Hey everyone! We’ve got an 11 1/2 week old black lab who is doing extremely well! He had is 2nd set of injections last week so we’re now allowed to let him out in to big wide world! We took him for a little 5 min trip down a farm track yesterday off lead and we were pleasantly surprised how much he stuck to us like glue (I’m sure the chicken helped). Today we took him for 5-10 min walk around a field in our city where other people walk but on his lead. At home in the garden he bites on his lead a little but didn’t at all once all the distractions of other people took over. For the main part he paid attention to us (sitting regularly for treats) but we came across 3 people walking dogs (who didn’t approach him and stayed a good distance away) and he was so excited to see them he ignored all treats and commands.... I appreciate a lot of patience/training/socialising will be needed to overcome this long term but we were worried that he’d slip his lead. Is the any type of lead you recommend to prevent him slipping it when he gets a bit too excitable or would a harness be better in the short term until we can teach him better impulse control? - our plan is regular ‘sit’ ‘look at me’ commands with treats which he is REALLY good at minus the distractions but any other ideas also welcome
It's safer for your puppy to have a lead attached to a harness rather than a collar as then if he pulls he will not hurt his neck.
A harness is always a safer option, especially for puppies. If he's that interested in other pups that he ignores treats, you might want to enrol in a puppy training class near you, where he can learn to focus on you in the presence of other dogs...and also ensure he gets lots of appropriate play with pups and (more importantly) adult dogs.
We’re trying to get enrolled in puppy training classes but they aren’t starting until mid August. He’s getting much better at focusing on us now .. it’s now more telling other people not to fuss over him and undoing all that he’s learnt. We’re trying to get him used to his harness, he gets very excitable when putting it on at the moment so we’re introducing it to him all the time in the most boring and calm ways possible. Thanks for your advice!
If he tries to bite the harness and play with it, just use a treat and put it through the head hole of the harness. When he is nibbling on the treat, lure his head through the head hole - then drop a few more treats on the floor whilst you do up the side buckles.
Thank you! We’re getting there slowly ☺️ We’re doing much more off lead training in fields but he’s doing very well on his lead walks so far and getting used to lots of distractions.
