My 8 month old female labrador loves sticks - not unusual for the breed I know. However over the past few weeks she has taken to actually going inside hedges around the fields I walk her in and literally ripping branches off the hedge before emerging triumphant with them. She races proudly around with the branch - often quite a large branch before attempting to break it up. Once she's satisfied that it's been destroyed she will return to another area of the hedge and repeat the process. Firstly, I'm concerned she will get hurt in the process, either within the hedge or by a sharp bit of the branch she removes and secondly I really don't want her to destroy the hedges and frighten off any wildlife within them. I've now resorted to putting her on an extendable lead so she can have a degree of freedom but I can stop her getting into the hedges. However this isn't a long term solution and we're both used to her being off lead in these otherwise safe environments. Does anyone have any suggestions as to how I can stop this behaviour?
I should add that she is a generally well behaved dog and her recall is pretty good. I can honestly say this is the first behaviour I've come across from her that I really need to stop
Hi. She's making her own entertainment up and not focussing on you. Try engaging with her a bit more, make yourself more exciting! Play games, fetch, find it, tug, etc. Walk away from the hedges, maybe a different place to walk, as walking in the same place daily she will just repeat what shes doing as she finds it very rewarding.
I appreciate what you're saying but I do play with her when we're out and engage with her in both games and training. Yes we mostly walk in the same place, I work from home so can't travel far during the day to change location. I do however frequently walk her in different locations in the evenings and weekends. Today we had our usual lunchtime walk but I had some premium treats with me and did heel training when walking past the hedges, all went well so I'll continue in that vein
Brilliant, sounds really positive It's just about finding out what makes you're dog tick! I have 3 labs.... 1st lab is a nightmare, I've learnt by past failures
