes before people come over so that there is no opportunity to bark and make it a stronger habit but it requires a lot of management depending on if multiple people are coming at different times. I’ll let him out with a chew once people are in and settled and that reduces some of the craziness of it all if there is something for him to focus on! I’ve recently taken Sarah Stremmings Fenzi course on “Fix It, Effective Behavior Change” and it’s helped me learn to manipulate the environment more and come up with a set of strong replacement behaviors to have him do instead of the one we don’t like. It sounds like you are doing such a great job and working through all these things. You are definitely not alone with any one of those items!
Hi there,you're posts are really encouraging to me. I feel we are on very similar journeys with Luna and Isla and I'm not alone. Sorry to hear you are feeling a bit discouraged,perhaps my, or rather Isla's antics will help you to see your not alone. We are also having Isla spayed on the 7th Feb,which I'm dreading as she still has separation anxiety and I'm really worried what effect leaving her at the vets will have on her,let alone the opp itself! We debated not having her done but were worried about Pyometra. I hope Luna is soon back to her usual self and enjoying off lead walks Luna has got positives there,LAT training sounds like it's going well with her,Isla is very on and off with hers. Luna also is very good with her settling,nice and calm. It's a shame about the car travel though. Isla was awful for the first 6 months but after a long time of persistently encouraging her,moving slowly from the back seat with me (harnessed) eventually to her crate in the boot,although we still having problems with her over excited barking when we arrive at our destination,which is driving us crazy! Like you with Luna,by far Isla's worst behaviour is when visitors arrive,or even if we are greeted by someone while we are out,she is beside herself,jumping,barking,crying ect. We've also tried everything to no avail. And she barks at home consistently at any noise outside. I am hoping with further training and maturity she will calm and get there! On a positive note, we are progressing really well with loose lead walking, 9 out of 10 walks the lead is loose,it took some doing but we got there. Don't despair,eventually(I hope) we will both be posting on here what beautifully well behaved Labradors we havechuckle
Keep on keepin' on! Captain is just over 14 months, and i can relate. I'm challenged with is choice of obedience. What i mean is, he is absolutley more obedient with whomever he recognizes as the leader. It's not a dominance, or alpha thing. When i'm around, it's always me. When i'm not, it's my wife, When neither of us are around, i don't know what he uses to make his mind up. He behaves well, but his obedience is where this is noticable. For walks, he pulls. Not hard, but he certainly does. I beieve this is caused by my wife and i walking him differently. She walks him with our other dog- a smaller maltese-type- and at a faster pace. I walk slightly slower. With me, when he gets to the end of his lead, he generally stays at that length, and may pull slightly when some exciting distraction comes around. With anybody else, he's always at the end of his lead, and pulls regularly. I'm struggling with it. We are going to sign up for the Nosework 101 course starting Feb 1, and i'm really excited about it. I feel like the mental stimulation is going to help his behavior and get us over some of the stalls we're having in training.
Hi there, nice to hear how everyone is getting on. Isla is exactly the same with us, when my husband is around she very obviously sees him as the leader and her behavior for him is much better than for me. When I'm alone with her she is better with me until he gets home! Also her behavior seems to have reverted back to puppy days. My husband had 3 weeks of at Christmas and now he's gone back to work Isla seems to be unsettled and stealing things, pulling on the lead, barking and generally ignoring commands from me, it's exhausting and discouraging as we were doing so well. That nose work course sounds good. Hopefully Captain and you will enjoy. Good luck.
Hi there,I just wondered how you got on with Maggie, has she had her laparoscopic spay yet and how is she. Are there different options with the op?
Hey @Saffy/isla - I've just signed up to a Fenzi course which is supposed to be really good at tackling this. Fancy joining me on the course at Bronze? - we could compare levels of chaos There's a closed facebook group with guidance and ability to post videos throughout the course. Registration starts today and the course begins on the 1st Feb. https://www.fenzidogsportsacademy.com/index.php/courses/20628 We get this too, but I think it's more to do with how me and my OH have different body language. I don't think she's making an active choice about behaving in a certain way depending on who is walking her, but I think my gait and speed will be different, I probably hold the lead differently, treat from a different position, allow more slack on the lead etc. It's amazing how sensitive they are to tiny changes as well as our attitude when we leave the house. I'm sure everything will be fine. The lap spay is still a major op but it's got less risks associated vs the full, open spay. She was really bouncy when we picked her up and had clearly been made a fuss of by the nurses. Don't worry too much about SA as she's unlikely to be left alone much at all, other than when she's sleeping off the anaesthetic. We dropped her off at 9.30am and picked her up at 3pm so she won't be away from you for long.
Ah, great. I hope you enjoy it. We've not started on the nosework bits of TEAM yet, but I'm hoping to read up on it all this weekend. We play "find it" with a scented item around the house and it really knackers her out, so I hope it helps you with some of the behaviour challenges you're having too. Good luck and let us know how you get on.
Hi @LoopyLuna thanks for that, i would love to join you. I've signed up and am (nervously) raring to go! Let the chaos begin
