A strange question probably but my 4 month old girl has been a bit of a rascal for the last couple of days. It follows her first trip to a dogsitter. It may just be coincidence but Bailey seemed to have a nice time at the dog sitters on Friday, was pleased to see me and made a fuss when I collected her. Since mixing with other dogs she’s now being a monkey with her recall, won’t come to me when I want to take her out for a walk. Won’t come to me when the walk is over and she either needs to go in the car or back on the Lead. Ignores me when I ask her to ‘leave it’. I know I need to go back to square one and start again but just wondering if anyone else has experienced problems when you pups have been with anyone else? She was so good up until Thursday and training was going great so it’s just happened all of a sudden although it may just be a blip... If I sit down she’s straight on my lap for a snooze which isn’t unusual but she has been noticeably more clingy. Could this just be a sort of sulky behaviour?!
Whatever it is, it’s not sulking! Dogs don’t have the capacity to think that way, in terms of acting out as some sort of punishment to you for leaving her. She is four months old and maturing, getting more confident, and the wife world is getting more exciting to her. So, yes, going back to square one in training and keeping her active and busy will help to tire her out.
Hi, when you are exercising her do you do the on lead/ off lead thing? Put the lead on at random times throughout the walk and release her again after a few steps for example. This way she will not always see the lead as indicating the end of her fun. Do you have the book Total Recall by Pippa? If not I recommend you get a copy as it is excellent and gives you lot's of exercises to work through. 4 months isn't very old, if my experience is anything to go by you will be going back to basics for some time yet for various things in your training. I don't know what she will be thinking after her time at day care but it's good she enjoyed it
My Poppy is doing the same. I've had this with other dogs over the years and the answer is patience. Different dogs respond to different things. With Poppy it is a matter of turning my back on her until she comes to see what is going on. Then she gets lots of praise when she sits and the lead goes on. They do grow out of it. Just make it worthwhile when your dog does come to you and rather boring when she doesn't.
Sounds like a pretty normal pup to me . As they grow older they become more interested in their environment and less interested in us, so we have to work harder on our training to make sure that we are the best thing ever!! As @selina27 says make sure you do not just clip on a lead at the end of a walk or some other fun activity. This becomes a clear signal to the dog that the fun is over, so decides to play 'keep away' This is easily prevented by making a practice of calling your dog to you, take hold of collar, reward and release; call your dog to you, take hold of collar, clip on lead, reward and walk a short distance and release. It soon becomes routine that you call and reward and sometimes walk on lead and not at other times. Try not to set up routines of where you do things. 'Leave' is training in lots of different environments and with lots of different objects to build a history of what it means. Dogs learn in context and 'leave' has most likely been trained in a room at home or perhaps in a village hall at a training class. We then expect out pups to leave something nice and smelly and disgusting (to us ) on a walk which they fail to comply with. The failure isn't the dog's it's the humans as we haven't trained in a different context. Practice, practice and more practice, and tasty rewards will get you a strong 'leave' (eventually) and vigilance to prevent/distract as much as possible
Bailey has got whatever it was out of her system and seems back on track for the time being. Just a couple of blip days apparently!!
Glad she's back on track. You will find that she will go through stages of you needing to go back to basics with training, especially as her environment becomes more interesting and exciting.
