I have a 8 month old black Labrador rescue, he's house trained, sits, gives paw, lays down, stays, and will drop items when i say dead sometimes, were still training him, he does all this on command. The problem starts walking across fields he'll get over excited about something he's found and that's it we cant get him back no matter what we do, he runs away to protect his find. Max is a good dog who has just started to bark at any outside noise he hears and we think he is starting to be protectwhere he lives. The over excitement control is very difficult to deal with does anyone have any suggestions ?? Thanks, Jules.
Hi there and welcome to the Forum.Sounds like all you basic training has gone really well and he's settled into your family well.... Dexter is our first dog and I was lucky enough to find Pippa's Total Recall book not long after we got him and that really helped me... I did have a few bumps with him picking things up and playing keep away though .....once was a cooked chicken carcass he dug up on the beach....that was a tough one and he won that battle.... I did lots of 'leave it ' training and always have some super tasty treats on me for walks so that I can swap with him when he has found something I don't want him to have. I had a bad keep away with a deer leg once,he would dance just out of reach and if I approached him was trying to chomp it down quickly.I just turned around and walked in the opposite direction and pretended I didn't care or place any importance on it ....and he trotted after me,eventually alongside me and I could do the swap then ...He retrieves things like that now.....coincidentally he brought me a beautiful dead animal leg only this morning! Yuck,it still had fur and claws ...... Best wishes Angela
Hello Angela, I also read Pippa's book and although I found it basic to dog training it is a useful reference. Max found a dead rat in the field the other day and tried to eat it and no matter what trick I tried we could not get it of him it was a slip by him that enabled me to grab him. When outdoors he can be defiant and I would love to find a trainer who could help me OR maybe give him a few months more to see if it's just puppy exuberance and if given time he might settle down. This is the third black Lab two dogs but the bitch was a dream to own, very intelligent and lived to 171/2 yrs, well I like a challenge so here goes. Jules.
I'd have never have got a deer leg off Dexter without building up from really low value items over a looooong time,a dead rat would be of massive value to your dog....no wonder you didn't stand a chance of getting it back........ I use a clicker with Dexter .I Started in the house by using a piece of kibble ,and if he went for it I'd put my hand over it,When he backed off he got a click and treat of a hot juicy piece of roast chicken ...eventually,after a Lotmofmpractice in different places . I was swapping the rewards round ie I'd use a piece of juicy ,warm chicken as the temptation and reward him with a piece of kibble.This method eventually transferred to the park when I was trying to stop him eating cat poo in the bushes...horrible,vile habit that he had! Yes,I spent a considerable amount of time seeking out the cat toilets and lurking in bushes with high value treats ....again after time it worked....( I've never kept a training log but when I'm writing replies like this I wish I had so I could look back and see when I started this and how long it took) Dont get me wrong.....with distance between us,he won't leave,he will have a sneaky snack ...but he'll bring it back to me on his recall whistle...most of the time.Not the cat poo thankfully....he now has absolutely no interest in even seeking it out now!
Hey Jules and welcome to the forum. I can tell you that Max isn't being "defiant" - dogs just don't think that way. They do, though, choose to do things that give themselves the best outcome. If you want to get a dead rat off him, you need to be offering him something better - or at least have practiced with better things enough times that he believes you're going to give him something better. It doesn't need to be food, either - it could be a game or a throw of a tennis ball. It's very easy to anthropomorphise and believe the dog is "playing you", "defying you", "being stubborn", but all it comes down to, plain and simple, is training, training, training. If you don't get the desired result, it's because you've not trained it enough in the situation you're now in, offering him a reward that outweighs the reward he gives himself by not following your cue. Things that are simple at home are difficult outdoors because of all the extra distractions. It's not because the dog is ignoring you, he just hasn't learnt to generalise a behaviour to apply in all situations yet. Getting a behaviour is basically easy; proofing it against all distractions, at any distance and (where applicable) over longer durations if the thing that takes the time. In your situation, as much as I can understand why you wanted to get the rat away from him, you have to look at it from his perspective; you grabbed hold of him, there was a struggle, you took away his precious prize and he didn't get it back. He's just learnt that next time, he'd best not let you get hold of him - cue, playing "keep away". It's not easy, I'm definitely not saying it is (trying to get Willow away from disgusting things is an ongoing challenge), but sometimes we need a switch in our perspective to try to work out the methods to get the behaviour we're after. Maybe, after doing plenty of training at home, you could "plant" something for him to find on a walk. Something that he can't eat, but will definitely prize. A toy, maybe. When he grabs it, he'll probably run off. Sit on the floor and wait for him to approach you, without encouraging him. He will almost definitely come and sit by you, showing it off. Show interest in it, but don't take it. Wait for him to start losing a bit of interest - his chewing will slow down a bit, or he'll start looking distracted - and then offer him a treat in exchange for it. Once he's had his treat - and this is the important bit - give him the item back to him. He's just learnt that giving something up to you is great - he gets a treat and his prize back! Do this enough times, and you can start adding a cue and complexity (distance, distractions and the value of the thing he's finding). It's a long process, but with patience, you'll get there
Hello, and a very warm welcome! I do think it depends what your dog has that determines your response. My dog will not give me food that he has in his mouth - because I haven't trained for this. I have trained "leave it" with food, but I have not trained him giving me something that he fully intends to eat, once he has it in his mouth. There is a big difference between "leave it" and "hand me food from your mouth". So...your tools are to train a) leave it (for when you see something before he picks it up) b) give (with all items that are not food) and c) a magic word (and hope it works when you need it.....). Here is the magic word article: http://www.thelabradorsite.com/your-labradors-magic-word/ Having said that, Charlie did once deliver a rat to hand on his "give" cue, but it had been burned to a crispy mummified thing in a bonfire. I don't recommend training that though, because then I had to walk up the field carrying a dead, burned, rat.... More generally, when out on a walk, you want to be doing things that are a great deal more interesting to your dog than finding things you don't want him to find. Playing games, retrieving, keeping his attention on you. Best of luck with it.
Gin just came out of my nose. Brilliant I started writing a post on exactly this earlier - you know how I like my words, and I had got to around 12 pages - and then a happy Labrador jumped on my keyboard and all was lost. I hope I have time to start it again this weekend. I think it would be very useful for people to share ideas.
