Molly is now an 11 month old. She is no longer as obedient as she was. I used to tell her to 'sit', then 'wait' walk away and call her. Now she just follows me, so I take her back and go through the whole process again. I have read that you often have to retrain a teenager. I am obviously dealing with a much more capable creature. Do I simply repeat the process? We have recently started using a clicker for 'at me', meaning concentrate on me when encountering dogs and greeting people. Would this be a good time to introduce a clicker? If so how and when? You will, of course, be astounded to learn that whilst I can no longer get her to remain seated whilst I walk away from her (becaus I am obviously awesome), when I am away from her and call her it is a case of "take a number and I'll come when I'm good and ready.
Re: Retraining your teenager. Many sympathies. Yes, I think you have to retrain, or probably more accurately train the dog who is no longer a puppy, instead of training a puppy. In terms of confirming you are not alone in this - I know you know that already - have a read of this, it cheered me up! http://kaylaurence.wordpress.com/2014/08/14/the-age-of-objection/ But be prepared...it contains the following: When she is 3 years old you will love her again. This is the age, 6-16 months, that most people will begin to despair. The age when dogs are relinquished to shelters. The age that most people have serious doubts about their training competence, their decision to have a puppy in the first place and how they are going to survive. Despite investing 3-4 months of positive reinforcement into their puppy it can all evaporate in one teenage week. This is the age when people need support groups, carefully structured physical activities (that do not include letting an adolescent dog run free across the landscape), determination to see puberty as “normal” and not a failure, bad dog, or loss of respect. If you work with the growing youngster during this period you will both survive with a strong relationship and the sort of connection that will last a lifetime. Hang in there, you are great at solving problems, setting out a plan, and seeing it through...
Re: Retraining your teenager. She is probably following you each time you leave her as you call her to you, so she is anticipating your command When teaching stay, always go back to the dog more times than you call.
Re: Retraining your teenager. My Molly went through this when she was a bit younger. As regards recall, the most effective thing I did was the about-turn walk. I took her to a forest, so that I could get out of sight quickly, then as soon as she was about 5 yards away I whistled and turned in a different direction (out of sight). When she caught me up I rewarded her and then kept repeating the process, so she could never be sure which direction I was going to take and had to keep an eye on me. I found it really sharpened her recall. She doesn't always come instantly now, but most of the time she does, and certainly never absconds (though it doesn't sound as if your Molly does that either). The 'stay' on the other hand is something I practise every day and still leaves something to be desired, so I'll be interested in the advice you get!
Re: Retraining your teenager. My "wait" was given after she had complied with a previous command (sit or whatever) and basically meant "wait for my next command". She was released with "OK". I never trained a "stay" as I thought it was implicit in "wait for my next command". Is it time to introduce it? I've upped the value of my training treats, and am firing them at her with great generosity. Though I must admit I don't feel like being generous to the little ***
Re: Retraining your teenager. Hello, well I have just read some of my posts this time last year, how time passes. Chloe is now 17 months old, she is lovely, gets up when I do, ie around 8 30 to 9am, always in the morning room, does not sleep with us. Good on the lead, clean and always goes outside, though I wish she would do it out of the garden, never done that yet!! Reasonably obedient, but not been let go on the beach yet, too many people and dogs, waiting now for the quiet time. Her two main problems are, she still jumps up when folk call, she walks past people now without bothering unless someone calls out to me, or crosses over, then she jumps up,no amount of down, no, I have tried everything, will stop her doing this. The other sort of problem is, as our other two labs never did this, she still chews up rubber balls if left alone with one, and also soft toys, this we find a shame. If they do this, do they grow out of it eventually. We leave her to go shopping, most times about 3 hours, but not very often, about once a month, she does not destroy anything and has not been in a cage. Tried her a few times with soft toys, but no, they get chewed up. She leaves the shoes alone now, and really is doing very well. A friend of ours who is 87 is coming next week for a few days, she is used to dogs, but we shall have to be careful when she arrives, once the big hello is out of the way Chloe is fine. Tried clickers, all the commands, but she cannot contain herself not to jump up. So if anyone has a magic way of stopping her jumping up, (have tried everything we can think of!) and stopping her chewing her toys, that would be great. In her toy box are several socks tied together, she does not chew those up, an old vest, stopped chewing that now, chew bones, and real bones without their middles in, she gets loads of chews, real bones from the pet shop etc., so is not short of chewing things which she can have. We still have two toys our last lab had for many years, so not giving her those yet as they are precious!! Cheerio for now. By the way I tried Haltis, etc., when out, did not trust them as they can come off, I bought a little none pull harness off the net, £9.95, the best thing we have ever bought, she does not pull on the lead, but the harness is a safeguard as I am no youngster for when people approach, can really recommend that. It does not stop her jumping up though. Val
