Hello Our Redds is now 8-months-old and he is very recently quite difficult! We did puppy training with him and he knows things like basic obedience requests, leave it, let go and recall is really good. BUT... - with let go he is great with things he wants to let go of - his toys, balls and things we play with, even when we say 'finish' and he knows that the end of play. If it's something we know might be potentially dangerous or something we don't want him to have - mainly on walks, things like sticks, leaves, sometimes plastic bottle caps, banana skins (his favourite - ugh), he will not let go. We are trying to be calm and not chase him to turn it into a game, for a little while throwing some treats and saying 'swap' worked but now I think he realised that the thing he has might be more interesting that the treat. I don't really know how to tackle this - if it's dangerous I don't want him to have it any longer but I don't want to chase him either! - secondly and quite similarly to the above - he is absolutely amazing with 'leave it'. When we give him his food we tell him to leave it and wait until we let him have it, he will leave things when asked, unless it's food - we can't leave anything on the kitchen counter, can't leave a plate (even empty with crumbs) on the table, when we see things on the floor in walks (like the unfortunate banana skins!!) and tell him to leave it - he won't! Is he just picking when he wants to listen to us?! - finally it's very strange new behaviour - when we go for walks, he loves being in the parks, we play different games and he is enjoying being on the park but the way to the parks is a torture! He keeps stopping and refusing to walk, it's not even to sniff things which we try to limit to a minimum but still let him explore his environment. If me and my hubby are walking him together in the morning - they carry on to the park whereas I carry on a different way to work - for the past few days he wouldn't move unless literally dragged! Not sure why - we tried a different route, different parks - nothing is changing it. I feel like so far this is the most difficult he has been, and he has gone back to chewing things in the house again, which he wasnt for a while now. We both work full time but we walk him morning, lunch and evening and leave him with variety of antlers and chew toys and a couple of toys - he will still chose skirting boards and today - table:/ Have you got any advice? Sorry about veeeery long post but these 3 things we really struggle with!
Hi there! It does sound like Redds has hit adolescence, and he is simply more distracted by his environment than previously on walks when as a pup you both were the centre of his world and his young instincts helped him stay close to you. At this stage you just need to stick at the training, he does understand your cue to "leave it" but only in the context of your home and garden, the outside world is just too exciting! This is all perfectly normal for a young labrador. If he is suddenly a bit wary of the route to the park, try a different way. It could be that something disturbed him on a previous walk and he is feeling a bit anxious about it. The more you try and coax him, the more reinforced his anxiety could come.
Hi Karolina, Sorry to hear you're struggling, but fortunately as Beanwood has said it does sound like normal adolescent puppy behaviour. Lots of proofing (practicing cues in different locations) will help, and here are a few articles you might find useful: Stop A Dog Chewing Proofing
Hi thank you both it’s good to know it’s normal he is a lovely boy (most of the time) it’s just frustrating as we’re doing it for his own good, as we just managed to get him clean from bacteria but I guess it’s hard for him to understand that
