Ugh, just had a very frustrating walk with Myles. 6 weeks of puppy training did not do anything to help his out of control excitement when another person or dog is near enough for him to get to. I have it well under control if it's at a distance, but if someone wants to approach to say hi, he lunges and twists in the air and absolutely loses it. Just now, we were walking along (on lead) and people across the street had a 4 1/2 month old chocolate lab and asked if they could walk him over. I said yes and asked if they would stop before they got too close so I could see if I could get Myles to calm down first. I try to block his view with my body to get his attention, try "look at me" which is really just me repeating it while he continues lunging and I am just only accomplishing by holding him back. I manage to get a very brief look and a sit so I treat him (seemed pointless, he was hardly containing himself). I try to allow him to approach but he is just awful. I mean imagine the worst. All friendly, but so over excited and he goes straight for their faces rather than a butt sniff greeting. So I pull him back (trying not to let him have the reward of a greeting), and after a few minutes of talking with the owner (Myles has now starting to whine/bark because he can't get closer), I tell her I can't let them greet. She is completely understanding. (I will go ahead and say here, her dog was very well behaved but she had some sort of electronic collar for him). Myles and I left and I just felt so defeated. He's this adorable puppy that other people want to meet, and it's just so out of control I can't let them. I will back up a bit and say his play sessions with my other friends puppy have been in a fenced in yard where he was never asked to be calm before playing. They are a match for their boisterous playfulness so we just let them go for it. Do you think this has been bad idea? A few days ago we met another lab on a walk and Myles wanted to play so I dropped the leash and let him play with her (her owner encouraged it). He was crazy excited, jumping at her face, biting her ears. She (the dog) did correct him a few times but she was a very patient dog. But again I left questioning whether or not I should EVER let him play without first getting him to calm down and have some self control? Sorry so long, feeling so frustrated by this. My last lab (never once clicker trained or puppy schooled) on his worst day was never this crazy. New territory for me trying to deal with this.
Sorry you are feeling stressed by this. Harley has always been quite boisterous with our neighbours lab (they are the same age), but we do watch them closely. Out of the house she rarely plays with other dogs. When she was younger I used to go and sit outside our local pets at home shop. This gave her really good exposure to people and dogs. I had her on a harness and had a very short lead. If she got excited and was bouncing all over the place I wouldn't let her say hello, if she was a bit calmer I would let her, but would ask people to turn away if she jumped. She learned very quickly that get too excited meant not saying hello. I did spend at least an hour a day hanging around the local shops where PAH was based as there are food shops, takeaways, restuarants etc. it really helped me to do this. Do you have any friends with a dog that you could get to stand in the middle of a field and you walk up slowly and reward any look at you, even if only a millisecond. The closer you get, if he isn't bouncing the more quickly he gets treats. It will take a while, it took us a few weeks and a lot of sweat and tears, but we got there. Good luck, you will get there
Hi Ericka. I would try to set up some training scenarios like Ternaya said, if at all possible. Start at a long distance and C&T for calm behaviour. Then slowly build to closer distances. You might also benefit from using the "Look at that!" technique that is described in the book Control Unleashed. I've used this with Willow to great effect.
Your boy sounds so very like my Charlie - I so know what you mean by being taken aback by the excitement at getting to other dogs and other people. It is a young lab thing, but some dogs are just so over the top about it that it's scary. Now I've seen many more dogs at training and out and about, I do know that Charlie's excitement levels are different from that of other dogs. It's been a long road for me to try to deal with it, and I'm not there yet. I so know how deflating it is - simple situations which other dogs just "get over" quickly can have your dog just crazy for hours and hours. Gundog training was quite the worst for demonstrating how different Charlie is to working line dogs in this respect - although all young labradors are excitable, I honestly think I had to work a billion times harder at self control than anyone with a working line dog (that I've seen, anyway). The first thing I appreciated was that Charlie is not scared of things - he has no caution. He sees something new and it is exciting to him - skate boards, roller skates, bikes, buses, other dogs, people, remote controlled cars...you name it and his natural inclination is to go jump on it and play with it. He will never, ever, work because this inclination also extends to people firing guns. Partly, this is my fault. Charlie was socialised as a puppy to just about everything I could think of - with hindsight, he probably needed a fraction of the socialisation that I did. Although, that said, I live in a big city and I need a dog that doesn't bark at things, and is bombproof - I've certainly got one and some....I still don't know whether he would have been as he is anyway, probably not as bad I suspect. But I have the dog I have now - and so this means self control is always at the top of my training agenda. If you have a dog like Charlie (and it sounds like you do) you have to work at self control and frustration management constantly. I had to have help with sorting out Charlie's excitement around other dogs - I did pretty much nothing else for the summer of 2014 but work with a series of trainers that were willing to bring their dogs into the training sessions. It did work, eventually, but honestly it was a lot of work. And he is still as bad as the average young not very well trained labrador, but I've had to work my socks of to get to "averagely bad". Sorry if that all sounds a bit depressing! And your boy might not be half as bad as Charlie! But if he is, you need to devise a programme where you can work on this in controlled environments for quite a while....
