Good Morning. I am new to the forum and wondered if I could ask your advice?? Long winded - sorry! I have a two year old male Lab (neutered) and we are currently at gundog level 2. He is rather hyperactive and can be very unfocused and very easily distracted.My main concern is recall. While there are no distractions, it is great but even smells cause distractions never mind other exciting things. I really need to work on this as it is getting more and more difficult to find places to take him safely. Hi is friendly but sometimes other dogs don't want bothering. Nothing I have tried so far will break him out of this habit. He does always come back in his own time but loves to follow scents. If I carry a ball, he will stay with me until I throw it and then go off hunting with it in his mouth!! If I don't throw it he stays with me for a while but then gets bored. He needs to run as he has very high energy and bounces around the house if not exercised enough. I take him in quiet woods but I know this is not helping. He goes quite a distance from me. If I go out with other dogs, he will leave them too to go exploring. I have tried a long line but it gets tangled and has to be removed when other dogs come over to him. I have tried raw chicken, roast chicken, black pudding, steak, kidney and heart but smells and fun overrule food. What am I doing wrong and how can I put it right while still giving him the exercise he needs. How can I be more exciting for him? We are still shaky on delivery to hand so I don't want to mess that up either. PS upto 6 months old recall was perfect!! Sorry for the long post
Hi and welcome to our forum What you are describing could be my dog Sam, on a bad day, he is also driven to track As you say that his recall was good , then maybe it would be best to take him right back to basics , treat him like a puppy, working at home on recall and much praise when he gets it right too . I also recommend that you buy Pippa`s book , Total Recall ( Amazon sell it ) as it will guide you through the process, giving you goals and aims . I really do appreciate how hard it is to keep tabs on a driven dog , fortunately mine is food orientated , so training was relatively easy, please try the book, I`m sure it will help you .
Hi and welcome to the forum from me and my two 19-month-olds, Willow (black bitch) and Shadow (yellow dog). Take a look at this thread, which might help give you some ideas on keeping your dog close during a walk: http://thelabradorforum.com/threads/keeping-your-dog-close-on-a-walk.12214/ It sounds like you might also need to work a bit on your retrieve with the ball, so he brings it back to you. Or teach a specific "give" cue. If he learns that bringing it back results in another throw, then he's more likely to do it. Do you mix up any training with your walks? I find the best way to keep my two close is to engage with them all the time. I chuck in some behaviours throughout the walks, which keeps them on their toes. You might like to look at this thread for some examples: http://thelabradorforum.com/threads/my-training-walk.13083/ I would also heartily recommend working through Pippa's book Total Recall. I'm revisiting it to refocus my boy whose recall had slipped a bit. Just a short way through the exercises, and he's already a lot snappier than he was. Good luck, and please pop over to Introductions to tell us a bit more about your dog, and post some photos if you can.
Hi and welcome. The best way to solve recall problems us to go right back to basics and Pippa's book Total Recall can help you through the training process. It's very common to find a brilliant recall disappear around 6 - 7 months of age, which is when puppies start becoming more independent and don't feel the need to stay close to you, particularly where there are any distractions.
Thank you all. If I go back to basics, will he still get the exercise he needs to stop being loopy? With the ball, he will bring it back for another throw until he gets distracted, then he carries it with him. We do training while out as much as possible, sit whistle while walking etc but as I say, I don't want to mess up what I already have, if he decides to leg it with the dummy. I want to keep up with my training at the same time. Snowbunny, I will have a look at your links, thank you. Would you recommend that I go out on my own with him? Do I completely stop him from running for the time being? CONFUSED is an understatement. Just ordered Total Recall. Sigh
Sounds like Oban and me but he was 18 months. I tried all the suggestions people offered me, we started field work too, and nothing worked. The long line failed spectacularly but I belatedly think I know why now. I found North/South fetch for the field work and worked it into a whistle recall. I had not "poisoned" the recall word but I did change to the whistle for this purpose. Now I can recall with whistle, verbal or hand signal. I do still carry two balls with me, it's impossible to proof against wild turkeys, deer, snowmobiles and as well, if he recalls from them he mightily deserves a mega reward which for him is a throw of the ball. We've been doing it long enough now he comes to me without being asked when he hears snowmobiles because it means a throw of the ball. MIght work for you too?
