I take my 15 week puppy along to a puppy class. But she gets so over-excited and just pulls and tugs on her lead attempting to interract with the other dogs. The dogs are all on leads during the various exercises. Should I persevere with this class or is it teaching her more bad habbits than good? I try distracting her with tasty treats but they are not as much fun as other dogs. Perhaps I'm worrying too much at this point in her development, but I want to get it right rather than trying to correct problems at a later date!
@Hettie's Mum you are completely right that it's important to take her to classes and to work through this. If you don't, and if she is THAT into other dogs, you risk ending up with an adult dog which 1) runs off and seeks out other dogs every time she is let off lead to play with and 2) barks out of frustration and lunges, trying to reach other dogs you walk past. It can be a serious problem, so it's important to get things working well now. This worries me a bit. There are many things we can advise to help your dog learn to focus on you in the presence of other dogs, but they all assume a level of food motivation which it sounds like your puppy may not have. It's really important that you can motivate your dog. I think we need more information to be able to help: 1. What are your 'tasty treats'? 2. Are you actually feeding them to your puppy, frequently and generously, or are you just waving them around her nose and not very often giving her one? I have seen many food motivated dogs ignore their owners because their owners use food like some kind of permanent distraction device and expect to be able to keep a dog's attention for ages with one treat without actually feeding it to the dog. The dog just learns to ignore them. 3. If you actually put the food on the floor and point to it, does she eat it? (If so that suggests you are guilty of 2) above.) 4. How many meals a day are you feeding her? Of what food? 5. Is she AT ALL overweight? See https://www.dogfoodadvisor.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/Purina-Body-Condition-Score-Diagram.pdf 6. Are you training with her meals at home, so she is not getting any 'free' food that she doesn't have to work for? I think we need all that information and more to be able to help. Moreover, if you are at a good class, the instructor should have noticed by now that you are struggling, that your puppy is not focussed, and it should be a priority training issue. For me, at my classes - this is one of the first things we work on - how to be quiet in class. Whether it's eating a Kong, doing Look At That, playing the up and down game etc etc - it is a priority...if the pup wouldn't take food, the instructor should have spoken to you about food motivation by now. If you feel your instructor is ignoring you, or hasn't helped you with this, then it might be time to look for a better training class where you will get the help you need. Whereabouts are you based?
Thank you so much for your very comprehensive reply. I'm in Fife (Scotland). Its a Kennel Club registered trainer. Yes, at times I do feel a bit ignored but there are 9-10 other puppies in the class who all need her attention. She manages to keep Hetties attention when she takes hold of her lead and walks with her but as soon as I have her back, I've lost her attention (sigh!) I've just had class 4 of 8. The tasty treats are home-made liver titbit, or cheese I'm feeding her three times a day but now take her to class before her final meal hoping she will be hungry. The breeder fed the pups with a constantly available supply of kibble, and I find that Hettie tends to graze her food. However, I do not leave her meal down more than five minutes by which time she has lost interest in anything that's left in the bowl. I feed her James Wellbeloved kibble. No, she is not overweight - in fact I have questioned her sleek appearance with the vet but they are happy with it and she is growing as expected. She was the smallest in the litter. No, I don't train her with allocated meal time food. In the class, I am probably guilty of waggling treats constantly in front of her nose in an attempt to get her attention. And yes, I constantly reward her with a treat when training her at home. I will try the food on the floor - she is sleeping just now. I was recently walking her around the village and encountered a very bouncy off lead labrador - Hettie was going crazy (not fearful) on the lead while the dog kept sniffing her. When I asked the owner if she could please take hold of her dog because he was not helping my dilema, I was told he just wanted to meet her and that I should be socialising my puppy. Before she was fully vaccinated my vet said it was OK to walk her around town on the pavements which I duly did. It's now almost as though I've over-socialised her! I so want to get this right because I don't want a full grown lab that pulls on the lead! I'd so appreciate your advice.
Hi Michael. Thanks for your reply. There are approximately ten puppies in the class - a bit fluid. Varying in age from three to six months. We walk in circles, recall, weaving in and out of the other dogs which should be under control. Sit/down/stand exercises. Pretty standard stuff really. All on leads. While we (humans) sit and wait for our recall opportunity, I find Hettie is all over the shop as she interracts with the other puppies. Perhaps I should sit somewhere else where there is less distraction? It's so difficult as I don't want her not to have fun!
