I have a question regarding exercise. Yalom is 4 months old and we've been sticking to the 5 minutes per month of age of on lead exercise a day. However, there are some days he doesn't get that. Most days we go for a 20 minute walk somewhere, but a few days a week we don't and we just play in the garden. Is that okay or do we need to be having that 20 minute on lead walk each day? I'm trying to focus on mental stimulation as opposed to physical, such as finding his dinner in the garden, training and frozen kongs because he's teething.
Our dogs are rarely "walked"; their physical exercise is in the main what they get playing in the 1/2 acre property we have either with each other or with us. They are extremely fit by all measures. While they are leash trained, that is because of leash laws more than it is because they need to be leashed. What you are doing is perfectly fine for a four month old - and the way I view the "five minutes per month of life" guideline is to avoid OVER exercising the puppy not to imply that they need a 20 minute walk every day. If you enjoy those walks, by all means continue to do so, but don't feel guilty when the responsibilities of your day don't allow you to do so.
It sounds to me like you are doing great At 16 weeks, he is leaving the socialisation period now. Until now, it is best not to be 'walking' him, but to be taking him to a specific place to experience something new which he hasn't met before. This may not involve much physical exercise, but it involves mental stimulation and exploring lots of new things. At 16 weeks, I would be stopping those 'socialisation trips' daily and instead moving to daily training sessions in outdoor locations. These can be 'pet dog' training sessions - learning how to relax in a dog friendly cafe, learning how to watch other dogs pass by on lead calming and without lunging or barking - but they (for me) would also be generalising the training I'd been doing indoors until that point, to outdoor locations - including the field. And this would morph into my daily training trip with the dog... I wouldn't worry too much about physical exercise or prioritising that at all. As your training progresses (longer retrieves if doing gundog work for eg), then the physical exercise will dictate itself...
Thanks both for your helpful advice, as ever. I was wondering if, on the basis of extending training into different environments, you had any advice on encouraging calm behaviour whilst out and about? You mentioned about the dog friendly cafe @Jo Laurens - I take Yalom out and about quite regularly. He does well when he's being entertained, for example he did some great 'watch me's yesterday as we let hoards of freshers walk past. However when we go to a cafe or my office, he does not settle down well. I've been trying to encourage calm behaviour by reinforcing it with his kibble we use for training, but at the moment it feels like I need to reinforce it pretty much constantly to maintain calm. Should I just carry on with this and gradually increase the intervals between the kibble? Thanks again
Hi @RuthElizabeth expectations, expectations, expectations. I would not expect a 4 month old puppy to be calm in the scenarios you've described. Don't despair. It sounds as if you are doing really well. Increased distance from the distraction makes it easier to keep the dog below over-arousal. Consequently to teach steadiness you will need to teach your dog the various exercises at a distance from the distraction. Be prepared to increase the distance. Learning does not proceed in a continuous upward trajectory. And don't expect too much. Your dog is still very young.
Thanks @Michael A Brooks. You're right, I definitely need to manage my expectations as he's still a baby really.
I think managing expectations is a really good point @RuthElizabeth, not expecting too much at such a young age. I remember getting frustrated with my pup when she was younger for jumping up if I stopped to talk to people at the rec or for pulling on the lead or for a hundred other things I was teaching her to do. It's now in retrospect I realise that it takes time, practice and patience. I also had no understanding initially of the level of practice required; I think I subconsciously thought we'd walk into a puppy class and a few weeks later she'd be a well behaved dog! It sounds to me that you're doing great but need to give yourself a break!
I agree, what you are doing is excellent. We do the same. For example, we were at an outside outlet mall the other day with Roamin'; whilst I shopped for shoes, my husband sat on a bench outside with the puppy feeding him bits of kibble to keep his attention on his person and not on the passers by. Since this was the third time we'd done this type of "passer by" training, he was actually voluntarily ignoring some of them after a few minutes had passed and so the treating slowed down. my husband said he seemed to be more interested in some people than others, but even then didn't attempt to move towards them, just opened up his own body to welcome an interaction. Because this was an exercise to get him to not move towards the others, my husband would just say "we are training, please don't interact with him. Thanks" and everyone just smiled and nodded and moved on past. At the very end (about 15 minutes), my husband did allow one person to approach and Roamin' responded almost perfectly. So we are making some progress....BUT, doing the same thing next time may find us moving a step backwards. We have to "manage our expectations" that because he did well the second and third time out that the next time will be the same or better.
Take a blanket or something for the pup to lie on, this can help them settle. And often a stuffed Kong works better than constantly treating. Sometimes Kongs roll about a bit much for cafes, so some other stuffed food thing which doesn't roll so much can also work well. Then take a look at these videos:
A four-months-age puppy is still a playful boy. He is curious about anything and easy to distract attention during the training. So it means that you have to teach him patiently and frequently. Puppy is a golden phase of studying, which is good for exercising obedience training. Make a plan and continue to do it as well as give much time to your pup to accept. What's more, Lab is a great breed of service dogs, if he has this potential, you could start to teach special training from the 6th months.
Hi everyone. Thanks so much for your replies. It is very helpful to have a community like this to come to for thoughts and support. I had a supervision meeting this week and took a frozen kong with me, which he happily focussed on throughout (aside from parading around the room showing it to everyone at first). We've also found a good new game where we hide his kibble around the room and say 'find it' and he takes off sniffing it out - hours of fun! Thanks again everyone, I appreciate you all taking the time to reply to me.
