My female yellow lab is over 7 months old. When I was trying to get her harness and leash on following a playdate with dog friends, she resisted and snapped at me when I tried to get her collar. She also snapped at a neighbor who was trying to keep her from jumping on her. Ugh. How do I make sure that she knows this is totally unacceptable and help stop this behavior? I know she was tired from playing, but this is not ok! Thoughts?
Hi Liza you mentioned play dates in your previous post. Maybe this is the trigger for over the excited behaviour and should be stopped for a while.Replace with activities that use training/intelligence/scentwork to wear her out.
Thanks for your input! I like this idea but Gabe been struggling with coming up with some kind of training routine of sorts. We do sit, stay, look at me regularly with walks, still trying to work on come with off leash but have a long way to go. Would love a plan for training ideas.
My dog would growl and snap if you touched his collar and also bite the lead and me. He's a rescue so I'm not sure if he's had lead/collar related trauma or if some dogs are just like that. I had to go very slowly with him and use loads of treats, initially very high value treats like half a tin of wet dog food so he was busy focussing on that and wouldn't notice me attaching lead to collar. A Liki mat or bento ball with peanut butter was perfect for harnesses and grooming which he also hated. Little things like taking collar under the chin rather than putting my hand over his head really helped. Check out Absolute Dogs for simple training games, they really helped us.
Try getting her used to being given a treat at the same time you fuss her round the neck area so she gets used to being handled there. Then when she is happy slip the lead on but not until she completely happy with your hand going for the collar. She might just think lead time is end of fun time. So make sure you don't put the lead on every time you call her and handle her.
Yes, I definitely think she avoids getting harness on if she thinks playtime is over! Thanks for the ideas.
Slip leads are very useful as you can hold a treat the other side of the loop and slip the lead on as she reaches through for the treat. This could be practised at home beforehand.
