My 8 month old female lab Sapphie has suddenly gone from really well behaved to a real chancer in the space of a couple of weeks! I mostly walk her off lead in the countryside and she used to rush back whenever I called her. No more! She'll now take her time and come back when she pleases. If she finds a stinky dead delight there's no way she'll give it up and will bolt it down, crunching bones whilst artfully dodging my flailing attempts at catching her. Last night she stole a whole plate of freshly baked biscuits. She's occasionally getting spooked by random things like a man lying under a car doing a repair and she's not above jumping up and kissing a stranger on the face. I thought I was doing a good job with training but it would appear not. What do I do? Any suggestions for any of these testing behaviours?
Hello and welcome to the forum. This is perfectly normal at this age. You need to go right back to basics and train all the behaviours from pretty much the beginning again. Try to forget that "she already knows it" - her environment is now so much more distracting than it used to be to her, so it's like asking her to do something hugely more difficult. So, take it back to the beginning and re-teach your recall in really easy situations and gradually build up the level of distraction and distance again.
Same thing happening over here with George at 8 months. We find more mental stimulation helps more than more exercise (i.e. lots of training sessions and new toys!)
Yup !! I can't speak for you but we relaxed our training a bit around this this age thinking we had a well trained puppy making it even easier for Duggan to act out. Just back stepped to basics and used higher rewards and he fell straight back in line.
Hi and welcome. It does get better, but as Fiona says, you need to go back to basics with training and be consistent.
It's a delightful age isn't it? With the 'back to basics' approach things will get better Sorry about your plateful of biscuits...
Snap, Poppy is just the same she will be nine months on 11th May. I have taken a step back, returning to a less busy area for her to be off the lead with fewer new attractions and going back to lots of repeated recall practice, making sure I have some high value treats. If she doesn't return on the first whistle because she is busy!!! I wait till she is less busy before I whistle again, hoping to get her attention the second time. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. lol
I have an 8 month female too- great when off the lead but I cannot lead walk her- my shoulder is murder! I stop everytime she yanks and praise etc wait till she seems calm and then wham massive pull- ouch. Mine also leaps at strangers to kiss them, most accept sorry! but some make such a fuss. Also a bit nervous about season has yours started yet. I feel better knowing I`m not the only one!
I'm actually so glad to hear this. I was concerned because my penny did the same. she is 15 months now and i feel i still have to constantly go over basic commands to make sure she keeps doing them. I'm at a loss though at getting her to come when called. she seems to do it on a hit and miss basis, kind of when she feels like it. any suggestions?? my new problem is that she has suddenly taken to barking when she wants our attention. She used to only do it when she wanted water and her bowl would be empty, she'd give a little bark and we would get her some. But we have her brother who lives nearby and he is a rampant barker especially when he want to play. Now she seems to have learned that behavior from him. Can that actually be the case?? Again, any suggestions on how to curtail the barking. I have tried ignoring her, but it does get annoying. thanks.
Ignoring her when she's barking needs to be complete - not even looking at her, taking yourself out of the room if that doesn't work. It'll take a week or two, but keep at it - be more determined than she is! For recall you can't beat Total Recall. https://www.amazon.co.uk/Total-Reca...labsit-21&ie=UTF8&refRID=0QHX9R1RAHB319P2CVWF ...
