Hi me again. My chocolate lab has just finished her first season, thank god. I'm back to walking her and letting her off and working on her recall. Today she let me down and went racing off after a dog. As usual the owner bends down slightly and she repeatedly jumps up in their face. I was along way away and calling and using my whistle but she wouldn't come. I saw the lady kick out at her twice and to be honest I don't blame her. No one has been able to help me cure this problem. My lab is nearly 4 stone now and its not on that she does this, she can cause serious damage. What can I do, other than keep her on the lead? I just want to go for a relaxing walk with my dog.
The best thing to do is go for training walks. My 8 month old isn't trained. If I had her off lead she would run up to people, and jump up at them. She would also run off to other dogs, chase birds, rabbits and squirrels and basically learn to ignore me when she is off lead. Her walk starts on lead regardless of where I am. We do some focus exercises on lead. If I can't get her to focus, the last thing I would do is take her lead off. When she is paying attention to me, and I can see there are no distractions around, she gets off lead to do something. That can be just to bumble through the woods getting rewarded for staying close but the point is that we do that for a bit, my concentration is on my dog 100% then after we've done that, her lead goes back on. Then her lead might come off for us to play a game, or fetch a dummy, or do some recalls. Then her lead goes back on. Whenever I get close to an area where there might be people or other dogs, I put her on lead. If people with off lead dogs walk up to us, I keep my puppy on lead, and sometimes (but not always) explain she isn't trained and might jump up, and ask if that's ok and also whether the dogs will be ok with a puppy. Most people with off lead dogs say 'fine' and then are reasonably sensible if my puppy jumps up (obviously I try not to have her jump up at all, but she still does manage it - it's impossible to be perfect). Over time, her ability to concentrate and focus will improve, she'll get better at ignoring people and dogs, and she'll be able to be off lead for the whole walk.
I'm in exactly the same position with my chocolate girl Molly. Am also using the techniques JulieT is suggesting here and I know in time it will work. It does demand concentration and consistent methods on our part though - not always my strongest point
Reminds me of when I was last in the UK on our first walk and Shadow was completely over threshold from all the smells. J had Willow, and my Dad was there with his dog and my sister's. Those three were all happy off lead, but Shadow just couldn't give me half a second of focus. "Why don't you let him off the lead? He'll be fine!". Um, no. No thanks. Won't be doing that right now.
Thank you everyone. I was trying to do a training walk but guess I let her off too close to a distraction. What I want to know is, if she does get to someone and go crazy, what do I do to stop her? Shout at her? What words do I use? Nothing seems to work! I do pavement walks with her too. She's very focused and I treat her when we pass people but if I bump into someone we know and try to chat to them here's what happens, I say don't try and stroke her she will jump up at you and mouth your hands, they say oh it's ok I'm used to dogs, they stroke her, she jumps up and mouths them. Then for some reason they continue to try and stroke her and she gets even more excited, more jumping and mouthing, ahhhh Strangely though she's very good with children now if they stroke her and just licks their face!
If you're on lead and you want to talk to someone, stand on the lead so she can't jump up. You need a lead that's long enough that it can go from her collar to the floor and back to your hand, without pulling on her neck. There shouldn't be any tension pulling on her neck, but not enough slack that she can jump up at all. She'll eventually get the idea that jumping doesn't work.
Don't say anything. Just get over to your dog as fast as you can and get hold of her. In preparation for the future, you can work on an interrupter word - one of mine which I particularly use to interrupt my puppy when she is playing with another dog is my hand held up and the word 'ready!' which I've worked on a lot and will often work, but I've put many hours into training that. If you haven't trained something like this, say nothing. Just get hold of your dog. You can also train your hand rushing towards your dog's collar is a very good thing - that's always helpful. There are many ways you can train interrupters. Mine for interrupting play is quite simple, I hold up a handful of treats in the air, wait until my dogs look at me, then say 'Ready!' and throw down the treats 'Find it!'. I use small, hard bouncy bits of kibble and they scatter around the kitchen and the dogs will compete madly to find them. I've done this in the kitchen, in the garden, on the training field....don't underestimate how long you have to train something like this to work in the face of a big distraction though.
I've tried distracting Teller using treats when other dogs are passing on the trail, but he won't go for them. Normally he is good about keeping his eyes on me and can be walked off lead reliably if there are no other dogs. He will walk ahead and might chase a squirrel or two but he always comes back and will stop if I say, 'Wait!'. I manage to get him to sit at heel quietly when there are other dogs walking past but he is so focused on the other dog that it seems nothing will distract him. I've tried nudging him, throwing high-value treats on the ground, etc. but he won't eat them until the other dog is out of sight.
