Hi everyone, so I have the "lovely" 14 week old lab, who goes by the name or Marley when he feels like it ... I just wondered if anyone could offer some advice or tell me it will get better... so we have had him since 8 weeks old, and have been teaching basic commands, sit, down, paw, leave it etc,,, now indoors this is fantastic but outside is a whole new ball game. He is currently walked on a harness (my vet has told me not to let him off lead at the moment as he needs to build up his muscle strength in back legs- long story-thought he had Hip dysplasia, X rays etc done came back fine)... but anyway he pulls me left, right and centre, jumps up (not aggressive) at every one he walks past, pulls me if he sees another dog,and just completely ignores me even if I'm dangling a treat in front of his nose. I know he's going to be excitable being so young but he's so strong already and the sooner I can get him to focus on me outside aswell as indoors the better. Sorry for such a long post!! Thanks guys. X
He sounds very excited. Have you tried play with him to make him a little tired before you take him for a walk?
Hi yes he's literally on the go all day, it's been tiring lol... he has tug toys we play with, he fetches with the ball etc before we go out. It just doesn't seem to knacker him out or calm him before he goes out
I would maybe think of training from a different perspective. Instead of training things to do...sit, stay etc...have a think about training behaviours. The sort of behaviours that would be helpful at this stage are teaching the puppy how to be calm, rewarding for settling, handtouch. This sort of training really helps develop life skills that will help your puppy moving forward, especially when out and about.
Hi Marley! So a really good skill for training a puppy is teaching a calm behaviour, combined with a bit of boundary work. This sort of training is also very tiring for puppies, even though you are not running around, retrieving or being run ragged playing tuggy! Personally, I am not too fond of retrieving games for young pups, unless they are very gentle. This is especially important for a 14-week old pup, joints are not yet formed properly. Exercise guidelines suggest limiting active exercise to 5 mins per month of life per day. You might find this article below on exercise recommendations: https://www.thelabradorsite.com/labrador-puppy-exercise-how-much-is-too-much/ Back to training calm behaviours and boundary games. kikopups on youtube is a great resource Specific tutorials around puppy skills you might find useful... hand touch for example.. https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLF26FD559887E7EA4 With our puppies, when we first took them out we would find a quiet bench by a park or popular dog walking area, and reward for being calm. ie: sat quietly next to us. It is useful to take a piece of vetbed with you, and of course, start training a "settle" at home first, before using it outside. This helps teach a dog that it doesn't need to greet every single dog/person they meet, particularly important with labradors! Don't worry too much about loose lead walking at this point, work on that in your house/garden before trying this outside. Tips on loose leading walking https://www.thelabradorsite.com/walking-your-labrador-on-a-loose-lead/
Hey, oh wow I've probably been over exercising him slightly then as he does go out in garden and play, says on there things like that is enough for his age. Maybe I need to look at some other things to play with him that doesn't require so much activity aswell. Thank you for the video clips, I'm going to have a look and start working on this.. wish me luck lol. Thank you for all your help
Hi there, and welcome . If you are not sure where to begin, you might find our puppy training challenge helpful There are three more videos in there that make a great starting point for training little ones. And good luck !
Hi it’s fine a lot of us have felt like this. It is normal and it isn’t very nice I know. Keep going, the work your doing will pay off. Have you tried a halti they really stop the pulling? You have more control and the dog will begin to walk better, (should use for few months only apparently to teach them to walk and not pull)
Hi Emma, thank you glad to know it's not just me haha. At the moment it feels like we go 10 forward and 20 back... No I haven't thought of that,I might have to look into it.
No it’s not just you. Yes it does and it isn’t nice to be pulled we the human would like to be in control! I say lol I would I spent months and I mean months stopping and waiting for Mason to turn around look at me before we carried on. The walks took for ever but I persevered. Then used a harness for few months started pulling after few weeks again so I tried the halti and I can hold lead with 1 finger literally it’s a totally different walk but of course I don’t always hold lead with one finger but you get my drift from pulling to nothing
Hi there, now I am certainly not against using a halti, ( or head halter) in some extenuating circumstances for very short periods of time, let's just make that clear. It is worth noting how they work. Certainly, the dog wearing a head collar will probably be walking nicely to heel...well because it is too uncomfortable to walk any other way. In my mind, there is nothing "gentle" about them, because a dog would pull if it could. If there is one thing we are good at training dogs to do well, that is teaching our dogs to pull! Dogs also don't like them, they rub, and can be uncomfortable, notwithstanding the risk of damage to neck and spine. Really there is no shortcut in loose lead training, you get what you put in, and it can take literally hours of training.
Yeah that's what I do at moment, stop and wait till he calms and then walk again. It's more everything else the jumping at people and lack of focus but of course it's all training needed just didn't know where to start lol
@Marley ❤ Have a look in our tech section, info in there just scroll down. Shout if you need a hand! https://thelabradorforum.com/forums/technical-help.18/
Hi Marley, I am having all the same problems as you! Just wanted to let you know you certainly are not alone, my hands and arm are sore after every walk and my girl is too busy jumping and pulling to concentrate on me!
