As I've posted on my other threads I'm currently having issues with Cassie bombarding me during zoomie sessions. This morning she absolutely surpassed herself with focussed and accurate collisons with my right shoulder and seizing my upper arm, repeatedly, the usual back turning didn't work and only throwing my arms round her when level with my chest brought the debacle to an end. I was keen then on phoning Labrador rescue, BUT this voice in my head kept saying, in a few years time she'll be a lovely dog and you'll regret it. Actually it's me that needed rescuing. I've heard it said that one way to deal with this is to divert behaviour to something else, if I use a tug toy am I then rewarding her for pseudo attacking me? What sort of other things are useful for calming down? While waiting for the phase to pass I have a sense that I'm not doing enough to engage her brain at the moment, I'm working through the exercises for Total Recall and have done less other stuff, my mind is getting just a bit boggled at present.
I think perhaps she does need more activity -either walks or games. Have you taught her to retrieve? Once she knows basic fetch, you can work on only going for the object when you tell her to, and then having two objects thrown in different directions and going for the one you point at. How about teaching her to go around a cone? I found that after being lured a few times, Molly picked that up fairly quickly. Another game that Molly likes is me giving her an object (ball, tin can, sock etc) and telling her to put it in a box. And then I send her to get it out and bring it back to me again! When Molly was much younger though, I think chasing a small soft toy tied to the end of a rope was the favourite game. I used to swing it round, low to the ground and she'd chase it. The stopping and starting after only about 20 seconds chasing, and waiting to be told 'play', seemed to build the excitement - and in turn make her ready to rest. Good luck - your pup will soon be grown up.
One thougt if you are trying to use a tug toy is to throw it out to the side when she is zooming towards you and tell her fetch and run the opposite way. The aim being that she diverts to the toy rather than jumping on you etc. When she brings the tugger to you have a game of tug and reward her for releasing the toy. On one hand you want her running towards you but not the other behaviour Young dogs have to let off steam so it'should a balance of them doing that but still remembering their manners when they are excited. Is it possible for you to identify when Cassie is getting close to tipping over threshold with this behaviour? If so, you can also work at re-directing before she gets to that point - few minutes training of sit/stay/touch etc may also help.
@selina27 your description of Cassie is so vivid! Harley has been having unusually high levels of activity and I think it is because it is cooling down. So we ressurected a game from when she was a little pup. DH and I stand on opposite ends of the garden, with low value treats, and call her between us. She loves it. She belts from him to me, I call her and encourage her all the way and then I give her a treat, she has a little zoom and then he calls he and off she goes. It REALLY gets the energy out. We don't focus on her being calm or collected. This is all about craziness. I don't know if that is a possibility?
Oh yes, ditto! This is SUCH a trying time in their (and our...) lives. One thing my lab enjoys when he's all fired up but I'm trying to work, is a quick game of catch, with little pieces of kibble. I keep a jar on my desk. The act of having to sit some distance from me and focus on catching the tiny kibble seems to tire his brain out and settle him down. I'm not sure if this is something you can do with Cassie.
Thanks for your reply, I like those ideas and will try to incorporate them into our day. With the retrieve though, that's the thing, it's what I wanted to do with her in the beginning, but she doesn't seem to have much retrieving drive or I've squashed it somehow. So I'd rather given up, but earlier today thought about going back to clicker retrieve, even if we start again. I love watching her work it out.
Selina, you could do some ping pong recall with Cassie to get her focus back on you and hopefully calm her down. Use some really good treats, Charlie loves to play this If she calms down do some hand touches or some low level training and call it a day so that you end on a positive These days will soon be behind you so keep going xx
That's a really good idea, I will try it. She'll probably zoom off with it but I will give it ago. Sure she has to let off steam and I love to see her do that, she is quite spirited. Yes I can tell when it's about to start --she zooms off, corners round, gets my location -- sprints towards me , accelerates with all the power and determination of a rhinosceros on charge. Would be funny....I think this morning I was cowering against the fence . It's nothing to do with recall.
@charlie , thank you , yes we do ping pong recall, it's great I love doing it. The thing at the moment is how to deflect her from throwing herself at me mid zoomy. She's 100% focussed on me then , but not in a good way
Oh I can't believe I've read that ... all day long I've been thinking Guide dogs can't do this. I probably weigh more than you which must help
@selina27 I should have added that it doesn't need to be a tug toy. You could use a ball or a squeaky toy anything that Cassie lives playing with but utility my preference would be the tugger as you can have a tug play as well. If she doesn't like to give up the tugger my tip to clients and one of the ways I play with dogs is to have 2 tuggers the same; then you always have one that you can shake and engage with your dog. The only rule is that the dog isn't allowed possession of both tuggers
Thank you @Jojo83 , the thing is she doesn't really have a favourite toy. It has occurred to me this afternoon that really I am her favourite toy!. But I don't want to be tugged etc, so I think the idea of getting her to run after something when charging at me is a positive one, I was all prepared on our walk this evening but it didn't happen! I spread her tea outside and that definitely occupied her happily, but still those bright eyes were looking for something. So did some retrieve, inside, she was asleep within minutes.
I sympathise on the lack of a favourite toy. We only have one favourite and that's for bedtime and greeting people . It may work just to have a tugger with you some days, a ball on others just so that you are prepared. I guess I'm also lucky in that my girl only crashed into me once when younger doing a zoomie although I thought she'd broken my leg it hurt so much. Since then she has made certain that she veers around me before zooming back It does get better so keep the faith
You could start getting Cassie hooked on a new toy only taking it out of a cupboard for a look building it up her desire slowly then eventually letting her have one or two plays with it and so on. Might be worth a try. xx
Feel for you, but look, you taught her to retrieve. How awesome is that? We are still struggling. If you're not using all meals for recall training, you could try saving up boxes and divide the kibble and tape them up. Let her work for her meal.
Thanks @Dawn_Treader , I will do that with the boxes, any thing like that is good. I haven't done any retrieve training at all until yesterday as I felt she wasn't that interested. I only did a few little ones indoors which she seemed to enjoy.
