Hi all, I have a 1 year old lab mix that I adopted at 6 months old. She was found abandoned near an airport before going into rescue. I have been managing the destructive chewing (ruled out separation anxiety as she will even chew when not being watched when I'm home) and play biting and jumping on people, but I am really struggling with the fence jumping. She is a high energy dog and so I take her to the dog park for about 2 hours a day approximately 5 times a week and on the other days she was going to doggy day care, but she got kicked out because she kept climbing the 6 ft fences there. I had to start crating her on those days and even with a thousand kongs and chew toys she still shreds any towel or dog bed I put in there. I know, I need to stop putting them in. Recently she discovered she could jump the 4 and 5 ft fences at the dog park to chase birds (but not interested in chasing tennis balls) and once she figured that out I cannot keep her in the fence anymore and there are too many risks to try it again since she is not trained well enough to be off leash outside of a fence. I bought a backpack for her and have been trying to teach her jobs to do and even ordered a bike to ride with her, but clearly I could use some advice to change my ways so that she can be a better dog. I have used several dog trainers and although she knows basic obedience commands, this has not helped with other behaviors. Any positive words would help. Thanks!
Hi and welcome. There are a few options you could try that I can think of. When I had one of my foster dogs, he was an absconder and liked try to climb walls and fences and couldn't be left off lead. When he was in the garden he would do a sniff around the edge of the garden, once he did this, I would occupy him by doing some training such as me scattering treats on the grass then letting him find it, getting him to walk off lead to heel, rewarding constantly at first, then randomly after a few days, or I would hide things like dummies and get him to find it. It was all high energy and kept him focussed on me instead of the fences. After a few weeks he stopped try to jump the fences. As for out and about we had a harness on him with a 20ft lead. I used this to train recall to some success. I used to run away from him and after a few seconds he would chase me, I changed direction lots of times. I also took really tasty treats (dried fish, chicken etc) and rewarded him everytime he looked at me or came to me. It was really difficult, but we did make some progress before he went to his forever home. Hope this helps a bit.
Welcome to you from Mags, Tatze and Mollie Tatze is my pet dog, a black Lab and she's three years old. Tatze means 'paw' in German. Mollie is my fourth Guide Dog puppy, a black Lab and she's seventeen weeks old. My Boogie was a rescue at 6 months from Battersea dogs home. He was a total loopy wild child! I honestly can't remember how we dealt with it (it was 40 years ago!) but he went absolutely everywhere with me. He grew into a wonderful, calm adult and lived a happy, healthy 19 years. He put up with two babies who grew up with him too. Total Recall ----> has a chapter at the back about regaining recall - I think that would help a lot. ...
Hello and welcome to the forum. I would get a copy of Pippa's Total Recall. I am sure it would help. Some great advice from Ternaya. Good luck.
Welcome from Hattie 9 years and my rescue boy Charlie 6 years. What's her name? Sounds like an awful start to life but you are going to do the very best for her I definitely recommend Pippa's Total Recall which worked for my absconding rescue boy who was 9 months when he came to us and had zero recall, so if it works for him it can work for you. Following the exercises and taking it slowly is the way and you will get there. Maybe you need to do more training to increase the bond between you both, it's been advised on this forum not to use a backpack on a Labrador. Getting her to focus on you is important so everytime she looks at you treat her and say "good" or use a clicker. You could do some clicker training with her which is fun for both dog and owner. Lots of information on the forum to help you. I use my clicker a lot with Charlie, he is very responsive and has learned a lot of fun and important things. He fetches my keys, the post, takes the washing out of the machine, lets me brush his teeth, clip his nails, check his ears, paws etc. All done with a clicker. Also the best piece of advice I had was to handfeed Charlie ALL of his daily food rations, so he had to work for every single morsel and I still do this to a degree, it works because he knows he has to look to me for food which means you do a job for me Does your girl like to play tug? Finding games she enjoys could help you. Charlie does not retrieve or play games on a walk so it's tough. As us anything, we are all here to help you x
I've no advice for you but just wanted to say welcome! Well done for giving your girl a second start in life. Hope to see you around the forum!
Thank you all. I just ordered Total Recall and can't wait to read it. My pup's name is Presley and she is the black one in my avatar. I think tug is her favorite game I can play with her so I will use that as well.
