Just when I fix his people problem he now goes ballistic at every dog on the planet! Not in an aggressive way but way too playful barking and jumping, even if they're on other side of road. We haven't managed to go past a single dog without him acting like a possessed demon! He's scaring the other dogs and owners are giving me some very weird looks. I'm ashamed to admit but I skipped our afternoon walk yesterday as I just did not have the energy to deal with him outside. He's also completely forgotten how to walk on loose lead and I end up nearly tripping over him despite HOURS of training on this subject. I'm dreading having to take him out again as it's just getting so embarrassing. I know he's only 7 months but he's a very large puppy for his age and he's becoming difficult to handle. Rant over
Oh dear , the dreaded age , I think most of us here can empathise with this behaviour . Training must be ongoing, for life really ( sorry ! ) as the moment you feel that you can relax, bang, it all goes out of the window ! What you are best doing is to adopt a distraction technique , and if he is food led , this can be relatively simple , you need to make yourself the most exciting thing on the planet , who produces tasty treats in exchange for good behaviour , sausage, cheese, fish , anything that smells good but in small pieces . If you see another dog approaching , tell him to sit , offer a treat and another one if he stays sitting, it wont happen overnight I`m afraid , but the penny will drop eventually that good behaviour is rewarded . Also , try not to stress too much, I know its not easy to relax when your dog is behaving like a complete hooligan, but if you stress , they sense it immediately and will behave accordingly , you relax and they are more likely to do so . Pippas book , The Happy Puppy Handbook will take you through all of these problems and more besides , so many have found it to be invaluable .
I can only second what Kate says. Staying calm is really vital as our pups pick up on our feelings so quickly. If you becomes stressed, angry he will react as well. Don't worry about what other dog walkers are thinking, I can guarantee that many of them have had exactly the same problem with their dogs. I'm having a1-2-1 session on Monday as I have a similar problem with Juno who has just turned 19 months, so don't despair, you're not alone - 7 months is really not very old and the world is a big exciting place
Double ditto all above. It won't make you feel any better but from my readings I'm convinced 9 months is THE worst age. So it might get worse. How long are your walks? Are they on leash? Does he get to play off leash? It's pretty hard to give adequate exercise with on leash walks. I also have to wonder, if you've trained for HOURS, if it isn't time for a break. At that age we were in obedience classes and encountered times when things that had seemed to be well learned just were forgotten. We'd take a break, maybe one day, maybe a week, when we'd only do the necessary proper walking for safety and control and just play. And, see if this fits in with your observations. In classes studying for my certificate to teach adults in college we learned there is a learning theory that says after about 5 weeks or so something learned moves from short term memory to long term memory. BUT, while in transit the material learned is temporarily unavailable for use. Darned if our first obedience trainer didn't say the same thing about puppies. And as soon as she did a couple in the class looked like the light bulb came on over their heads, their little monster puppy seemed to be fitting the theory bang on. The solution? Back up to easier things, don't get upset, don't coddle, take a break from training new things for a bit. A mini vacation, it seems, benefits us all.
Oh how I sympathise, I've just been writing on another thread about my trials and tribulations with Ripple (8 months). Today he actually surprised me as I had him on a longish lead in the woods when three people with two off lead dogs let them keep rushing up to Ripple and dashing off - Ripple was really straining at the lead (I was quite cross at them really as they could see I was having a problem and made no effort to call their dogs away and in fact never even acknowledged me let alone apologise). Anyway as soon as they went past Ripple came back to me and did a 'look at me' and had a treat then walked nicely on. Normally he would have had a loony turn and ended up spinning and biting - so hopefully some of the training and classes are beginning to filter through to him.
I can vouch for trying distraction techniques as Kate suggests. Coco is dreadful for wanting to meet/play/bounce all over other dogs and pulls horrendously. Yesterday, we were heading along a very narrow pavement on a main road (also rather narrow) and spotted a lady with a Border Collie coming towards us.Coco pulled immediately, and stopped listening to me. Short panic, then realised the only thing to do was cross over (where there was no pavement) and distract Coco. We stopped in a gate way and I had him sit/down/look at me, with some tasty nibbles of roast beef, and the the Border Collie had passed by, without any fuss from Coco. It's the first time we have managed this, and I walked home on air.
Imknow it seems he is just a puppy and far to young for teenage tantrums, but that is exactly what you are experiencing. It is a very common problem for us Lab owners. As they are large dogs they are difficult to handle. If a small dog misbehaves people tend to laugh at them because the look little and cute and impotent. A large and ebullient Labrador can be a physical challenge. I found that I needed to retrain Molly several times. I don't think it was any failing on my part (though you feel like the world's worst dog trainer at the time) more a question of her development. It is disheartening and depressing. Try looking at the Manners Minder thread, you will see that you are not alone.
I know it must seem infuriating to you, but it's also probably very, very, frustrating for your dog too - I know they can seem a nightmare at times, my dog did, but it is a kindness to train your dog to be able to cope calmly with other dogs being around. It's much easier on them too....so your dog may not be having the best time either. What is your dog's routine? How much off lead exercise does he get, how much training, what chance to socialise, or train, around other dogs etc?
