hi hope this is ok to post as my dog is not a Labrador but a cocker spaniel. she is 2 years old and was a very timid pup but I have been patient and worked hard and she is a great little dog. she goes to agility class and gundog training classes and loves it. my problem is she gets freaked out by change but its random, sometimes she does it sometimes she doesn't. so say im at agility class she loves all dogs and is fine with people there but this week the teacher who she knows and loves was in a high area of the equestrian centre moving a box and my dog kept barking at her, she could see who it was but just freaked because no one is usually in that area when class is on. As soon a s the teacher came down my dog stopped and was fine. its odd because if im out walking her on lead she ignores everything and is really good, same off lead, ignores people walking there dogs and is friendly but if someone is in wood with no dog she gets worried, she will notice them straight away, its like you haven't got a dog so why are you in the wood. any help would be great I really want to sort this as she is a great little dog. thanks.
Hi Claira and welcome , and no, it doesn't matter one little bit that you don't have a Labrador , all are welcome . Dogs, like people, vary so much in temperament and character , my own Lab Sam has never been nervous but is very cautious, especially of new situations . As he has got older ( he is now 4 years old ) he has become more brave and fearless , it just takes time for confidence to grow in some dogs . It sounds to me like you are doing all the right things with your dog ( whats her name ?) but one bit of advice is , when she gets anxious , don't make too big a deal out of it , you will risk her sensing your anxiety and this will make her worse, just be very matter of fact about the scenario .
Hi Claira,lovely to 'meet' you.I second Kate,all dogs are welcome here and we have several Members with spaniel pals.Doing agility with your girl must have really built her confidence,good on you for finding an activity that you can both enjoy together x
Hi Claira and Maisie! Welcome to the forum. What a beautiful girl I sympathise because my black girl, Willow, gets freaked out by things sometimes. I'm just trying to work on her checking in with me when she sees something she doesn't like. For example, there's an enclosure with some farm dogs in that we walk past every now and again. They always throw themselves at the fence, barking. When she was a small puppy, she would want to run past, but now she's an adolescent, she wants to engage, so the first time we walked past more recently, she hurled herself in that direction, barking furiously back at them. So, we now use it as a training exercise. As soon as she spots them, I stop and wait for her to look towards me. When she does, I click and treat. If she looks straight back towards them, I carry on waiting, C&Ting for her attention coming back to me, until she starts to ignore them. Then we move closer and repeat. As of yesterday, we can now walk by with her to heel, checking in with me. I don't want to stop her looking at them and have her eyes fixed on mine, but we end up in a situation where she looks at them, then immediately looks towards me. She's free to look again, but she'll then check with me again. She gets lots of positive reinforcement for that. She did have a bit of a lip curl towards them, but nothing more, so we're doing well! I'm using the same technique with all sorts of other things. At the moment, we're starting to get more mountain bikers in the area. She had never seen one before, so she reacted in her normal way, of rushing towards it and barking. So, over time, I'll work on the same as above. She had an incident with a large umbrella, too, last week, and so I did some of this in a staged environment and she got to the point where she could be in close proximity to a moving umbrella without reacting to it, and checking in with me instead. Sorry to go on, but I also use it for teaching self control when there's someone or something they want to go and see. The natural instinct is to pull on the lead, so I stop and dig my heels in. The only way they can progress is if I have their focus (albeit not all of it!) and they walk nicely to heel. I'm hoping that, over time, Willow will come to generalise and look to me as soon as she sees something she is uncomfortable with rather than instinctively reacting to it. I think it's a long journey, but will hopefully help to build a bond of trust. Sorry for such a long post. I hope it was in some way helpful!
Hello to you and Maisie. At the moment our only dog is also a cocker, Alfie, now aged 12. You may just have to accept Maisie's reaction to things being, in her mind, 'wrong' Alf's just the same and always has been. It may also be a bit of a spaniel thing. They are a highly strung breed and tend to be easily spooked and unsettled by changes of routine. Having said all that though, our Alfie is a kind gentle little fellow who adores everyone, much more a person dog than a dog's dog. Good luck with Maisie, she sounds adorable and you are obviously having loads of fun with her and helping her to have a very interesting and stimulating life.
