Good evening Labrador friends: I am hoping you could help share some ideas on our new 5 month old (21 weeks to be exact) black Labrador named Nero. Nero has been really great with sit, stay, "leave it" (ignoring treats on the floor), come, wait (putting his food down having him sit, give paw, wait and tell him OK to eat), he is not protective of any food or toys meaning we can take it from him, give it back without growling or anything like that. Walks are another story. We have been walking Nero pretty near following the 5 minute guideline for his age. Nero is really bored walking in the City we find. He seems to fall into a 'freak session' when he doesn't get his own way (meaning he wanted to pick up garbage; or walk a different way; or smell something on someone's front grass that wasn't safe) and shortly thereafter he will freak out by running around on his leash as far as it will stretch; around in circles; jump up and tug of war on his rope leash and just generally act crazy. The vet called this the terrible teens. We have tried several ways to break him. The trainer we hired suggested high value treats like turkey or chicken but honestly that doesn't work. He doesn't care about treats or any food AT ALL when in this freak session. We have tried ignoring his freak session to the best of our ability in hopes of the behaviour will diminish if he doesn't see it getting a rise out of us. We have tried laying him on his side and gently calming him down with gentle strokes on his belly and telling him to calm down (in a calm voice). Unfortunately however, while in the City we need to be careful as the buckle on his leash one time came undone on one of the buckles. If both failed were not sure if he would have ran into traffic. Luckily there were two buckles on his harness at that time. It also seems to happen on the shorter walks around our home just approaching our apartment building. As soon as we get within 100m of home he will start to freak out. We figure this might mean he wants to stay outside or walk further? We have traded in the harness for a regular neck collar and he seems to enjoy that a lot more. We have had Nero out at large parks in the early morning when nobody is around and allowed him to be off leash since we got him at 7 weeks old. He loves being off leash and running around. However, sometimes it just is not available in order to do this with him all the time. He needs to learn how to walk on a regular leash without freaking out. In the past few weeks we have started to explore taking Nero out to wooded areas (wooded paths etc.) and he enjoys this A LOT more. We figure because it likely suits his hunting capability? That said, he still freaks out from time to time even in the forest area. Again, we pretty much figure he is trying to tell us that he wants to be off leash to explore and roam around. However, as a result of his freak out sessions we're unsure whether or not to trust him off leash in the wooded area. A few questions: 1. Should we only continue to use a leash with Nero until these behaviours stop? 2. Should we relent and allow him to be off leash, when safe to do so in wooded areas? 3. What sort of strategies should we deploy to break him of this habit? We have tried to utilize positive conditioning by taking him for a lot of smaller walks and give him treats through certain areas he seems to freak out by coaxing him and giving him a lot of positive reinforcement over and over. That seems to work some of the time. It is like he has a stubborn streak in him. He has not been fixed yet and we noticed he has been getting 'arousal' quite often with his thingy coming out every time he is happy - whether it is a stick, playing with him or petting him. We had a chocolate Labrador prior to Nero but she was a female and never experienced these traits with her. We are thinking it might just be a natural progression of learning and will ultimately go away in time; or when he gets fixed. We want to wait the longest we can to have Nero fixed as he had a pretty sickly start to life... he got kennel cough at 9 weeks old; and caught some parasite after jumping into a fountain with stagnant water just a few weeks ago. We want his immune system to be a lot stronger before his operation. Any help would be appreciated.
Hi there! It's always tricky to give advice on these sorts of things because, although you have given us quite a lot of info, it is still hard to picture exactly what is going on. First of all, I wanted to address a couple things in general. 1. Your dog is still very young. It's very normal for young labs to be rambunctious in spurts like this. So try not to label this as "freak out". It may or may not be that, but "freak out" implies that perhaps your dog is scared of something. That may or may not be true - is there some common denominator in the area where these episodes occur that might point to this being fear? I don't think this is likely as behaviours such as jumping up and grabbing the leash are not fear behaviours, more like excitement. 2. Your dog is not being stubborn. He is being an excited young lab having fun. In general we suggest that when behaviour occurs that we don't want, the best strategy is not to try to train the dog out of the behaviour but to train another behaviour instead. So for example if the dog is jumping up on people when they come in the door, you train "sit" instead when someone arrives. So you are on the right track with the high value treats, etc but you are right when you say that a lab who is in the midst of an "exuberant" episode could easily ignore the food as what he is doing is infinitely more fun than a snack. Lots of exercise is important, and mental exercise is vital, too. Sounds like you are doing some training which is great. Keep that up! See if you can determine the trigger for the crazy lab syndrome and head it off at the pass by getting him to do something else - sit, shake paw, whatever. To answer your questions: 1. Definitely continue on a leash. It is vital for your dog's safety for him to walk nicely on a leash. 2. Being off-leash is fine in safe areas as long as you have a strong recall. Have you read The Happy Puppy Handbook or Total Recall, both by Pippa Mattison, the owner of this site? They are great for new dog owners. 3. I gave some ideas above, hopefully others will be along to give more. Good luck and keep us posted!
