I have a 12 month old fox red lab, Mia, who at times when we are on a walk can be so overexcitable that I end up having in a physical battle of strength to keep her under control - which obviously is not enjoyable for either of us and is getting to be a struggle for me as Mia gets bigger and stronger. As a bit of background, we had Mia at 4 months old from a breeder who had started training her for working but Mia was not keeping up with her training so he lost interest in her. She had never been walked on a lead in this time, just let loose to run from her kennel to the field he used for training. To start with Mia was quite reserved and tended to just stay by me when on a walk, which I stupidly took for granted so didn’t reinforce training her to do it as she just automatically did. Now as she’s gotten her confidence up she tends to only stay beside me at times and other times try to pull ahead which we are working on already and do seem to be making a bit of progress with but when people/dogs/cats/birds pass by or make a movement that catches her attention I cannot get her attention back on me and it becomes a situation where I have to physically restrain her to keep her from doing a runner after whatever it is. Once the distraction has passed she will still look for it so it does take a minute for her attention to return to me but once she’s focusing on me she is absolutely fine again. I have tried to make our walks when there is less distraction so we are currently going on early morning walks around the village rather than to any parks etc. to avoid as many distractions as we can when training, this has helped the situation but it does it is not the cure. I also wonder if maybe more training on her recall may help this issue or if that is an entirely separate entity? Her recall is pretty good, not 100% perfect but not far off. It’s again, when there is a distraction that she’s not at 100% on that. I have tried the loose lead technique but after several verrrrrry long winded attempts we still didn’t have any progress, I think that in general Mia’s attention span let’s her down as she is zooming from one thing to another at all times. I don’t know if will be having any effect on her training or not but I am generally her ‘trainer’, however if my boyfriend is on a rest day then he will take her out to our local park or moor to loose run her off lead. Her recall with him is not quite as good as it is with me but she’s progressing with him. Any tips or advice is very welcome please!
Hi Lucy - welcome to the forum. Mia is so beautiful and she sounds like a real character. Thought I might be of some use here because we've worked through similar challenges over the past year with gradual success. There will be others on here that could give a more experienced view, but these are my thoughts if they're useful: At these times, I would swiftly turn in the opposite direction and walk away. Keep her moving and gradually increase her distance from the distraction so that you're not having to hold her back as she strains on the leash. Trying to walk her past any distractions is probably a bit too challenging for her at the moment, but this will change. You'll get really good at identifying her excitement triggers from a distance and you'll be able to about-turn before she starts to react. This is really positive, and shows that she can disengage eventually. When this happens, give her loads of treats so she learns that looking at mum is the most rewarding thing in the world. Literally give her treat after treat after treat while praising her (cheese, sausage, all the good stuff). You can then apply this to the above situation where you've walked her away from the distraction. When you've got her to a distance where she's sensible, then stop and reward her engagement with you. I think you're right in saying that avoiding the distractions isn't the way to go. A useful way to approach it is to use your walks to FIND a distraction, but to find one that you can control in some way (either your distance from it, your ability to predict it etc). The more you avoid them the less you have the opportunity to practice near them. The aim is to get Mia at a comfortable distance and build up her ability to focus when she's distracted. I've done this recently with the sheep in the nearest field to us - I've trudged up there in the mud every walk for the past month or so and she's gone from losing her mind with excitement to now looking at them a bit "meh" and then chewing some grass or something. She's totally bored by them. My view would be that this is a totally separate thing to train, and I definitely wouldn't start training this around distractions. I'd work on her emotions around distractions as a separate thing to her desire to come to you off the lead. Rewarding her engagement on walks etc will help with both distractions and recall though, if that makes sense. Remember she's still a baby and the whole world is really exciting to her. It's your role to help her manage her excitement and turn it into confidence. Her attention span will improve with time. Ours is definitely still a work in progress at 20 months, but we'll get there. It just takes a lot of hard work. Good luck with it
Thank you so much for taking the time to reply. Mia is so lovely and a massive character, everyone who meets her just falls in love with her and she equally loves everyone back. I think my biggest fear is that she is going to get hurt one day because she just cannot leave anyone alone. We quite regularly see a chap with a Rottweiler on walks and although the Rotty is a lovely dog to people he’s not very good with other dogs and displays his aggression very clearly. The chap does everything right to keep him out of the way so that I can pass safely with Mia but despite all of this Mia still wants to run up to him. I think I probably get too stressed in this situation because I don’t want her to get hurt but she doesn’t seem to see the danger. Generally other dog walkers in my area are pretty good and if I shout ahead and ask them to give me a bit of time to get Mia to sit then they will. If I can get her to sit and focus on me first then it is easier for the other dog to pass us while we wait but even then I still struggle to keep her focus entirely on me. I get frustrated with myself as I know it was my fault for not reinforcing it with her when we first had her but the poor little soul was so nervous and reserved I was trying to keep everything light and easy so it didn’t freak her out any further. I have tried training her with treats but she’s not overly fussed about them (she’s had lots of stomach sensitivities but that’s another issue!) so she really can give or take them which makes things rather difficult. We have another fox red who also isn’t really bothered about food and we trained her by reward with a ball but Mia isn’t overly interested in a toy as reward either. She’s still massively a work in progress but we are starting to get there. It makes me feel a bit better knowing that I’m not only one experiencing all these issues so thank you! ☺️
It's great and very commendable that you were able to take Mia from her previous situation, and it's even better that you are putting forth effort to train her through the challenges. Thank you! 12 months is a time for challenging; i've often heard it compared to the teenage years for people. Pushing boundaries to find out how far is the limit, how far is comfortable, and how far is too far. Like LoopyLuna suggested, take advantage of FINDING the challenges and then you can anticipate them. If you know where these distractions are going to be, you can better control nearly everything about them. In addition to finding and anticipating distractions, pay attention to her body language. There is likely body language that signals her excitement before she tries to play tug-of-war with her leash. Identify that body language, and recognize the distance. It may change for different types of distractions, so be on the lookout for this as well. When you find the distance, that's the target for how close you want to START training. Take your Rotty friend as an example. If the walk is the same route every time, find a spot ahead of time, and wait. Practice your commands, sit, lie down, speak, watch me, etc while at this predetermined location. Practicing these commands will build a relationship with you and Mia, and it will get her excited to be "working". But, because you're doing all of this before the rottweiler presents it's awesomeness, you have the advantage of a strong engagement with Mia.
