Hey! New here. A few days ago we got a 7month old black lab (intact male). He’s come such a long way in 3 days, considering his previous owner taught him a few tricks, but not much for discipline. Instead of pulling and jumping at everything he can walk most of a walk with slack in his leash and he mostly pays attention to the pace I set. I’m wondering what should his attention span be? We can walk around the same few blocks with most attention maintained, but a new area or walking path and it’s a struggle to keep his focus on the task at hand. What should he be able to do by this point and is expecting his attention in new areas asking a bit much considering he’s 7 months, intact, and we’ve had him for all of 4 days? Or is this something I should be expecting him to do and keep tying to hold his focus in these new settings?
It’s really going to depend on the dog rather than having a set time at a particular age. I would set your pup up for success by taking it easy and having low expectations at first. LAT can be a very powerful tool to teach your dog how to react to new stimulus and you can read all about it here: https://thelabradorforum.com/threads/look-at-me-vs-look-at-that.15068/
That’s an interesting approach, but it’s mostly smells he’s distracted by. Sooooo many new smells in a park.
