I suppose this falls somewhere between behavior and training. My lab Otis will be 2 in January. He's mostly well behaved and like most labs, mellow at home, but extremely energetic at the park. All of that is fine until he's not responding to commands. This happens about 99% of the time at the Lake dog park. Other dry parks, trail walking, backyard, etc he's mostly very responsive. Something about the water and the area around it at our closest park just sets him off. While he retrieves fine everywhere else, at the lake he turns everything into a game of keep away. My two issues with him are stealing other dog's balls and then not responding to come, leave it, drop it. And if he finds a giant log (the bigger the better) he'll sprint around with it proudly swinging it around wildly. I'm concerned that he's going to injure someone. A couple of weeks ago he stole another dogs ball, which was fine with the other owner, but he was not listening to me telling him to drop it, so he was misbehaving. I waited, ignored him until he let his guard down, and grabbed him by the collar. As I tried to grab the ball out of his mouth he accidentally bit me as he was readjusting his grip on the ball. My bad, should have reinforced the drop it and let him drop. And he was too amped up to release the ball. So after a week to let my wound repair, I got him back out for some training on a 30 ft leash. We went to two different parks, two days in a row and the difference was astounding. He was coming on command. dropping the ball, etc etc. The second day, we went to the Lake park where he has the most problems and he was amazing! Granted there were not that many dogs around and he had the swimming area to himself for a good 5-10 minutes. I made him sit stay and threw the ball in the water, made him wait, and let him go get it. When he got out of the water he didn't run away trying to lure a game of chase, he came when called and dropped the ball immediately on command. He didn't even do that thing where he releases the ball but then can't help himself if it rolls away and has to go pick it up. nope... I was like, WHO IS THIS DOG? I cannot believe how quickly he changed his behavior! Then I thought, he has been messing with me this whole time! lol. We're going to keep going to the lake park with the 30ft leash at strategic times to reinforce his behavior there. I want him to be able to play with sticks/logs (but only if its safe), and even have a good game of chase with other dogs, but not until I feel confident he will listen to commands when distracted. So my question is, roughly how long will it take training him with the 30ft leash, to get him to the point where I can feel like he will listen off leash?
I might have got the worng end of the stick but this is what it sounds like is happening to me. When he was off his lead and stole another dogs ball, your aim was to stop the game, remove the ball from him etc. While you've had him on a long line, you are playing wih him- he brings theball, you throw it etc.
I have a problem with Toby and tennis balls. He has stolen a couple recently from other dogs and will not let it go. His sole aim is to get it home so he can destroy it!(or so it seems) Any other type of ball is absolutely fine. He will drop it/fetch it on command.
Yes. When off leash in general, only at the lake area, he does not listen to commands. I don’t mind him carry logs around or even stealing a ball from another dog to play chase as long as when it’s time to give the ball back, he listens to commands. Or drops the log if there are too many people around. (i.e. too dangerous for him to be running around with it) The very first time we went to the lake on the long line he did everything I asked like an angel.
"How long will it take training on the 30' leash to the point where i feel i can take him off leash?" has the answer in the question. It will take as long as it takes until YOU FEEL COMFORTABLE taking him off the long line. I would guess that your comfort will come in shorter time if you frequent the training spot and provide good reinforcements. The Lake park seems to be the next step in the evolution of proofing for Otis's obedience. When i take Captain to the dog parks for training purpose, i make sure we do some training before we drive to the park, and then i do some training at the park while outside of the dog area. When we get inside the dog park, it is difficult because we have to 'contend' with the unknown behavior of the other dogs, but i focus on recall, drop it, and leave it alone. The times where there is just one or two other dogs/handlers i explain my intention for training and they often are more than happy to help in any way.
we have Kyko on the long line as he's far too excited by other dogs to listen & I don't want him running up to dogs especially ones we don't know. He used to be allowed off the long line while walking in the country as it was quiet & very few distractions until he gotthe zoomies after getting muddy feet. The trouble there was although he didn't go far away he was running round at speed & a car could've came & he just wasn't able to listen. So until he will walk past dogs without a reaction & when I know he comes back 100% of the time he will be on the long line regardless of how long it takes. My pet peeve is when owners don't have a reliable recall & their dog comes running up as this gets Kyko over excited. The zoomies while on the long line are getting less & I'm getting better at anticipating them so can either call him back before the excitement takes over or I have enough time to brace myself for the inevitable yank when he gets to the end of the line
Thanks for your response! Very helpful for sure. Lately we've been avoiding the lake, by just walking off leash on the trails and then leashing him just before we get to it. And I've only let him off leash there when there are very few or no other people/dogs around. His "drop it" and "leave it" are very unreliable at the lake, especially if its a nice big stick or log he's found. His recall is getting better there, but if he has a ball or stick he'll only come back near me but not to me. He wants to play keep away. I ignore this behavior and just keep walking, and he follows or runs ahead a little at a distance. Once I start walking out of the park though, he'll just run up to me, drop the log and wait to be leashed. The park is very close to home, so I'm there twice a day with him most days. My son has even agreed to walk our older dog in the evening, so I get a chance to work with Otis one on one. I'm going to double down on the long leash and continue to keep our visits to the lake brief. Yesterday, we met up with some dog owner friends at a different part of the park (no lake) and she commented on how calm and well behaved he is... he fetches the ball and drops it at my feet... there..
