My 3 month old yellow has been doing great all of a sudden...will not come when called ...looks right at you and goes the other way....seems to have lost the "stay" command..and if I give a hand signal..jumps at my hand....not sure why he has stopped...any thoughts out there...first time user of blog
Hello there and welcome to the forum. What you're describing is perfectly normal. You teach a young puppy a few cues and he understands them, but then suddenly won't respond anymore. There are a few reasons for this: 1. Proofing. Are you asking him to do things in a different environment, with you in a different position, using a different tone of voice etc? Dogs don't generalise well, so even if he understands what you mean in one context, he may not understand in a different context. That may be as small a change as you having one hand behind your back sometimes and not other times. They have to learn what parts of your voice and body are relevant to a certain cue. This means changing one small thing at a time. 2. Distractions. As your puppy gets older, the world is more distracting for him and you become less the centre of his world. So, you need to extend your proofing to more challenging environments. A puppy that knows to sit in your kitchen does not necessarily have the self control to do the same in a field with butterflies going past. 3. Rewards. What rewards are you using for your puppy? They may not be high value enough for what you're asking him to do. If you think of each behaviour he does in response to a cue as "work", this is easier to understand. You wouldn't work for no payment, or for something you didn't want, so why should you dog? 4. He's still very young! You may be asking too much, too soon. Do you have any training books? Do you use a clicker? Not everyone here does, but I think they're a fabulous tool. Here are some articles that may help: Proofing: http://www.thelabradorsite.com/proofing-an-essential-part-of-labrador-training/ Why your dog is being disobedient: http://www.thelabradorsite.com/3-reasons-your-labrador-is-disobedient/ Clicker training (follow the links in the article http://www.thelabradorsite.com/clicker-training-resource-pages/
As Fiona says, your puppy is probably moving out of the "anything for my mum" phase into a slightly more independant phase. It seems to me, and this is just my experience, that you have to,train the same thing several times as the puppy matures. Don't panic though it is more a question of reinforcing what you have put in earlier.
Hi and welcome. You don't say whether the change is within the house and garden or in the big wide world. Your pup is still very young so as Fiona says it is about training, training and more training in different environments and different distractions. Also consistency in your training; it's very easy to think you're doing things the same and then realise that you've changed a voice or a movement so pup no longer knows what is wanted. Tell us more about your pup - name, photos - we love photos
