Well, Tara is now 19 months old and, despite formal training, the Labrador Handbook and Total Recall books, training has taken hold, but only in part. Around the house she is perfect, and has even stopped digging up the lawn, but outside she is a handfull. She walks well on the loose lead, and stops/sits at kerbs, etc, but once in the park or woodland, she changes completely. Off lead, she is off, looking for other dogs to play with (whether they want to or not), and totally ignoring my call or whistle. Just yesterday, she was playing with a friend's black lab, and they both went round the corner, out of sight. Both were recalled, and Boo came back, and sat at his owner's side, but Tara just put her head round the corner, with a "What!" expression, then turned and ran off. Round the corner was a nice smelly ditch, and Tara was in it - hence the attempted recall. Hopefully, by the time she is an old dog, she will walk with me, and come back when called, but I doubt it! Oh, and the latest - she is attracted to people talking on a mobile phone, as she thinks they are talking to her, and she tries to drag me across the road to them!
I'm certainly no expert - Ted's only 13 weeks old, and I haven't started working with the whistle yet, but I do have the book Total Recall, and from what I can make out, Pippa talks about the importance of proofing the recall. Apparently it's perfectly OK to go back a few steps so that each one is really embedded before moving on. Having said all that, Ted, stole my bookmark out of Total Recall, and ran off with it. He's telling me something...
I think a lot of lab owners will recognise this situation. You have a teenager. Be assured that, with perseverance, Tara will settle down between two and three years old and become the most wonderful dog.
Oban didn't even get to the terrible teens till he was 18 months and then we worked hard all summer to "cure" him, achieving success around about 2 years old. There, feel better? I just told you it might last longer. I love her reaction to people on phones. She's right, what the heck are they doing out walking around and talking on phones when there's a dog wanting to meet them?
Charlie is 3.5 years and I'm still waiting for him to morph from terrible teenager into a sensible grown up! I keep holding out for it though, one day.....
I Just keep my fingers crossed this week Rory has forgotten his name and what recall means it's happened all of a sudden but there are a lot of bitches in season around here at the moment he's become an airhead
I love reading all the posts , Jesse is 13 weeks and we have a long way to go. He has his first puppy class today it should be an adventure and fun lol.
Ugh.... Let me know if/when it does. We're a year behind you and I want to know when I can expect sanity to set in.