Thank you for your replies. It really helps to hear from others that have been there. Naya, very good idea about the pet store. If I can get Myles to accept the car better, that is a good option. He needs more practice around other dogs where he has to stay in control. Snowbunny, I hadn't heard of that book. It's on my list! Julie, it does sound like our 2 are alike in this way. So it's helpful to see how much work you did have to put into it. Myles is a hard one to read. In so many other ways he's a slow mover. If people see us on walks, he really has gotten pretty good on lead so he may appear well behaved from their distance. But the second they approach and he thinks they are coming, it's over. Because he was described to me as a shy one in his litter, I did let him meet anyone and everyone on our walks when i first got him, not wanting him to be fearful. So he shows absolutely zero hesitation towards people, children or dogs. Which is good, and bad . A trainer that will bring a dog around is a good idea, it may get to that point. I just need to seek out scenarios where we have to work on this, and continue to be willing to pull away of we have to. It is getting easier to explain to people (well Myles explains it for me with his craziness ). Thank you all again. It sounds like we will be working on this one for awhile!
Hi there,it's a blummin nightmare when they spontaneously combust with excitement isn't it?totally embarrassing.All I'm going to add in is about your 'look at me'....I've got a pretty strong one to get me past dogs that are staring at us and cats ......but I had to start in really unchallenging situations.trying to do it outside when Myles is massively over his excitement threshold will be down to pure luck. I did lots of short session over several days of just sitting with Dexter and he'd get a c&t when he looked at me,I kept that clicker and treat bag on me all the time and every time I got a spontaneous look and I was quick enough to capture it,he got c&t.....his concentration and eye contact was pretty fine after a couple of days and you can introduce your cue then....then you can start moving into more challenging situations,but you need to be at really big distances at first ( well we certainly did) And you can gradually decrease it very slowly over time.Dont be down about it....some days you just feel like you are going backwards and then something wonderful happens and you are up in the clouds again x
Thank you Dexter, I should clarify. We really already have the "look at me" on cue doing exactly as you said for several weeks. I can get it successfully on our walks nearly every time I ask for it, but we don't have it refined in distractions (obviously). We just went on a walk and came to a bus stop with several teenagers there. I used it as an opportunity to have him sit calmly ("Look at me", c/t) then if calm I would let us move closer and repeat. We weren't able to go up to any of them but it was a good little exercise. Working up to closer distances will be the long part. I'm just going to have to seek out being in situations where will have to work at it. It's too easy to just avoid people/dogs around here and have a peaceful walk, but then we never learn!
I've read all the comments and I don't have any further advice as it's all excellent your boy sounds just like my girl. This morning she tried to chase a jogger but this afternoon actually ignored two passers by. Slowly and I mean really slowly there may be a glimmer of hope. Just wanted to say I know where your coming from but you're not alone I'm in the same boat as you along with many more Labrador puppy owners. Keep going you'll get there in the end.
Another sufferer here. The sit is good, it gives you some control and warning when they are going to jump up. I have also taught Molly to 'look at me'. She can sit nicely while 30 teenage boys in football boots clatter and clomp behind her. But see another dog in the next county and it is another story It is always good to know that you are not the only one and that you are not a rubbish trainer.
