Well, he will be 6 months on the 22nd December (and another of those long updates). Today Dexter and I followed up with a visit to the veterinary nurse (just for the experience) to be weighed as he was so over excited last time making weighing and inspecting him very difficult. He was quieter in the waiting room but very alert, listening to the sounds from the consulting rooms and not very interested in my treats/bribes to sit down but was more settled. Last time a member of staff was cleaning up after a previous visitor with a bucket and mop and that probably did not help and there was no repeat of that distraction. As the nurse opened the consulting room door and called his name he shot across the room to her but got to the threshold of the room and did not want to go in. The excitement of meeting another new person and bribery eventually got him into the room. After the greeting etc he was still not keen on standing on the scales but changing where we stood and treats encouraged him to stand there long enough and was easier than last time. His weight has increased to 20.3kg (or might have been 21.3kg) and she feels he has a good waist and condition so no worries on that front. The plan is to go back in a month for another weight check just to get him more used to the location and the process. Puppy training classes have finished now and we are considering what we look to do as a follow up and I will firing off a few emails to find out more - would like to try gundog training but don't know if he will be suitable. We still have some challenges with him when walking on the lead in particular, it seems that when both of us are present he gets far more distracted and frequently pulls towards whoever is not in charge of the lead. If one of us goes into a shop he gets really anxious and wants to charge in after them and makes a lot of noise. Generally, this means the person outside the shop walks him past and back again, but would rather sit outside and wait quietly. He continues to want to greet people by jumping up and lunges at people we pass too frequently, we are making progress but slowly. We have avoided taking him to busy public places for the moment as he seemed to get sensory overload but will be doing this again soon in as controlled a manner as we can find and might try it with one of us and him as is more relaxed. Since a couple of negative experiences with other dogs he is pretty cautious now when he meets or approaches them on or off the lead until he feels comfortable that they are ok though we are more careful than he is. Off the lead he will come closer and often heel with us between him and the other dogs to get past and then run on. We have had some positive interactions, so hopefully he will build more confidence, though it is quite good that he is wary and behaves nicely. As a rule I will amend my direction/walk to avoid interactions where possible if I can see them in the distance, especially the dog walkers with 4 or so dogs as you know they cannot control them all and pack greetings are intimidating for a nervous dog. The regular meetings with runners, cyclists and horses are challenging especially when they appear from no where and you have not heard them coming, but he is responding better and if I see them I will put him on his lead and get him to sit or wait until they have passed. Mouthing continues, but he does not bite and almost all of his adult teeth seem to be through so this is easing off. Dexter seems to get more toys bought for him than the children ever had ! The only problem is the lack of durability of many of these toys (very strong chewer) and he focusses on labels and any extremity to chew them off, so we are getting more careful with what we buy. Can't believe it is 4 months since we got him, seems like forever and he has taken over so much of our lives - pity we have not managed to resolve the cat interaction as they are missing out on the attention they used to have because they are still quite scared of him and avoid being in the same room at all costs. He is a continuing work in progress but that is half the fun !
Hi @Diablo If you live close by, why not go to the vet say every week just to weigh your dog? He'll get used to the process and settle. If one person walks ahead while the other walks next to the Lab, then your dog is more likely to pull in order to get to the person ahead. Perhaps try walking side by side with the dog next to one of you.
Wow! Dexter is doing great! Bear is 5 months next week and as you say, still work in progress. He sleeps all night, walks to heel without a leash but has also had a nasty experience by another lab. Fortunately he has a wonderful girlfriend Lab who is 2. Who he met with the following day and she is so tolerant of him and his bouncing and they love to run, chase and share fetching the ball. Evenings are our nemesis. He pesters (me mainly) and just won't settle. We've started giving him a little walk around 8-8.30 but he comes home with the 'zoomies' and have to try to settle him down again. I'm going to try the 'treat when settled' training. (Just had a read up on it) Cat still hates him but will sit in same room and stare in disgust at him. We've started crating during our mealtimes too! He pesters for food, lays his head on our lap and is a general pest around the kitchen. Early days for this one as he whines and moans and I won't let him out until he is quiet. Should we feed him before or after our evening meal? Any suggestions welcome. I know Labs are known to be the canine equivalent of a dustbin, but seriously!!!!! He seems hungry all the time.........again, any suggestions would be most welcome. I did have a chuckle to myself about the toys. I've bought so many, one lasted 10 mins! So I took to the internet and ordered some Kong toys. They cost a little more but still intact and well loved/gnawed, so hopefully it will work out cheaper in the long run. Thanks again Diablo. It's so good to hear how Dexter is doing and it's helping us with our boy. He drives me absolutely crazy some days but just can't imagine our life without him now. Oh and he passed his Puppy Class too!! He was presented with a certificate and a rosette. Needless to say, I had to whip them in my bag pretty sharpish before he ate them. Keep the updates coming! Love it!
