Hi all, As the title says, I have an overexcited Labrador when he sees other dogs. He is almost 15 months old now. In the house he is a great dog...well behaved doesn't destroy things, listens well, he knows the rules of the house and is the most loving dog I've ever seen. And when we get outside all hell brakes loose . He will listen to me if there are no distractions around. When he sees another dog he will start jumping up and down or pulling to that dog or barking or all of the above at once. I will note that if he gets over to the other dog he just plays...he is not aggressive just because of his size he can look scary to other people and he is so strong that at times he can be very hard to control. What i did to prevent/correct this (without success 1) Dog collar with spikes inside - stopped cause he was hurting his neck and i didn't have it in me to keep going with it 2) Choke collar - no help 3) Regular collar - things improved a bit but not by much 4) Now i got him an harness - he dose all the same things but is easier to keep him next to me 2xdog trainers that did not solve the problem. Tried to take the problem apart and work on it step by step. This method gave me some success in the sense that i can now walk around some dogs (that he never interacted with) without him going totally crazy but when he sees dogs that he played with we go back to the same thing... I've also tried to teach him to be calm while his friends are at the dog park playing. Spent hours just sitting there waiting for him to be calm so i can give him the go ahead to play when he reached that state of mind...he never calmed down. Also i like to note that after he plays for a few minutes and the encounter adrenaline is over he will come when i call him and he can also be calm around the dogs and just sniffing around with them or by himself. Seems to me that i don't know how to calm him down and that the problem is mine and not his and i would like some help on figuring out what the problem is and how can i communicate to him what i want. I would be grateful for any advise that you can give me. Thank you
Hello, and a very warm welcome to the forum. I have an extremely excitable dog. I did a lot of training with him, and over time it did get better. I suspect that at least 50% of progress was due to him just growing up a bit. He remained as daft as a brush until he was well over 2 years old, and then things started to get a bit better. I'm really glad to hear you have given up on things like prong and choke collars, these are likely to do much more harm than good, and having him safe on a harness is the best thing to do. I'd say you just have to keep going - but try to relax about it, stay cheerful and upbeat with your dog, and know that it's an extremely common problem with Labradors and one that many of us struggle with. And remember it will get better! You just have to keep training around other dogs, waiting for him to return his attention to you and reward, being more interesting than other dogs (so you don't necessarily have to have him calm say, but getting him to want to play with you and a ball when he sees another dog would help too).
Thank you JulieT! for your advice and for your words of encouragement. I will put your advise in practice, for sure. It was my understanding that i need to learn how to calm him down but now that i've read your replay i think about the fact that none of the people that said that to me ever had a labrador (even tho they had other dogs). The neighborhood i live in lots of people walk their dogs without a leash and lots of those dog come over to us and bark or try to engage him in play and few even become aggressive. So far i've managed to keep my cool and nothing happened. I worry that with enough incidents he will learn even more bad behaviors.
My Twiglet has severe pigeon distraction. We are getting there. I have 'pigeon treats' in my pocket which are high value to her. Every time she sees a pigeon I give the 'look at me' cue and a treat when she does it, another when we are past the pigeon without her looking back. She's beginning to look to me when she sees a pigeon, which is what I want - every time. I would suggest the same if your pup is distracted by other dogs.
I have got to the stage where SOMETIMES (but not always) my mad Chocolate Labrador can calmly observe another dog going absolutely bonkers, barking, lunging, etc. and just look at it, serene (I think he sometimes even teases puppies to get them into trouble, but that's my imagination no doubt ). But at first, I rewarded anything that was not bounce up and down on the end of his lead in desperation to get to the other dog. So getting his attention with a ball, a treat, me doing a squeaky excited voice etc. was a start. I did move this on to him just being calm and following his cues (rather than him dancing round me madly because I was bribing him with a ball) but at first I just did what I had to do to get his attention back on me and away from the other dog. These days I can usually get his attention even when another dog is almost in his face, unless that dog is aggressive in which case my dog is too busy thinking about how to deal with the dog, and that's fair enough I reckon.
Boogie Thank you for your advice! Tried that a while back and worked well for a while and now one of the 2 things happen: he looks at me gets his treat and then gets back to whatever he was doing or he doesn't look at me and i try do distract him with the treat and he just avoids the treat by looking around it ) he is kind of funny when he dose this looks like an awl rotating his head just to look at what he is interested in and not my treat. JulieT He loves tug-of-war...never occurred to me to try and use that to get his attention. I was told that is not a good game for dogs cause you "enter in conflict with them" but he absolutely loves it.
Tug is a great game. That stuff about always having to win and it being a battle with your dog is just daft. You should play it sensibly though, not throwing your dog around with his teeth or the dog getting so over excited he bites your hand! But it's a terrific game and reward. Absolutely, every time he sees a dog, get his attention and if he turns to you he can have a game of tug as a reward. Good idea. It doesn't matter if you bribe him at first (eg wave the tug toy around) but try to shift that over time to where he is responding to you and then you show him the tug toy. But, like I said above, at first I'd just do whatever I had to do to get my dog to stop fixating on other dogs and moved it on from there.