I had the excact same problem. We did not attend any puppy courses at all (1. mistake), and when he met other dogs he got play with them, and that meant all-out-playing (2, mistake). Since we live in a remote area, with not many dogs nearby it was hard to socialize him good, and I also had a really stressful period at work. But it came to a point when I realized this had to be fixed. So I contacted a retreiver club 100 km away from me which have weekly meetings/trainings with focus on socializing, and since February I have done this 100 km back and forth two times a week. It has been a MASSIVE help for me and Balder. The first meeting was pretty much a disaster, but the instructors saw how he behaved and set up a course for us, involving "homework". At the meetings we did a LOT of contact training and just sitting still doing absolutely nothing. This was hard for him the first times, he was on a completely other planet when 20+ other dogs was around him. Sniffing, wimpering and barking a lot. Stressed indeed. We could not walk past other dogs. He did not hear my voice, did not care about treats. I thought this was hopeless, but I soon learned that Rome was not built in a day, but brick after brick. Now, 4 months later.. - When we arrive at the meetings, he calms down after 1-2 minutes and sits on his place on the left by my chair. Not wimpering and has become very contact seeking during our "do nothing for 15-20 minutes" seance. - We can walks past other dogs without any trouble, mostly. Bitches are still a bit to interesting (he is 16 months old now...) - I can get him to sit and stay in the middle of all these dogs walking around with their owner. I can walk around, and he's sitting, just following me with his eyes. - I can do recall in the same conditions. He can sit/stay with other dogs, and come on the recall whistle and sit by my heel, or I can stand with other dogs/persons and do the same. This was not possible at all 4 months ago. He would have had the time of his life running around and trying to play with other dogs. - He is still interested in other dogs, but he is much calmer. Still needs work on this issue. But it's much better now. Our homework included contact, contact and even more contact training. And some more. Both on walks by the road, in forests, in the mountains and fields. Every new place requires a lot of work. But it getting so much better! We also trained a lot of "do nothing". Both on walks, and on the village I live nearby. First we take a walk around in the village training contact, and then we just sit on a bench at the entrance of a mall. Doing nothing. I reward contact, but don't do anything else. This has been very helpful. Now he does not think every person in the world is his toy. All this have also given us huge imrpovements in our gun dog training. Well, this got a bit long, but my point is: There is hope. Yes, it takes massive amounts of training, but you will get there. I'm not saying we are perfect, but the improvement in just 4 months is huge. We still have issues, and are working on those. Good luck. Pardon the english, I'm Norwegian.
Settepotet, thanks for the details and your English is very good! Wow that's quite a drive twice weekly, but sounds like it has been worth it. I admit we haven't worked on it much since I posted this, but like you, it's going to require me going somewhere where he will have to be in a situation to practice it. I first have to get him over his car anxiety (we are working on this), so that I have more options. For now, I just try to work on it whenever people or dogs are close by, by having him sit and focus on me (this only works if they are at some distance where he knows he cannot reach them). We really have the same problem with people as well, just way too excited. A lady just last week thought she could get him to "sit puppy" because she had 2 pups of her own. Obviously it did not work and she walked away apologizing for trying to pet him when I told her not to. Thanks again for the reply and glad to hear that hard work pays off!
The most frustrating thing with dog training is not always the dog, but the people you meet. If they behave like they are a dog party organizer, the dog of course goes into party mode. It's frustrating to keep telling people to ignore the dog, and just be "normal". I often bring Balder to my workplace, and in the beginning most of colleagues where "ah, nice doggy weeee" and Balder then of course increased his stress level. Now though, they know how I want them to behave and most important, they follow my "rules", and Balder is calm and focused. Same rules at home. NO talking to/greeting the dog, before greeting me, my girlfriend and daughter. This is difficult some times, and you always have the "oh, he's just a nice dog, cut him some slack!" folks. Frustrating. Same with talking to him when he's wimpering/crying for attention. As stated earlier, he is my first dog, and I have done a lot of mstakes. And a wrong, needs a tenfold of rights to get rid of the behaviour. Balder is getting better at meeting new people, due to our contact and "do nothing" training. Before he was way to eager (head to tail body wag, jumping, panting), now he's much calmer ( the whole body wag is not getting away though... is this a labrador thing???). Still much work to be done here also. It's not easy to be a dog owner, with certain ambitions for your dog when other people don't respect that... Good luck to you, and keep posting updates!.
