Hi all, Stanley is now coming up for 4 months old and is turning into a confident and generally well mannered dog. I'm sure this isn't exactly a new thing for any lab owner but his achilles heel is his behaviour when meeting new people and especially other dogs when out and about. Basically he goes from trotting along nicely to a crazed jumping looney! We can't seem to prevent him from doing being anything other. I'm aware that everything is new to him, it's certainly not malicious and labs are 'bouncy' but he's actually getting quite strong and it's a habit we'd like to soften somewhat before he gets too big and harder to control (And almost without exception people we meet when we're out walking tell us he is going to be 'very' big!) So first question, does anyone have any useful tips from their own experiences on over excitement when seeing other dogs/people? This neatly brings us to my second question. He is confident and although we're keen on the idea of taking him off lead, I really don't think anything we'd offer him treatwise would compensate for seeing a new person/dog and it's not fair on an early morning runner (for example) if he's pelting towards them and we can't stop him. I've thought about a long lead obviously but is that counter productive? Any tips as ever gratefully received from you wonderfully helpful bunch. Thanks! Mango
I have always lured Tatze past new people with a treat, these days she rarely goes up to them (2 years old) but we started with a long line - not a long lead but one which drags on the floor. Total recall is the best book for all this training ----> ad to the right ---->
With other people, you have to be strong and insistent. Willow is a bit of a jumper-upper, although it's getting a lot better and is a very rare occurrence now, I'm not 100% confident she won't do it, so she gets lots of reinforcement for keeping her feet on the ground. I learnt that I had to be very abrupt with people who approached her. It's easier to explain this in advance with set-up scenarios, but if that's not possible, you literally have to shout "STAY AWAY FROM MY DOG!" if they approach him when he's excited. They will look shocked, maybe cross, but they will stop. You can then explain that you need them to only approach him, and only make eye contact with him once you say so. If they say "I don't mind", the response is, "Well, I do!". If you tell them that they are helping with his training, that tends to bolster their ego somewhat. If he gets no reinforcement - ever - from bouncing, and lots of fuss for being calm, then you will eventually break that problem. If you have to put a few people's backs up in the meantime, well, so be it. The second time they meet you, they'll know how to behave. I make sure that I make it achievable for the dog. This might mean stopping a long way away from the other person and rewarding for good behaviour. If they're walking towards you, you might have to walk away to maintain that distance that he can succeed with. If the person can, you can shout at them to stop a long way back and then approach very slowly, and only when Stanley is calm. As soon as he gets over-excited, you stop. It's definitely easier to do this with set-up scenarios, as you can see, so give that a go. Then, you'd do the same with another dog. Again, at a great distance to start. Capturing calmness and impulse control is a great thing, and will really help you with all those distractions you get in everyday life. At a year of age, my two are nowhere near perfect, but they will often look to me when there's something else exciting, because I've done a lot of work at reinforcing looking to me for direction. Even when they see one of their best doggy friends, they will check in with me that it's OK to go and play. Sometimes I send them, generally, we do a few more behaviours before I release them to play. For now, this only really works when they're walking to heel, and not when they're running free, but that's what my recall is for. I second reading Total Recall for that, but it is a long process and not something you can rush; in the meantime, a dragging long line like Mags mentioned is probably a good idea. Stanley will still be running free, but it gives you something you can stand on to stop him if necessary, so he doesn't get too far from your control. Just remember, that if you do this, you absolutely MUST have him on a harness and not on a collar, because the impact of going from a full run to stopped as soon as you stand on the lead could potentially damage his neck if he's just on a collar.
Thanks both, point taken about the harness. What's a good length line to get for a pup? Seems to be a few options online. Thanks again, Mango
Hi. Is there a quiet field or park near you? I would let Stanley off lead as soon as you can whilst he us still young as he is very likely to stay very close to you. I used to take my daughter on walks with me and we would call Harley from one to the other. This really helped with her recall. When harley was little I was always on the look out for other people or dogs. If I seen someone in the distance I would recall her and pop her lead on. There were the odd occasions that I hadn't spotted someone and she ran over jumping around like a looney - I would run over as quick as I could and apologise. You will always have the odd occasion that something like this will happen, but over time it will get better. Now at 2, she rarely runs to anyone unless it's someone or a dog that she knows, but she still looks at me as if to ask if she can go and will go once I say 'go on then'. It does get better
Your dog shouldn't be running up to people or other dogs, regardless of his behaviour when he gets there. There are no guarantees that the people or dogs he runs up to will be friendly, and when his "puppy licence" runs out, he'll find a great many dogs take a very dim very of 25kg+ of bouncy, happy Lab rushing up (lots of other breeds don't do this, and find it very bad manners). Plus, lots of dogs are staying at a distance from your dog for a reason - they are injured, they don't like other dogs, they are timid. It's just not fair to allow your dog to bounce up to them. Recall isn't much help in this situation - although of course it's critical to have a recall, of course. But if you have a dog that always runs up to every other dog, person etc. then if you always recall them (to have them run again, and then recalled...and on and on) you will just ruin your recall. So, you need to train your dog to stay close to you when off lead, and to pay attention to you. When he can do that without any people around, then you can try with people at a distance, then a bit closer. Then you can try with other dogs - at a distance, then a bit closer. And so on. There are a number of techniques you can use. But it starts with the lead coming off. Lead off should be a cue that he turns and looks at you. Then you work up from there.
Think this is good advice on the whole, however sometimes people and/or dogs WILL appear out of the blue - it doesnt necessarily mean the dog has to run up to get to them, they may run to him, or people may appear (getting out of car or something) - there needs to be some training here as to how to greet people politely. Instead of focussing on what not to do (jumping up) you need to teach pup what TO DO - in most cases this is a sit. You can start this at home, then with people you know outside. A clicker is really good as this really pinpoints the sitting as what you want - and they then get fuss/rewarded from the person they are meeting.
Training your dog to sit instead of jump up is fine, as a generally strategy, and very useful in the house, of course. But it wouldn't work for me when out and about - I can't imagine my walk if my dog sits every time he saw a person or a dog. We'd never get anywhere for a start. When out and about, even if people appear out of the blue, it is best if your dog not approach them. People have a right not to be bothered by your dog even if they have just walked round a corner/got out of a car and come across you, as do other dogs. So you have to train your dog to return his attention to you, and stay with you when they see people or other dogs, no matter how far or close away they are, out of the blue or not. Other dogs running up is pretty difficult, but once you have your dogs attention around other people and dogs you can work on keeping your dog's attention even when another dog runs up. It's not the easiest thing, particularly if the other dogs is doing exactly what you don't want your dog to do and has rushed over in a frantic in your face hello....
Sorry, I probably didnt explain properly. I wasnt implying that Murphy sits whenever we see a person or dog on the horizon - I was talking about when people come up to him to say hello when out and about, which happens all the time - I ask people not to pay him attention until he is sitting and click when he does, reward then they say hello. For people that are passing by when he is on lead, I just do the "watch me" command, keep his focus on me and ignoring the other people, but the sit was for when he is meeting people up close. Personally I would prefer him to meet lots of people and be uber-friendly than just try to keep him away from people/dogs incase he jumps up - so im working on friendly first and manners....I am hoping to have him qualify as a pat dog so he needs to be able to greet people calmly - meeting people and being fussed will be all part of the job. My previous lab was also a PAT dog and I trained him to do the same, so much so that as soon as anyone even gave him eye contact he would sit and wait to be greeted!
