I think you've read my moans with OH and his bizarre ideas of dog training. Well my meagre, but frequent and consistent efforts showed up very well this afternoon. Firstly I had a very successful loose lead walk around the block with him, only having to stop a handful of times, with my clicker and frankfurter bits. Then we all went to a small field by the railway, clipped a long-line on him & played "fetch/here" with a tennis ball - his first real run around since we brought him home. I've had to pop a new recall word in due to OH's persistent misuse of "here". Every time I called "Coco come'ere" he came, and I had my clicker & frankfurters to reinforce him. OH was just standing there shouting "Coco here! HERE! HERE!" - nothing - I actually felt a bit sorry for him - Coco IS his dog after all - but he knows best . It was brilliant (until Coco tripped Belle up with the line, running at a Weimaraner on the other side of the fence - she went down with a big CLUNK!). Question - where do I start with training "four paws on the ground" ? - he rears up on his lead when we see another dog, so I'm thinking this will help.
Well done on your loose lead walk and your recall. Dexter is improving slowly on his lead when out but he's only been allowed out since Saturday. I need to start doing the four paws on the floor as he pulls and jumps up to people but not dogs (yet). I do ask people to tell him down and ignore him until he's got his feet on the ground but many ignore me, a few are really helpful. I'll welcome advice on this.
I think pulling to other dogs, and not jumping up at people (that's what we normally mean by 4 paws on the ground) are different things to train, really. In answer to Newbie Lab Owner - just do not let your dog rehearse the behaviour by jumping up. So stand on his lead, have him close to you, train him not to approach people without you etc. You just can't rely on other people to train your dog, so the best thing is prevention outside specific set ups with people who are briefed in advance on exactly what to do (and that's to step away from your dog while you have him on a line if he moves his paws after you have said "sit"). With Coco pulling so hard on his lead towards other dogs that his front paws leave the ground, this is about getting him to ignore other dogs when he is on lead. Set ups are ideal for this - so you need someone with another dog - a very calm dog that ideally will ignore Coco. Start so far away that Coco is aware of the dog but doesn't pull towards it. Reward heavily. Slowly move closer to the other dog, rewarding keeping a loose lead. Progress in baby steps, rewarding heavily until you can walk close by the other dog. Then repeat with the other dog moving. Then repeat with a dog that's not so calm. And so on. It could take several weeks....
You'll get there - you've done such a fabulous thing giving that boy a loving home. I wish you all the luck in the world with it.
Thank you, Julie T, I will take what you've said on board. I do get him to sit and ask people to wait but they tend to move straight in. I will try to recruit some friends to do the set ups with and are willing to do repetitive goes with it.