Since he is hungry all the time, I don't think it is going to make much difference when you feed him--before or after your meal he is still going to be looking for more. I have only two positive suggestions. First, it would be useful to slow his meal down. Spread half the kibble over the floor and let him find it. The scent work will go some way to tiring him mentally. Second, use the other half of the meal he would have got in the bowl for free as rewards for desirable behaviour in the training sessions in the evening. You can reward him jackpots for exemplary behaviour--one treat after the other. In time, you can start using his entire meal for training rewards--reward the calm behaviour. Loved the comment about the Rosette. LOL.
Hi @Diablo I have been thinking about your practice of crossing the street to avoid dogs. The danger is that you might be communicating to your danger that she ought to be anxious about other dogs. I think there might be a good deal of merit in you doing LAT training with your dog. There is a thread on the technique, including a very clear video. The LAT training is designed to desensitise and counter condition your dog's attitude towards other dogs.
A few responses to the ideas/comments, thanks for the help and positive comments. The vets is a 5 to 10 minute drive away depending upon traffic so could go more frequently - they seem open to visits so could make them more frequent. @Donerkebab Like to read yours and other updates as always ideas out there and knowing you are not alone. We are very lucky that Dexter will just settle under the table at my feet when we eat dinner and he just sleeps but we did cease eating on laps almost entirely once we got him and I am sure like you also ensured he never gets titbits from the table. He settles in the evenings pretty well unless my 19yo son decides to wind him up and play - then he disappears and leaves us with the after effects.... As a rule Dexter is happy to go to his crate anytime from 10pm for bedtime and is woken up at 6.15am weekdays and 7.15am weekends and we never hear from him. We have also had toys last minutes and kong toys are definitely better than most, but have a kong hippo who has lost his ears etc very quickly so still susceptible and Dexter is an amputation expert...... @Michael A Brooks we don't always cross the road, more a case of trying to read the situation and gradually we are finding more dogs we know/recognise and trust. Today I could see a dog approaching was pretty elderly and thought it was best for both parties. Other dogs encountered on the walk we did not cross for, though we were approaching from behind and catching up as we are very fast walkers ! I have read the LAT sections here and have a clicker now but choose to not always have the interaction - should we be doing that to reinforce more quickly ? The source was a few weeks ago my partner was walking him and someone she was approaching with two dogs went part way up a driveway (turned out it was not hers), as Dexter walked by one of the dogs suddenly leapt out barking and growling and that has certainly made him (and us) more wary. Last night in the dark we took a stroll down to our local parade of shops as we needed to buy something and as mentioned previously we realise we need to walk him together more often, I started on the lead and Dexter would not settle in any position between us, at side or backwards/forwards so swapped handler and he was ok. He sat ok outside of the shops though focused on where his mum had gone but nothing bad in his behaviour, and no need to walk him up and down. Once she came out he was very pleased to see her but the 5 minute walk home he absolutely lost it in a way we have never seen as if overcome by separation anxiety. No matter who was on the lead he was extremely noisy, jumping up at both of us etc - never seen him so bad and no action we took would settle him. In the end one of us walked rapidly ahead and he settled a little more walking one on one but pulling excessively. The plan is to do this almost every evening now .......
Hi @Diablo, In the so-called consolidation stage when you first begin proofing, you need to be rewarding the LAT routine every time you see another dog. Later on you dont need to always give a treat. I can't tell from your description which phase you are in. When your dog sees another dog, does he turn to look at your face. If you say Look what does he do? I can't work out from your description what is happening at the shop. You claim it is separation anxiety. You seem to believe he misses your wife when she goes in the shop. But you also said he sits and waits for her to come back. Why do you think it it is separation anxiety? On the way back home why do you believe is it not just excitement about returing home? Does he exhibit the same behaviour if you walk in a direction away from home? Does your dog normally walk just with your wife?
