My lab puppy is now coming up to 21 weeks and unfortunately he has had to grow up through lockdown so we haven't been able to do as many of the socialisation exercises we'd have ideally like to do. We managed to get one puppy training class in before full lockdown and he has met lots of other dogs on walks, he's met the neighbours 2yr old girl and we had 3/4 people round before full lockdown. As we live in London we meet people on walks and he's been exposed to lots of loud noises (rubbish trucks, buses, building works, tree shredders, fireworks etc) but we haven't been able to take him to the train station, on public transport or as often as we like to busy high streets. The main challenge we have is that other people are just so exciting for him, as soon as someone comes within 2/3 metres he starts to wag, pull and try to lunge towards them, most people love it (which also doesn't help) but some don't. Is persistence here key? Start going to busy areas and let him watch from a distance? And then build up the time we spend there and shorten the distance from others? We did the picnic trick the other day, keep going with this? Unfortunately we don't have other friends with a puppy so can't practise getting closer to other dogs in a controlled circumstance. Should we just practise with friends instead? I'm worried this will be a permanent issue and the thought of trying to get on a train is just unimaginable right now!! All thoughts welcome. Thanks a lot!
Hi Julia, We got Mia when she was 4 months old and before coming home with us she had never left the breeders premises so hadn’t had any socialisation apart from the group of dogs she lived with. On a walk she was really timid to start with and stayed by my side all the time. She then decided that she wanted to chase birds and with that came her confidence, she decided that every other human or animal needed to be greeted as enthusiastically as possible and that became a real challenge for us. Living in Cornwall, we were lucky to be able to take most of our walks on the moors or at quieter times of day through the village, this allowed us to meet limited distractions making it easier for me to catch Mias focus. I was on constant lookout for anything that might need to be charged at to greet and whenever I spotted something I asked for a look at me and treated, then a sit and treated and continued to reinforce the look at me with treats as the distraction passed. By keeping Mias attention on me she often ignore the distraction but at times when I wasn’t quick enough to spot it first she would charge right at it, I can’t blame her because she is so full of love and wants to share that with everyone but it can be dangerous and she needs to learn not to do it. We are just over 12 months in and still a work in progress, as long as I spot a distraction first she’s amazing and I know she’ll get there eventually with lots of perseverance. Good luck!
