:'( aaaahhhhhh......I love my dog so much but his complete obsession with other dogs is driving me mad! Feeling very sorry for myself as this morning he dragged the long line straight through my hand and took half the skin with it! the reason....he spotted another dog in the park and was desparate to play with it. He is on a long line to deal with his recall and his training is excellent until he spots a dog, i can see him shaking with excitement when he sees one and he goes completely deaf to commands :-[ he is 21 months old. please say he will calm down soon! right, rant over! sorry, i had to get that off my chest xx
Re: feeling sorry for myself! You poor thing. This is such a common problem with labradors because they are often so very friendly. Rope burns really hurt! The bad news is that this behaviour may not change much as it is not generally age related. The good news is that you can fix it. You need to proof your dog's basic obedience against other dogs. ie, to teach him to respond to commands like 'heel' and 'come' even when other dogs are around. This is harder and takes longer for dogs that are very friendly. But it can be done. Some things you will need to consider [li]You will need help from friends with dogs to set up 'fake' training scenarios to practice in.[/li] [li]You really need to use gloves with your long line if you are going to use it to stop the dog. Another alternative is to tie some good sized knots in the line, then you can step on it without it slipping under your foot. [/li] [li]You also need very powerful rewards, and to establish the principle of moving away from things your dog wants, and towards you, in order to get those rewards. [/li] [li]You will need a plan! In other words you won't get this fixed by trying to deal with it randomly whenever temptation occurs. The random approach will also make you feel helpless and out of control[/li] Have a look at this page , which explains the stages you need to pass through in obedience training. And this one especially the link (part 4) to heelwork through distractions. There is a lot more detailed explanation about how we modify our dog's behaviour in this ebook and today is the last day it is available at half price (use the code forum ) Hope some of the above helps. Please do come back with any questions you may have. Pippa
Re: feeling sorry for myself! Cant really add to Pippas good advice but one thing I used for Sam , my one year old Lab, was sausage I always let him see me put a little bag of tiny pieces of sausage in my pocket or bag , the reasoning being that I had to make me more interesting than other dogs and kibble just wasnt cutting it at all . I am currently doing the same for my rescue terrier Flynn , it was back to basics with him as he had received no training whatsoever and this morning , I was able to let him off lead in the woodland walk I go to most days . He met other dogs but came away as soon as he saw the bag of sausages and eventually , he even ignored one dog completely at the thought of a tasty morsel , it might help you, good luck
Re: feeling sorry for myself! We have a problem that no treat seems to be good enough. I usually use hotdog and pepparami when walking to heel. I've now taken to having cheese and liver in another pocket so when another dog comes walking past I can try and get him focused on different food. It seems no other food is powerful enough to stop him trying to say hello to all dogs, especially when on lead. It's also like we cannot practice 9 times out of 10 on a walk we will see another dog. God knows what will distract him.
Re: feeling sorry for myself! Hi Jez Your pup is quite little yet for such advanced heelwork. You cannot teach heelwork with distractions until you have perfect heelwork without. And you need to set up heelwork past other dogs, using a situation you can control, not randomly in public. That would be far too frustrating. So get your heelwork really sharp where there are no other dogs first. Then fade out your food rewards. Then get a friend to have a quiet dog sitting on a lead, and teach George to heel past that using big rewards again. Then fade the rewards. Once George can heel past a sitting dog on a lead with few rewards, then it is time to teach him to walk past another dog coming the other way. Again on a lead. Again re-introducing the big rewards. You have to go in stages. One step at a time. Does that make sense? Pippa
Re: feeling sorry for myself! [quote author=editor link=topic=576.msg2622#msg2622 date=1341129485] Hi Jez Your pup is quite little yet for such advanced heelwork. You cannot teach heelwork with distractions until you have perfect heelwork without. And you need to set up heelwork past other dogs, using a situation you can control, not randomly in public. That would be far too frustrating. So get your heelwork really sharp where there are no other dogs first. Then fade out your food rewards. Then get a friend to have a quiet dog sitting on a lead, and teach George to heel past that using big rewards again. Then fade the rewards. Once George can heel past a sitting dog on a lead with few rewards, then it is time to teach him to walk past another dog coming the other way. Again on a lead. Again re-introducing the big rewards. You have to go in stages. One step at a time. Does that make sense? Pippa [/quote] Yes it makes sense, it's tricky to avoid dogs round here though, I try and take during the day when quiet but still sometimes bump into people and dogs, both have the same reaction from George HELLO! To be fair to him it's only when they are close, once we've past them he gets back to walking fine. Our current method is I walk slowly stop when he wants a sniff, if he pulls forward I stop and bring him back along side. He is fairly used to it now, still very strong for only 6 months. We wanted to start early with him walking correctly knowing he would be a big chap and my other half is small. We need to find a reward that he is completely excited by, the usual cheese, chicken liver all seem to have a similar reaction. George just seems to like all food, without distraction will do lots for it. Another dog or person to say hello too, not even chicken or liver brings him round, just ignores it; only that point though. All other times it's gone in a second..