Hi @Michael A Brooks we have been using two words/phrases with enthusiasm which gain his attention ever since we started to train him - "looking" /"good boy" on the lead in particular (though work when loose) to get his attention ref people approaching, dogs, concentrate on heeling etc when we want hm to focus on us as a treat is involved he looks up automatically and this was done without a clicker. Been using clicker when dog involved recently so new to that but possibly we have already got the initial response behaviour trained in though he can be more interested in a dog than us he does tend to move behind us if on the lead though does not consider some as friendly and wants to greet them. Do you think we should continue reinforcing what we have already done or include the clicker ? Was trying to rationalise Dexter's behaviour post her coming out of the shop and we discussed the fact we had headed back home directly and are going to walk via an alternative route home next time (hammering down with rain last night so did not repeat as planned). Just could not explain why he behaved like that though thinking about it, if I walk him down that route he always gets let off the lead for a run in the woods/park which he did not receive and though I go a few different routes to where I let him off the lead passing the shops is a constant (something I may now need to vary). Thinking about it, we have quite a set walking pattern and how it works which is probably quite a familiar pattern/routine for Dexter. My OH walks him first thing in the morning before she goes to work at around 6.30am and this is always on the the lead the entire time (currently very dark and muddy if off pavement) and I will walk him around lunch time or early afternoon and this either involves a short car journey and then loose through woods and countryside or a short walk on the lead (past the shops) then loose in the local woods/park. At weekends I get up early and he will get one walk with both of us at some point each day which means he gets to run free, and the other one varies who/where but one on one, so possibly means we need to engineer walking him differently between us so his expectations are different or less predictable. Possibly he felt that the regular walk where I am in attendance on this route is to go for a run in the woods or where we both take him out the same happens and associated the return homewards with missing out - underestimate his intelligence, routine or we are over thinking it. Will do the evening shop walk together a few times to test this out, vary routes more, both do pavement only walks, and may find this is not the case or you may also identify something I have missed.
Love the update! It sounds like you are doing such a great job with Dexter, a really conscientious owner
I don't know what you are you are trying to say. Okay. You need to ensure your dog does not get so close to such dogs that he is going behind your back in order to avoid the rigger. If that happens, then walk away from the trigger, and reward your dog when he displays some calming signal. Better still, increase your distance from the other dogs, so that your dog remains below threshold in the first place. In general, you the owners must be the centre of his attention. Other dogs should not be so interesting to your dog. The clicker is just a marker. When you click, you are telling the dog that you like what he did at the very moment you clicked, AND that a treat is forthcoming. The clicker is not a reward. Good observation. He was expecting to be left off lead and it didn't happen. So his behaviour was an outpouring of his frustration. Yeah, I think that makes a good deal of sense. In the interest of mental stimulation vary the walks, so he gets to sniff new places, observes new happenings. I don't like Merry-go-rounds. All the same thing. And our dogs are identical. You cover the point below well. Good stuff. Good. Experiment and see what works. Last. Don't stress. Everyone on this site can see you are trying to do the right thing. Sometimes it is hard to read our dogs, and one has to try different things. And based on your reports you are doing many,many things very well.
A few more weeks on, Christmas fun and nearly back to a more normal routine. Back to the vets for a visit and a weigh today which showed improvement again on the last visit. There were a couple of working gun dogs sat in reception and one of them decided to be a bit of a distraction at times (much to his owners annoyance) but Dexter was well behaved wagging his tail like crazy every time he heard a noise behind the consulting rooms doors expecting his turn next. He was less excitable with the nurse but still tricky to get onto the scales though we have worked out how best to do it now - move it away from the wall, get her to send the other side and he is mad keen to say hello especially when I have provided a nice slice of sausage as a treat, though we did have to swap rooms as the first scales were not working. He weighed in 1kg heavier at 22.3kg and she said how rare it was to see a Labrador with a good waist and only need to press gently to find his ribs. Our walking together with him and trips to the shop to wait outside have been more regular but with erratic results - he continues to go crazy once at some point on the walk almost every time for the person not on the lead lunging and leaping and we can find no consistent trigger. Different routes, times of day etc but something just seems to click and off he goes. He is waiting more calmly outside of the shop, if keenly watching for whoever is coming out. Then most times he goes OTT jumping up and wanting to almost tell them off for leaving him. So that is a continuing work in progress. His sitting when you stop on the lead is almost perfected without command and he does it quickly when asked. Still can suddenly lunge at people who pass by without warning but tend to sit him before they pass and distract. Still guilty of jumping up when he shouldn't but getting better and still a work in progress. Other dogs has got a lot better, he has had no negative experiences for a long time now and is slightly wary but far more interested in interacting and not showing any fear. Seems to recognise other labradors and think they are automatically ok, which is not 100% the case (got one I actively avoid). We are investigating training and looks like we will do a 6 week beginner gun dog course commencing in February and an indoor course focussed on adolescent dogs - but no more than 6 in a group. Hope the two teachers will not confuse him or us too much !!
