I've have just joined this site having bought pippa mattisons puppy book, however we do not have labradors ! So I'm not sure if my problem applicable.. two months ago we adopted a rescue jack Russell bitch aged 2/3 and one of her puppies, now 5 months , male x between jack Russell and pointer. It was difficult to begin with as mother and puppy had been separated after 4 weeks as she had a broken leg so the first 2/3 weeks was about reintroducing them and managing their relationship, which we managed successfully. She is lovely with people and they have both hmet our friends dogs and no issues .We have walked them separately so it would give me space to focus on puppy training but the last few weeks it has been difficult due to my inability to walk them having mobility problem myself .This week feeling much better so I took the puppy out to town for socialisation , he is still very excitable but when he saw another dog on lead he was pulling, barking and then growling .We took them both out today and them same thing happened when a dog was walking on t other side of the road. I know I have had to take the foot off the pedal with regards socialisation the past few weeks so I feel like it is starting from scratch again .... any tips to deal with the barking, I was thinking taking them out separately will be the first starting point ? and have been reading online this n various methods to control the behaviour .Hope you can help
Hi Angela, where are you based? I think you would probably benefit from some 1-2-1 sessions with a behaviourist who can show you techniques and methods to train the dogs. One exercise you can try which will help a lot, is Look At That. There is a whole thread on this, here: https://thelabradorforum.com/threads/look-at-that.22184/ Meanwhile, you will need to walk them separately - because they will set each other off and will be far worse together, then they are by themselves. Once they are perfect by themselves, you could try walking together again and see what happens... I would highly recommend you also find a good force-free puppy training class to take your puppy to. This will help with socialisation for the pup and they should also be able to give you tips and help when it comes to this behaviour, which you can also take home and use with the mother dog when you pass dogs in the street. I recommend the APDT for a training class: http://www.apdt.co.uk Good luck.
