We have an 18-month old Labrador – he’s a big, bouncy dog despite having had the snip at about a year old. I have been training him using the Gundog Club’s training guide and, by and large, he has responded well. However, we have hit a brick wall on recall in the presence of other dogs. He gets intense excitement from chasing around with other dogs. On sight of a likely playmate in the local park – even 100yds away – he becomes instantly oblivious of everything and, if off the lead, charges off towards them at full gallop. This often ends in distress and embarrassment. On a good day there aren’t any toddlers between him and his intended playmate, but that cannot be guaranteed. Sometimes he will chase around with the other dog for a while, often causing a bit of havoc, then come back in his own time. More often he has to be pulled away from the melee by brute force. We have had input from several professional dog trainers, including de-sensitising sessions with another dog in the training field. But the effect is short-lived. The controlled, gradual and sustained approach on which Pippa’s training methods are based, is hard to achieve given the haphazard nature of meeting other dogs in the outdoors. There is lots of (often conflicting) advice out there, often suggesting things which are impossible or impractical. So far we haven’t been able to identify a programme of graduated exercises which will eventually lead to him breaking this habit. Thoughts welcome!
Re: Chasing Other Dogs Hello! And a very warm welcome to the form. I had a very similar issue with my dog. He was mad to play with other dogs, whether he was on or off lead. He is not so bad now, but I think we'll still be a work in progress for a while before I think the problem is solved for good. We walk on Wimbledon Common so come across upwards of 20 off lead dogs on an average walk. My dog may decide to run to another dog these days, but I can usually stop him (with a stop whistle). More often than not though, days and weeks will go by and he won't leave me to run to another dog. I spent a long time trying different things, and asking advice about this. Some people thought that the answer was sending my dog to day care, so he played so much with other dogs it became boring. I thought this was a bad idea. I thought free running all day with other dogs would make his behaviour worse. But it's possible that there is merit in the idea, even though I thought it was wrong from my dog. Other people thought that my dog should be on a long line, and should never - ever - run to other dogs and so get a massive reward for doing so (playing with other dogs). This is definitely a good idea but depending on your circumstances, may be a completely impractical idea. It is completely impractical for me where I walk. Although long line aside, you do have to prevent the running and reward by walking him where he won't run to other dogs until you have another solution - this means finding somewhere quiet to train. One trainer thought it was all about "proofing" my cues - so could my dog walk round a field on lead without fussing to get to another dog? No, he couldn't. So how could I hope to get him to do that off lead? There was a lot of merit in this idea, and I did a lot of work around other dogs on lead. The final trainer gave me various strategies about getting and keeping my dog's attention - clicking and treating for attention on me (for MONTHS), rewarding through play (I was a walking pets at home for MONTHS), and yes, back to the good old fashioned proofing my cues. It took hundreds of hours, really, hundreds....
Re: Chasing Other Dogs from a teeny tiny black 6 year old Labrador known as The DivaDog and her human
Re: Chasing Other Dogs Thanks JulieT. I've tried the long-line but found it impractical - all that line gets in a complete tangle as the dog runs to and fro. Also, it's quite risky if the dog takes off suddenly while you are trying to sort out the tangles. I've been told it will take a year for the injury to one of my fingers to heal fully! In terms of proofing cues in this scenario, was it just a matter of gradually walking nearer and nearer other dogs while maintaining attention/control?
Re: Chasing Other Dogs I agree about the long line, impractical in so many places. I do use one where it's safe but I'm super careful with it. I use it with my dog wearing a harness, but he still got a nasty rope burn across the top of his inner thigh because the rope was between his legs when it stopped him, so room for injury to the dog too! I would say it was only about 25% proofing cues. And it was 75% changing my dog's default behaviour. My dog's default behaviour was for me to take off his lead and he'd leg it around, nose down, sniffing, looking for fun. See another dog and zooooom...off he'd go for some fun. I had to change this, so when his lead came off, he'd look at me and say "so what are we doing?". Then I had to keep his attention for the whole walk - he sniffs around but he is constantly looking to me for the fun thing that is going to happen, not to other people or other dogs. When I have my dog's attention, my cues work. So if there is a lapse, and he goes to run off I can use his stop whistle or recall and it will work. This is because of the level of attention he gives me, it's not about any single cue. I hope this makes some sense anyway! I guess I'm saying if your dog isn't listening, you can't even start to work on your cues. It's about even being ready to train around other dogs in the first place. I used food, games, and toys to make myself the most interesting thing in his world. Once I'd done that, the rest was much easier.... I should add, we are still a work in progress though, there are some environments that are still really challenging for us. But those are no longer our daily walks, thank goodness.
