Hi everyone Tess is now 5 months and, I'm pleased to say, pretty much past the Croco-pup stage! It's really lovely that she's so much calmer because she spends far, far more time with us as a family. She follows my 3 year old around the garden as she plays (supervised obviously) and sits with us in the living room (on the sofa - we need bigger sofas!). I am starting a new job soon so we have pretty much de-crated her (except for night time) and she has the run of the utility room, without any problems so far! My husband usually walks her in the mornings now (I finally let him ;-)) but I sometimes take her out again later in the day, or we just have a little training session in the garden and of course we go out together as a family at the weekend. From the beginning we've worked hard on 'heel' and on her recall and both are pretty solid BUT I've noticed that she's trying to pull a little lately and on a couple of occasions she's ignored my recall. Are we in the adolescent period yet?! I feel as though she's just testing that everything we've taught her still stands! I haven't ever let Tess get anywhere by pulling on her lead and my husband insists she walks beautifully in the mornings, though I have asked him to make sure that he treats her at his left heel in case she's creeping in front/across in anticipation of a treat from the right hand! Tess's only downfall is that she loves strangers just a bit too much ... if somebody comes to the house or we meet somebody while out she wees herself (a huge puddle!) and we are constantly looking around to see if somebody is coming to make sure she's under control on her lead and not running up and jumping on them. The time she ignored my recall recently we were playing a little game of fetch and I hadn't noticed somebody coming around the corner - she did and she was away! In retrospect she was quite unlikely to stop in her tracks while she was running so fast towards somebody else and I very quickly ran after her to get hold of her instead of persisting, though she did run back to me after she'd jumped all over the poor man, a little too late! We are strict that she doesn't get any attention unless she's sitting calmly and because she has such a huge reaction to people we meet while out and when people come to the house this basically means she never says hello to anybody! I just want to check that this is the right thing to do I guess. It's hard not to dread seeing somebody else walking towards us. We do meet up with my sister-in-law and her dog for walks every couple of weeks and that seems to work quite well for doggy socialising. They have a little play together then go off and do their own thing and so on. Every now and again I put Tess on her lead and make her heel, then she goes and plays again. The other dog is more interested in the environment than in Tess so they don't go crazy together. Much as we love taking her to the middle of nowhere and letting her have a good run, we are trying to make sure we go on lots of outings to busy places where dogs aren't allowed off leads too. National Trust properties, country parks etc. so she is in a very busy environment where she can't say hello to anybody and I'm hoping this will help with her self-control. Is this a good idea and is there anything else we can do at home? I am practicing every day getting her to look at me when I touch my lanyard, so hopefully I can use this to get her attention (in time!) when we meet somebody when out. I am also teaching her a whistle sit. We are going to a local gundog trainer for some private sessions soon and she said we can use her dogs to set up scenarios for Tess so that sounds promising too. A silly question too - if Tess is in the garden or elsewhere in the house and I need her to come to me I make funny noises etc. rather than use our 'proper' recall. I don't know why I do this - so she doesn't get fed up with it, because I don't always have great rewards on me at home, I'm not sure! Should I use the real deal around the house more?! Finally, a photo! This is her yesterday chilling with her youngest human
She's looking great! With Gypsy (Guide Dog Puppy) I made sure she went out to busy areas every single day so that no noise, form of transport etc phased her. It works but you have to keep it up - it's no use once a week, for example. Gypsy is now completely bomb-proof at 12 months old It doesn't matter what sound you use for recall - so long as it works! I use my voice 80% of the time and the whistle only for huge jackpots so that I can use it in emergencies.
Tess is adorable! Gosh from your behavior description and her picture, she and Myles could be siblings. He is 6 months and we have a long way to go on proofing most things. Sorry I wouldn't be much help on your recent training issues with her as I don't have these things worked out myself! But others will have great advice and I will steal shamelessly But anyway here is Myles at 5 months.
Ahh, Myles and Tess are very similar aren't they! It's difficult to find a time on a week day to take Tess out somewhere busy without the children - and with the children it's a bit of a handful! I guess Tesco is still fairly busy in the evenings so we could go there a couple of times during the week (Tess goes to Tesco!) as well as our usual outings at the weekends. She is blissfully ignorant of most noises because she's lived in a house full of children (my own and the ones I've been childminding). Am I right to not let her say hello to anybody while she's excited and pulling/lunging to get to them, even if it means that for now she says hello to nobody?! On a walk this week I saw a dog coming towards us so I put Tess on her lead and walked in a wide circle around them and made her sit while they went past - of course the dog ran over and when I realised the owner was making no effort to call him off I told her we were trying to train a bit of self control and she wouldn't have it and started arguing with me!! For recall I use 'Tess Come' and the whistle - of the two I'd say calling her is more reliable because I've proofed it more, but the whistle is handy when we're walking with my SIL and her dog because her dog runs off quite far and Tess follows. She's been great at coming back under those circumstances so far and when playing with dogs in general. Where it sometimes goes wrong is that she takes a detour to see the dog's owner on the way back to me - and they start petting her and saying hello when she does, even though I'm waiting for her to come to me still!! I don't think restricting her socialising with other people and dogs while we train some self control is going to make her not sociable because she has it in abundance - but it's a niggle at the back of my head all the same!