Hello there, This is about your dog engaging with you, and staying engaged. Total Recall will help, but if you don't achieve better engagement, then you will bust your recall even if you retrain it (because if all you have is recall, you over use it to manage your dog). There are so very many aspects to this, it does feel confusing at first. Training engagement is very much like training anything else, except it feels a bit more like an art than a science. The first thing to appreciate is that you can't really train anything else until your dog is engaged with you, and what you are trying to work on, in the environment you are in. If he is not engaged, there is no point in trying to train a hand deliver of a ball, or recall, or stop, or anything else. All you can work on is engagement. Once engagement is solid, then you can train other things. If your dog is off sniffing round, zooming off, following scent trails, there is absolutely no point in thinking about whether you'll do some clicker training on a hand delivery. Your dog doesn't want to be in the same place as you - so you are not at step one. You also want to limit free running as much as possible - I don't believe it should be limited completely, because I don't believe that's good for dogs, but even free running should involve your dog checking in frequently, keeping an eye on you, and if you want to do something, a starting work cue eg "ready to work" should bring him dashing back to see what fun you are going to have together. The book "why pigs fly - training success with impossible dogs" might help you (this book is a bit out of date, I think and I don't follow all of the techniques in it myself, but it's a good starting point). Control unleashed is also a good book, but is not quite so focused on engagement. Most people, when they have an engagement problem, start with the basics like rewarding check ins. Have your dog in a space that is not too exciting. No other dogs etc. and with a clicker, reward check ins. You have to do this all the time, for months. Any attention your dog offers, click and treat. And make sure your treats are amazing at first. Once you can keep your dog's attention in the boring field, you can start training (or playing games). Make yourself interesting to your dog. Then either change location, or start to introduce distractions. But never try to train unless you have engagement - work on engagement first, then training. Best of luck with it
Thanks Julie, he does check back in, he just zooms off again, he ALWAYS knows where I am. I have watched the videos and am now armed and dangerous! I'll take my bag of toys out and I will get engagement!! Reading these posts I think I have been more focused on him getting his exercise to calm him down instead of getting him engaged with me. I think for a while it would be easier if I went out alone instead of with my sister and her dogs Glad I joined. Wish me luck. I'll keep you updated xxx
Good luck, let us know how you get on. I walked round with half of pets at home hung around me for months. Months....
Definitely go out just the two of you. And remember, when your dog is running around, he's getting fitter, which means he has to run around more to get tired. Using his mind will tire his brain out, which will tire him out. Yes, he needs exercise, but he needs mental stimulation more. Be the one that provides that and he'll want to spend time with you. Please let us know how it goes.
Hi there, I have a super sniffer-scenter-hunter as well who has just turned two and this all sounds very familiar. Woodland walks were the worst places to walk her, one sniff of the air and she would be off scenting and tracking like she was obsessed! The best thing I did was to find areas to walk that did not arouse her too much, for us that was walking in fields in wide open spaces. She was much better and I found I could engage with her so much more. A year on and she still hunts and scents (she always will as that is how she is wired!), but she doesn't go very far away at all and is happy to engage in games and training. Maybe she has also calmed down a bit too!
Maybe you could also consider doing some scent work with him? Give you both a focus for that sniffing? I've just bought a DVD and a book from Amazon to try out with my two - only this morning, so I've not had a chance to open it yet.
Welcome @bubbles from Hattie 8 years and our rescue boy Charlie 5 years who is a Labrador x Pointer. I really recommend Total Recall, I worked through this with my rescue Charlie who was an absconder and now he has a recall, although he did disappear for 2 hours today, but that's on another thread . My problem is he has trouble engaging with us and runs, runs and runs a bit more checking in just like your boy but Charlie doesn't play or retrieve when not in the house so it's very tough to manage. If you can sort this out you will be a great position and I wish you luck