Hey there. Nero i a perfectly normal Lab puppy. A few thing to mention: It sounds like he's getting zoomies on his lead. It can be quite alarming, but perfectly normal. If he does this near traffic, I would strongly encourage you to go back to using a harness for safety; this from someone who had a puppy who slipped his collar and ran into traffic. Showing his penis in excitement is nothing abnormal, is nothing to do with sexual behaviour and probably won't be affected by neutering. It's just what boys do. It sounds like, if he's always doing this at the end of a walk, that he isn't ready for the walk to finish. I would stop going "on walks" and work on his loose leash walking by just walking back and forth in front of your building repeatedly, giving praise and treats for good behaviour. By doing this, he will get the practice at walking towards your building repeatedly, without actually going in to end the walk. Please don't hold him down on his side - this is outdated, can be distressing and actually increase his unwanted behaviours. Keep taking him on off-lead walks in safe areas. Work on off-lead heel work and focus on you during these times. I second reading Total Recall and working through it to get a solid recall. It's not surprising that he won't take treats when he's overexcited. Just like you don't fancy a steak sandwich when you're really excited or scared, it's the same with dogs. We normally advise to increase the distance to the thing that's creating the emotion, but in your case, it might simply be a case of waiting until he's zoomied out, and only when that has happened, and he is able to take treats again, start work again on focus and LLW. Overall, try to put it out of your mind that he's being stubborn or wilful or any of those negative words. He's just being a normal Labrador puppy
Thank you all for your contribution. Just to clear up some of the grey area: It most certainly isn't fear, it seems more likely than not to be when he doesn't get his own way. Example: There is a stick or piece of garbage paper bag and I want it. We say "leave it" as we trained him with treats on the floor, encouraging him to come to us (me) and receive a treat; then when we say "alright" pointing to the specific treat we are allowing him to have he can pick it up off the floor. He is very, very good at this. He is an amazing smart little guy. Just when out on walks we 'feel' he is bored of city walks. He has much better time in the nature walks. On our city walks he generally lags behind my legs. In the nature walks he is out front, broad shouldered, curious and proud. But we cannot always get time to do the nature walks. We generally try and do them every other day. In regards to off leash at a park. We have been letting him bomb around and run back in forth to my wife and I at approximately 20 - 30 yards. We have been successful even at almost 100 yards. He LOVES this but again off leash parks in our area have no fencing. We generally have been choosing school yards because they are closed right now and the football field is empty. He has never (yet) not come when called. And we know he really wants to walk off leash in the nature areas however were not ready for that yet. There are too many coyotes and a river that is fast flowing in the one particular area that were not sure if he would zone out and just go do what he wants to do rather than listen. We have tried bringing his favorite squeaky toy with us on our walks when he kind of freaks out...but that has only worked some of the time. Thanks for the advice any additional we will be happy to hear.
I would consider looking into Susan Garrets 'It's Yer Choice'. It is a slow and systematic way of allowing your dog to make good choices by starting out small and setting him up for success. When he makes the right choice he gets a reward. When he makes the wrong choice he gets nothing. So you start this training inside the home. Slowly. Then move around to different parts of your house. Then to the back yard. And slowly but surly you will see your dog starting to get the idea of making good choices. Eventually this will translate to walking on a leash. Good choices are rewarded. Bad choices are ignored or blocked. This training is usually started with food rewards in the home. But eventually expanded to life rewards out in the world. So for example if you had been practicing Its' Yer Choice for a while in the home and back yard and had been upping the stakes of the game then when you went out for a walk it would go something more like this.... Dog on a short leash next to your side. If the dog makes the right choice to walk calmly next to you then you walk with the dog. If the dog starts any kind of horrible antics your would hold the dog by the collar and not let him move at all. Until he makes a good choice, like maybe sitting down calmly or standing calmly or looking up at you to check in. Then short leash and walk forward. Any nice walking gets more walking. Any bad behavior gets standing still and not moving. You don't start It's Yer Choice at the walking out in the world stage but you start at home and work your way up to it....