Shadow copes much better if I don't ask him to sit - it seems to make him more anxious. He's far better if I allow him to keep standing and treat him for LAT. Other than that, if he can't respond, we're too close and I have to move away from the other dog. Sometimes easier said than done in "the real world", but I spend a lot of time going places where I can set up scenarios. Sadly, I don't have access to trainers or other people with dogs where I spend most of my time, but I have places I can go (in Spain, at least) where I can pretty much guarantee to see other dogs and so I go there and us the other dogs a stooges without them even knowing it
I'm in the same boat with Judy (8 months). She jumps right into peoples' faces and yesterday really bashed a woman we see regularly who was understandably upset. I felt (am still feeling!) awful about it. It's worse if there's a group of dogs playing off-lead, she gets excited and the jumping starts. She plays really nicely with other dogs but after yesterday I think I'm going to have to restrict the play sessions and keep her on lead around certain dogs / people which I also feel bad about. The dog owners we see regularly are patient with her and we treat and praise her when she stays down but I think the treats from other people might have made things worse... also I'm sure that patience will wear thin if she hurts someone else. If she's off-lead in the woods and we pass people / dogs we haven't met I warn them that she jumps up. Mostly, she's good in that situation but I really don't know what to do around her favourite people and dogs which is when she's most boisterous. One thing I have tried that seems to help is letting her carry her duck in her mouth. When she has something in her mouth and isn't playing, she walks from one person to another and doesn't jump. She gets praise for this. It's not foolproof though as the duck gets dropped or stolen. I'm feeling really anxious about this today and was dreading this morning's walk. It was fine though and when we met other walkers I kept her on lead. I think that's going to be what happens for now.
Our trainer gave us great advice (I think) -- Give him something better to do. Usually for Snowie that "something better to do" is to sit. Snowie is now 5 years old and you'll often find him sitting very patiently waiting for attention or waiting for a morsel of food while you're standing at the kitchen counter. It is very sweet! So that something better to do has paid off really well and he can decide to do it if he wants the "thing" (attention, food, play ball, a walk, etc). For him, he's learned it's the ultimate polite thing to do (voluntarily, with no prompting) and we do love that he can show it! As a puppy he did jump on other people, so the way we managed it was to keep him on a leash when people came to visit us and ask him to sit when the visitor was close enough. When he was sitting we'd ask the visitor to praise him madly for sitting. Now, when visitors come, he waits for them at the top of the path all waggly (he just LOVES visitors) and sometimes races down to greet them, but he never jumps up at them. A huge relief! And if the visitors are in the house and we're all talking, you'll find him sitting waiting for attention. I guess it takes time. Snowie is five years old, but when he was a puppy I have a distinct memory of a friend coming over to visit in a fresh white top... and within seconds of entering our garden she had two muddy pawprints on her chest! I read an article somewhere -- on The Labrador Site? -- about why dogs want to get their face in your face. It was something about dogs wanting to look into your eyes. If I come across it again I'll post a link here. It made so much sense about puppies and dogs jumping up to your face.
This weekend I took Rolo the park we enjoyed some off lead play until we spotted other dogs, he used to be ok on a lead but now he is very excited to run and play with all people and dogs. I tried some methods like I sat on the park bench and we done treats for sitting untill a few passers by went past - and he ignored them success. I also try to make him sit before people stroke him this doesnt work as well. Becuase people are so impateint. I feel like my hard work is being belittled when others take him out and let him jump all over strangers - Ia m not in a position to stop ALL people walking him as on a Tuesdays he is minded by my OH's sister and she walks him....
I wouldn't mind if my dog just ran over to say hello to another dog or person, or even if she jumped up and put her paws on, say their shoulders. But no, she jumps up repeatedly as if she is on a trampoline, in their face with her mouth open, almost as if she's biting/perhaps is biting! I really don't know how train this behaviour out of her?
It's normal! They all do it, well, most of them. Like sharks with legs, and the only ambition in the world to embarrass you. It's actually easier to train them to stay away from people outside than it is to train them to not jump up. But if you want to train them to not jump up, I did some videos of Betsy's early training (this is just the first few sessions, many, many more are needed before she is reliable http://thelabradorforum.com/threads/betsys-keeping-paws-on-the-floor-training.17278/#post-262537
Hey, I have a 7 month old lab retriever and he does it as well. I'm by myself but apparently you can practice on the people around you. If someone comes in, get them to turn around and ignore her. She might not jump up. something else is, when you see a person get her to sit and keep her seated until they have passed. The treats will do it. Mine does it as well but he lays down when we are talking and he completely chills out.