That's great - and it's progress Don't give up too soon, these things take weeks and weeks to train. I think one problem with us owners is that we give up too soon, we try a method a few times and then assume it's not working. If you are making progress - keep at it! Try getting a special treat which he loves and is only for that one thing - dog distraction on lead, so he gets it at no other time. Then do it for weeks - giving a treat for looking at you and another treat for walking on by. If he doesn't walk on by don't comment but don't treat either. He will soon learn what works. Also, keep the lead short - only give slack when you know he can deal with it and keep the lead slack. My supervisor calls it 'support' and it really works, it works for stopping ground sniffing too.
I could not throw him around even if i wanted to And he gets over excited but never bites. On the rare occasion when he touches my hand with his teeth if i say AU he just stops. He is such a good dog in many ways. On this evening walk i will try the tug game as a reward and distraction from dogs...now i'm so excited Will keep you posted with our results! Can't wait!!!
Boogie Never thought of that as progress ( But i will keep in mind what you said about the special treat only for that one thing. Maybe that was my mistake cause now it makes sense. Thank you!
Also, remember that the closer you are to the other dog, the harder it is for your dog. So if you are not being successful, try to increase distance and try again. It might seem at first you have to be miles away! But you will rapidly close the distance. At first, when I tried this in a field with a trainer and another dog, I couldn't get far enough away and still be in the same field! It does get better, promise.
Hi Camy and welcome to the forum. You've had some great advice above, and it's fab that you seem to think it might work. Let us know how you get on.
Hi Snowbunny and thank you for your warm welcome. Even if it won't work the fact that i have found such a great community and support here does wonders for my mental health . It can be challenging sometimes... Seeing other people walk with their dogs and me struggling so hard for a good walk makes me fell like a failure sometimes. Also thinking about all the things me and my dog could do together but we can't at this moment because i can't seem to get him to listen to me, makes me sad.
Hi Camy and welcome . Have you thought about doing something like agility? I have found it brilliant for getting my girl to concentrate on me and be able to take instructions from a distance. Harley isn't very good on lead and used to pull me along. I now use a harness (on walks she knows so won't pull) or a headcollars in new exciting places as I know she will usually pull. It is difficult when people stare at you like you have no control, but stick at it, it does get better
Hi and welcome, I think we all have a bucket of empathy and you have had some great advice. What helped me and my bouncy super friendly Meg turbo rocket was obedience classes. We started off the hooligan in the room, and to be fair many similar dogs joined along the way. Every week we repeated exercises with a changing variety of distracting dogs very close by. On her first birthday she passed her bronze and silver kc awards. We worked as a team hard at it. It was frustrating and disheartening at times but now at 20 months she is a total dream off the lead she likes to say hi to other dogs but will not rush off and will stay close and walk past dogs if I ask her. So try some classes and stick at whatever you choose. It takes patience and hard work but you will get their in the end. Emma and Meggie super star
Keep going and don't worry too much about what other people think. sometimes they may actually very understanding and have been in the same situation. You will get there its just sometimes you are just to close to the problem. He sounds a great dog and as if he's trying to learn., When Rory taps into his inner nutter I just keep thinking but he did that well before and he was great yesterday just stay calm, do all the stuff that might work to calm him I struggled like you with one of my other dogs but eventually we worked it out and she's great now. She's 12 now and has taught me so much, sweet evil little dog. Everyone has problems with their dogs training if they tell you any different don't believe them. Someone says something about how beautifully my dogs are walking etc and inside I'm quaking because i know I could be seconds away from disaster.
Thank you all! I will not give up..don't worry. I will do whatever it takes to find a solution. I promised an update: i've tried the tug as reward he ignored me when he saw another dog...i will try again. I've signed him up for gun-dog class. We did a session a while back but didn't continue due to reasons that were not in my control. He did great that first session, was top of the class even tho he never did anything like that before his instincts are very strong, it seems. After that one session he was calmer and not that eager to get in trouble. Even tho i will never take him hunting figured if he liked it so much he might learn to have a job by searching things and bring them to me. I've thought about agility class also but the only real agility course very far from the way i live.
Update: i'm coming back with an happy update: i tried tug as a reward a few times more and he still ignored me then i started with food reward again (boiled chicken breast - something he loves). Walked him a few times now and tried to teach him to look at me and reward. Worked, let's say 80% of times, and got better and better at it. I can still fill that he wants to go to other dogs but the "look at me" command works. When he meets a friend of his is harder for me to get his attention but he is getting so much better. I made peace with the fact that i can't leave the house with him without his favorite reward on me. It's only been a few days but i can feel him changing, Took him to gun-dog class on sunday ...he loved it. Don't know if his attention on me is cause of that one session or cause he is just growing up. I guess it doesn't matter as long as i get the results i want. Thank you all again and i will keep you updated! (hope with even happier news).
Ah, glad you are making progress! I find that my dog is much, much better the more training I do. The more I work on him keeping his attention on me, and it doesn't seem to matter why I'm doing that - gun dog training, obedience, pet dog classes - the better he is all round.
