Hi all, This is a fantastic site, I've found it to be of great use. I have a four year old lab who is wonderful in many ways, lovely temperament, quick to learn and just an overall great dog. We do have the odd hiccup with him though. He pulls on the lead unless he is on the small green near our house, I'm currently working on that and appear to be making progress via clicker training but he also shows what I'm guess is anxiety in a lot of situations. If he sees other dogs he whines and gets overly excited. At first I thought he missed company because he lived with a large number of dogs before he came to us but now I wonder if it's actually a lack of socialisation at some point in his life. He whines in the car. He can whine when he is out and about. He has no real idea about "play" he has a go but seems a little unsure and appears to have the retrieval instinct of a fish. And like I said he pulls, a lot! Anywhere that is even slightly different he will pull but hopefully that is slowly changing now due to him working on a harness and us using a clicker. I suppose my overall concern is that he appears, to my limited understanding, to have virtually no proofing or possibly lots of anxiety. Now believe it or not he can be very obedient but only in the right environment. Unfortunately that obedience is the product of the aversive training and dominance reduction theory that he went through before we had him. Dominance reduction was my first real exposure to dog training but aversive methods didn't sit right with me and so I started looking for other answers and I ended up here. however despite me not continuing it he has still had significant exposure to it before we had him. He's a good dog and fits in well with our big family and three cats, he doesn't show even the slightest bit of aggression towards them or us, but I would love to ensure that he's happy emotionally in all areas of his life. At one point in his life he was a rescue dog too, I imagine that may have some impact. Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks.
Hi Spooky and welcome to the forum I'm glad you've found us. Wow, what a rollercoaster your boy has already been on, at four years of age. Does he have a name, by the way? I think that it's great you've found positive reinforcement training, and he'll come on really well once he learns that he can make his own choices to find the right way. A big problem with training with traditional methods is that you're telling the dog what to do all the time, and that doesn't build any independent thought in your dog; in fact any independence he does have is squashed. Clicker training is great because your dog "learns to learn", trying new things until he gets a click, sure in the fact that wrong choices aren't punished, they're simply not rewarded. As I heard someone quote Philippa Williams a couple of weeks ago, "I don't get what people don't understand about positive reinforcement. If the dog does what you want, he gets a sweetie. If he doesn't, he doesn't get the sweetie!". However, you're working with a dog that has learnt that there are repercussions for making the wrong choices, and I imagine that could be very hard to break. So, if I were you, I'd completely put aside training anything important for now, and focus on teaching him how it's a good thing to offer behaviours. So, lots of fun stuff - hand targets, stick targets, object targets with nose and paw. Object recognition. Paws on a box. Yada yada. There are loads of great things you can try. Other than the other mentioned benefits, doing lots of this will also really increase your bond and his trust in you. As for the lead, that is something that comes with a lot of time and a lot of patience. Here is a great article describing the best method to apply. http://www.thelabradorsite.com/walking-your-labrador-on-a-loose-lead/ The main thing is that you don't allow him to pull on the lead, ever. About the whining, this could be from quite a few different things. I had it explained to me a little while ago that I should think of whining not as a behaviour, but as an emotion. So in order to "fix" the whining, you need to think about how to make your dog feel more settled. This probably means taking things right back to basics with your proofing, as you've highlighted. It's most easily trained in an environment where you can set up scenarios, which could mean recruiting a friend with a dog to help out, or through training classes. Ask him to do something with another dog sitting still a long way away. If he whines, it's not far enough. The dog needs to be sitting calmly and not looking at him. When he can cope with that, move slightly closer, and closer. Then move back farther away again but have the other dog walking slowly on lead. Again, when he can cope with that, you can start to move closer. Click and treat him for calmness. Eventually, you'll be able to progress to other dogs playing off-lead nearby, but this may take a long, long time to achieve. Just break it down into very small, achievable chunks and you'll get there. He sounds like a lovely dog and I'm sure you'll get there with lots of patience and understanding - and probably going right back to first steps, even on things he already knows, just to teach him the new way of learning. Good luck and let us know how you get on with him
Just wanted to say hi and welcome . A dog I fostered would whine and bark if he saw another dog - it was all about his excitement of seeing another dog. It took me a few weeks to realise that it was excitement and was then able to reinforce that if he didn't whine or bark, he would get to say hello.
Hi, Thank you both for the advice. His name is Harry and he's doing really well, he's a lot more settled generally right now. There is still a lot of work ahead of us but it is wonderful to see the change in him and personally I feel loads better doing this, I wasn't comfortable with the old approach at all and I knew it wasn't working and certainly wasn't prepared to continue to "correct" him when he was on the lead. The poor chap would have ended up with neck or head damage. We have just returned from another great session, accompanied by one of our cats who thinks he is part dog and follows me everywhere. Harry did really well even going so far as to only pay occasional attention to interesting smells.
Hi I have two four year old labs who are very nervous. They are nervous of strangers especially if they look like they are going to touch them and can be nervous of some dogs. I have one that whines for various reasons including wanting something and they can get very excited. I would recommend the book 'Why Does My Dog Do That ?' By Caroline Spencer. Her website is http://www.puredoglisteners.com if you go on Amazon you can 'look inside' and see if you think it suitable but I think it covers most of what you need including encouraging play. The main thing it deals with is getting the dog to trust you then it will feel safe and calm down. It's all done with positive methods. It works mine are much improved. Good luck you will get there it just takes time and patience.
Hello from 2 year old Molly and me. We live near Oxford. I once had a rescue dog who had been subjected to harsher training methods than I would have liked. She was always so submissive, if you approached her she would roll on her side. I hated that as it made me feel like an ogre. She lived 8 happy and well loved years with us. I am sure that once your boy feels settled and loved things will improve.
Welcome Spooky and Harry from Hattie 8 years and our rescue Lab x Pointer boy Charlie 4 years I have used clicker training for all sorts of things with Charlie with great success and also BAT training with both of my dogs, again with great success. Jen is the BAT expert who will point you in the direction of her very helpful thread on this subject. If Jen's not around I'm sure someone else will oblige. Also try not expect too much too soon it can take quite a long time for a rescue dog to settle in to his new surroundings and get used to a whole new way of life but you will get there with total commitment, love and training. I wish you all the luck in the world and keep us posted on how you and Harry progress xxx
Hi all, Just a quick update. Harry is doing great, he's taken to it like a duck to water and is overall a much more settled boy. We are working on conquering smells which he is making remarkable progress towards, now he has a free head he's clicked that he can get to all those lovely smells left by the local fox and cats.
