We were out for our morning walk (mix of off lead through the park and on lead down the pavements) I reflected on Ella's level of general training. She walks reasonably well with a loose lead but still has the occasional tightness on the lead when she smells something particularly good off to the side. However, on our walk today there were some men working on the nature strip and, as I had the pram and the dog, Ella would need to walk within millimetres of the workmen to get past. I stuck my hand in my pocket, rustled the treats and said "Ella, treats! Heel" and we walked past. Ella walked beautifully in the heel position, looking at me and was rewarded with her treats. I shook my head and thought about how I had bribed her to walk with me and how I should proof her loose lead walking better. But then I decided that, to me, it doesn't matter. Yes, she could be better and yes, I 'should' proof more but today I decided that if I always have to stick my hand in my pocket for treats when we encounter a difficult situation, I'm OK with it I guess what I'm trying to say is, we know how our dogs should behave but sometimes it's ok to find a happy medium
Well done Ella, I agree sometimes it really is okay to find a happy medium. I also can't imagine how tricky it must be having a pram and Labrador, I struggle and I'm pramless
I was just going to say the fact that you can walk a Labrador with a pram shows me that you're at a level of training I could only dream of!
IMO it's a positive that luring worked in a very distracting scenario, and with all you had to juggle, it worked brilliantly. If that had been me and the workmen had been dogs, no amount of treat bag rustling would have done the trick to get my lab to heel nicely past!
Oh, gosh, you know, there are always going to be situations you've not proofed against. Unless you live in a bubble, that's just the way of the world. And, if you have a dog that fits into what you have to deal with the majority of the time, that's what "perfect" is. What's the point bashing your head against a wall trying to think of every possible scenario you might have to deal with? Of course, we can proof against different things and hope the dogs generalise, but there's a limit to what you can do. If you came across workmen that close once a week, you might be more inclined to work on it. But for a one-off? Life's too short. Nope, you did the right thing, and it's definitely nothing to worry about!
Well I still stick my hand in my pocket with Hattie & Charlie, so if that's failure I'll take it! I always say there are no hard and fast rules with raising dogs or children, go with whatever works for you. I find a happy medium suits me or I will stress about training and I really don't want to as life is just too short. I say very well done Emily and Ella xx
Agree absolutely. Luring past exciting builders is exactly what I would have done. Benson just loves interesting people doing "stuff" and it is very hard to encourage him not too. These days I stick a sausage on his nose and hope for the best. The alternative is Benson bouncing up to them, getting some gleeful petting from them before bouncing away again with a ham sandwich nabbed from their lunchbox... Luring I feel is an excellent and pain free way of walking my labs, whilst making some effort to reduce self rewarding.
Yep, I agree. For some reason, when I got Cassie I had in my head that she was going to be perfectly trained. I found myself getting all het up at some point in the last year because of this and that not going well, and then one day it dawned on me the that she's not going to be a Guide dog, or a Champion Gun dog or a Obedience Champion dog .... she's just going to be my dog
YES, YES, YES this is exactly how I feel Too much pressure on ourselves means too much pressure on our dogs and no progress x
Thanks for this Emily, I find it very reassuring and, like others say, kudos to you managing Ella AND a buggy!
Just shows what we would be happy with and will accept versus what other people expect. I know Vanilla has a long way to go and yes there are things we want to do like retriever training. But I am not doing it to get a title it is is about Vanilla getting enjoyment. And if I have to go through treats to get what we want whilst out walking etc I don't care. @Emily full cudos walking with a pram. I tried it with a trolley at Burnings over the weekend. It took a very long time to get what I needed...
There is nothing wrong with luring. There is a LOT right with luring, I do it a lot. But...you so knew there was a but, didn't you? You shouldn't look on fading that lure as such a very difficult thing to do. It isn't. It is a very, very tiny thing to lure a few times, use an attention getting cue at the same time, then see whether you can get just one more step on your cue before you lure. It's a tiny thing to do. It's not a lot of effort. But if you take that tiny step each time, before you know it you are there. What it takes is having a plan. Just a simple plan to ask for tiny bit more.... Sure, yes - don't put a load of pressure on yourself when it's a stressful day, and you just want to get by...that's cool, and fine, of course. But just changing what you do by a very tiny bit brings massive rewards over time. The only pressure is that we think we've got to do things in a great big lump, and that doesn't work, so is a total pain. If you just do a tiny little bit, but do it every time, then you get a long way very easily. So it takes a bit of time - no biggie.
I've been musing on this thread and the title. A lot of what I do with my pups is aiming for perfection and, of course, I fail to meet that mark regularly. I raise Guide Dog pups and Twiglet, the second, was withdrawn due to bird distraction. A percentage of Guide Dog pups never make it to school. Three out of every four do make it so that's a lot that don't. But that doesn't stop me feeling a failure when one doesn't. I pick myself up, dust myself off and start all over again 'tho, puppies are addictive lol On luring - we are taught to lure the pups through difficult distractions then, over time, fade the lure out. But I always have some fish cubes in my treat bag alongside the usual treats in case of unexpected distractions .
Yes I have been too. I feel as though I have been working so hard since we got Red but have eased up recently as I regain the bits of my life I had put on hold. It's been helpful reading everyone's posts and getting things into perspective a bit.
There's a lot to be said for that, I did too and found that it was amazing just how much had gone in in those early months that some how just seemed to fall into place once I took my foot off the pedal and relaxed a bit. Not that there isn't plenty to work on still, of course there is. And of course a lot depends on our own character and the way we view things.