I think that off-lead playtime (with you) is at least part of the solution. If you're in the UK it should be easy enough to find a place to play with your dog. Try things like tug as well as retrieving and make it fun. (You'll enjoy it too!) I found that having daily playtime was the best thing I ever started to do with Molly. It makes your dog focused on YOU and not just for the duration of the game. The play needs to be intense with you really concentrating on your dog , not the odd ball throw while you browse your mobile If you're able to drive to an off-lead area you can intersperse play with short sessions on walking to heel - the reward being more play. Even when we walk in the forest with the dog club (around 20 off lead dogs with owners) after a bit, Molly always comes to me and asks me to play with her. You want to make yourself the most desirable thing in your dog's life.
Hi there,can totally sympathise.....my dog was getting to be really reactive on his lead ,walks were becoming really hard work. I couldn't make any progress with asking for a sit ...it made him more worked up as it seemed to build up the apprehension he had of another dog coming towards him....however big the distance i tried to work at..With the help of a trainer we adopted the 'look at me' approach and I spent a long time rewarding Dexter's attention on me,whilst I had his focus on me we could walk on by at a distance.That said,separately to a 'walk' I used to go out into the park at quiet times with my clicker and treats and from very great distances sit Dex up and reward him looking at another dog calmly........Dexter will always need help walking past strange dogs on lead,its not wanting to play in our case,he is actually quite fearful and it took me a while and many blunders to realise this. The other thing to say,especially with you saying you swerved a walk yesterday is to be aware of your behaviour and how that might be affecting your boy.....I was stressed and embarassed (because even when its an awfully badly behaved tiny dog that is going nuts at your dog you feel like everyone is looking at you and blaming you because you have a bigger dog!) Getting some professional help really gave me confidence and that made all the difference,I'm sure Dexter was picking up on my anxiety.........You are going through a pretty brutal stage ,you can wonder if they really know anything!But persevere and you start having more of the golden moments when you see everything come together. Angela x
Thanks for the advice guys. He's off lead every day on a massive field and I always bring his favourite ball with him, I'll try get a picture uploaded soon. Whenever he meets dogs there he always plays chase with them and barely makes a sound compared to when he's on lead. As for training classes he's done an intensive socialisation course and completed the kc foundation award. He was quite loud on the foundation one on lead but NEVER as bad as what he is now. He's going to be doing kc bronze in February and he'll probably get kicked out at this rate! I'll try the look at me technique and see how it goes. It's just so frustrating that other dog owners and dogs are getting scared of him when he wouldn't hurt a fly!
Oh forgot to ask if anyone knows any off field areas in Newcastle please do tell! As we've been going to the same 2 pretty much everyday but its very rarely populated with other dogs. Maybe a place where dogs are exclusively allowed off lead might help him calm down, thanks.
When he is off lead on the field, do you ever ask him to try to ignore other dogs? I didn't, when my dog was young - I was focused on him being well socialised with other dogs, and even encouraged him to say hello and play. What this did was give me a dog that expected to be able to play/say hello to every dog he saw. So he found it intensely frustrating when he couldn't - ie he was on lead. So, providing your dog gets to meet enough dogs to keep him well socialised, I'd include not playing with all the other dogs on the field when he is off lead. I don't mean all the time, but try to incorporate impulse control around other dogs into his off lead time. I found this was the least frustrating thing for my dog and it did help me with his on lead training, which was much more frustrating for him. When he is on lead, I generally have a 'no hello' rule - I do this to try to remove his expectation that he will get to say hello to another dog on lead. It's not 100% because sometimes you can't stop dogs approaching you, and my OH and dog walker are not quite 100% with this rule. But it did help quite a lot. But the best thing, if you can arrange it, is to train around other dogs that are co-operating with you. So there to train with you. This was my experience:
If you are on facebook, there is this group: https://www.facebook.com/dogwalkingfields/ I don't know if there are opportunities to share with other dogs though. You might try to find a dog club / class that does social walks? Loads do, all the training classes I go to have the option to just join other owners walking with their dogs too.
I think most people don't have the off leash opportunities I have but I do believe our outings worked because they were Not in a big field with other dogs. Rather, we walked bush trails. We'd meet other dogs and stop for a greeting and play and maybe even decide to walk along together. Then we'd keep walking and it's a rare dog/puppy who will let his owner walk away out of sight and not follow. If you can find such a place, trails, then I think you might find it works to provide the exercise without the worry of the other dogs being an overwhelming distraction.
I understand your frustration they are very difficult to handle as this age of a puppy brain but an adult body! My boy has somewhat of a similiar issue, firstly if you can try and read Behaviour Adjustment Training (BAT for short) by Grisha Stewart, my dog deals with fear but this book is for dogs with fear, frustration and aggression. It's where you can set up a sitatution where you give your dog the option to chose what he wants to do, i.e for mine i learnt that distance pays off, the further away the less noticeable he is of people walking around him and we build on that. in the book if gives an excellent diagram of the dogs thresholdand how going over that threshold causes the dogs reactiviy. Although this book has helped me its not good when you can't control the enviroment. Another technique i use is de-sensitisation which is where i go out with a clicker and treats and reward Max everytime he choses to look back at me instead of staring/reacting to what sets him off. I can't stress enough the exact moment when he looks away from the distraction you click and treat. I also can't recomment enough a dog class,I still take my boy to class just to refresh him and gets his brain working but make sure its a class which uses positive reinforcement! One last thing if your pooch is too high energy to start on the walk could you perhaps try tire him out in the garden first? Sorry if these methods have been mentioned my laptop is refusing to work on anything other than slow mode!
