We've been working very hard with lead walking and Max (10 months) will now walk with virtually no pulling for up to 25/30 minutes. This has been achieved by treating him every 30/40 steps (initially every 10!). I spend most of the walk talking to him and treating him to keep his attention on me. The only issue is occasionally he will see a cat across the road (or sometimes even a leaf blowing along the road in the breeze!) and will lunge towards it. Other than being on guard all the time and trying to keep his attention on me is there anything else I can do? Is this something he will grow out of? I'm quite small and worry he will pull me over one day!
Hi, Max sounds like he is doing really well but they don't grow out of it, it's down to training You could take some extra tasty smelly treats that Max adores for those cat moments to keep his attention on you! I'm very small too and that's what I do. Hope that helps. xx
That's great progress! There are lots of owners of 10 month old labs - or much older - that couldn't say the same as you. What you have to do is proof his lead walking against the things that make him lunge. It sounds like that is things moving. So you could (for example) start with someone bouncing a tennis ball and having him walk by that (at a distance that he does not lunge) and treat, treat, treat for no lunging. Then throwing a ball. Repeat with other objects....obviously arranging cats is a bit difficult, but you've just got to be inventive! Best of luck with it.
I agree, it sounds like you're doing fantastically well. Setting up scenarios is the most useful thing for you now. Is he particularly reactive to cats? If so, is there somewhere you can go and look at cats in a controlled way? If it's simply just things that move, how about using a remote controlled car? Have someone moving it slowly at a distance, and gradually build up the proximity and speed. Even strap a cuddly toy to it. Have it coming out from unexpected places - such as under cars as you're walking past, just like a cat would. I have to say, I've not done this myself, so it may be the most ridiculous idea in the world, but it's certainly a controllable scenario that would be very easy to set up, with the help of someone else.
Thank you for all your advice. He is particularly reactive to anything furry or feathery but only when they're fairly close to him. If they are at a distance then I can distract him with a treat. My sons will love the idea about the remote controlled car. They were already making plans to pull a leaf along the road on a thin piece of thread! We're going to be known as "that" family around here. I already get funny looks walking along with my tube of primula!
I use a combination of an auto check-in and a "leave it" command. Since Maisie was little, I have always given her a treat for looking at me (checking in) whenever she sees something exciting. When she was little, this included people… dogs… birds… anything really. I don't think I did anything besides mark it (either a clicker or a verbal marker) when she did look at me, and over time, it built up, so now she looks at me whenever she sees something exciting. Only up to a certain distance from the exciting thing, though, so that's where the "leave it" comes in. It has to be timed well, but I use leave it to mean "look away from that and look at me" and you kind of have to judge from where he's leaving the border between "I can auto check in" and when "I am going to get too interested in that dog or bird or cat to look away". This changes the behaviour from passing by - lunge to passing by - look at mom - oh get a treat, yum! - we are past the distraction or keep treating for attention. I started by the regular leave it command (meaning leave that gross piece of food on the ground) then started using it for more things, like leave that recycling bin alone… etc… and then built up to using it while passing other dogs and when she's looking interested in a bird (she loves birds but doesn't lunge at them too often due to this technique).
HaHa - remote controlled cars are Charlie's top distraction! He finds them harder than anything else, ever, to not lunge at. So I personally wouldn't start with remote controlled cars, I'd work up to those. Although your dog might be a great deal more sensible than mine. (Before I sound totally hopeless, we can do most other things, cats, rabbits, squirrels, pheasants, people, other dogs, balls...just not remote controlled cars!).
