I have 2 labradors, Brogan 10 months and Breagha 11 months, they are polar opposites, brogan is a black lab, laid back and a dream dog,Breagha a golden lab is high maintenance and extremely hard work. i have tried really hard with training and the two of them are great when its just us but when another person or dog appears all training goes out the window, i have no control of them and even though they come every time i call them as soon as theres a distraction they both totally ignore me. please help, i have actually started walking them in places i know im not likely to meet other dog walkers because of their behavior. Any advice would be appreciated.
Re: Well behaved? Hi Elaine and welcome to the forum It sounds like they'd benefit from doing some recall training in environments that are more distracting than having no-one around but less distracting than having unknown and unmet dog walkers around. This involves setting up situations using your friends and family so you can practise recalling away from other people. Also, have a read of these articles about training the recall (the link below leads to a bunch of articles on the main site, all about recall ) http://www.thelabradorsite.com/labrador-training/labrador-recall-training/
Re: Well behaved? Hi and welcome Do you ever walk or train them separately? Sometimes dogs can 'egg each other on'. Rachel's suggestion of using friends and family is a good one. I took my 19 year old daughter out and we run away and hide from Harley and get her to find us. Are your dogs ball mad? Or like a particular toy? If so, as soon as you spot a distraction, you could get the ball/toy out, make lots of exciting noises so they focus on you. Good luck
Re: Well behaved? I agree with Naya, perhaps it would be good for them and for you to do some seperate training and walking sessions. Not forever, but maybe just for a few weeks to cement their recall knowledge and bond with you. It's always difficult bringing up two puppies together as you have to make sure you spend time training and socialising them individually so that they both get what they need.
Re: Well behaved? from a teeny tiny black 5 1/2 year old Lab known as The DivaDog and her pet human
Re: Well behaved? Is one of your dogs a standard or show lab and the other from a working line. This might explain the difference in temperament. Molly is from a working line, she is lightly built for a lab, but she has been a high energy ball of energy from the start. I understand your worry about walking them near other dogs. Molly is so exuberant when she sees other dogs that it is tempting to avoid them, but she'll never improve if I don't give her the chance to meet other dogs. It must be more than doubly difficult with two of them.
Re: Well behaved? Thanks for the welcome and all the advice, i think i will have to take them out individually and work them on recall. Breagha is ball obsessed and i can usually get her attention easily with a ball but Brogans a treat man, so it can be difficult getting both of their attention at the same time. I have read some amazing advice on here in the last couple of days and one thing i had been having difficulty with was walking the two of them and still having the use of my arms I had tried the canny collers but i knew they werent teaching the dogs to walk properly,they were just making it easier for me to control them without much effort. I read on here about turning around and walking in the opposite direction every time they pulled and tonight was the best walk ever!! Ive only been doing it for two days and already i can see ( and feel ) a great improvement. I also dont let them off the lead now untill they have been walking nicely and i make sure im not rewarding them for pulling. Thanks for the great advice, i will post some pics soon but im having problems uploading pictures. ( any advice on that would be appreciated)
Re: Well behaved? Glad to hear they are getting better at walking together If you go to the technical section there are several descriptions (detailed) on how to post photos. Good luck
Re: Well behaved? I look after my friend's dog, Zaba a lot. He is a puller. I have one lead which then spilts to two clips. I put one dog either side and put the loop over my wrist. Then I hold the leads about a foot from each dog and have treats from my pouch in the other hand. It works well - I have to treat Zaba a LOT, but he will walk without pulling. I think if he were mine we would get there - but he keeps going home and his Mum lets him pull! I still love having him - here he is with Tatze (both 15 months)
