Hi All, I have a beautiful 10.5 month chocolate lab girl named Ember. She's incredibly smart, sweet natured and absolutely loves training! She's brilliant with drop it, stay, down, never begs for food, has learnt 'place' brilliantly and will calmly wait on her mat when asked. But.. she's a typical Lab in pulling terribly on the lead, going nuts for squirrels and leaping up at everyone she meets (pre lockdown life). After a couple of months being quite poorly with Giardia and Campylobacter, as well as some suspected food allergy - looking like chicken is the culprit - she is on a strict vet-prescribed diet of Hills Z/D kibble which has made training extremely difficult without any 'high value' treats. After 2 months of rest to help her legs recover, needless to say she was a complete lunatic when out on lead walks again. I've gone back to basics and working with a clicker I've been using handfuls of kibble (sometimes her full meal if morning or evening walks) which she responds really well to. We're back to her walking pretty well in low distraction areas with kibble as an intermittent reward but it's a different story in more high distraction areas. We've also made huge progress in getting her attention to me when we pass other dogs - by clicking when she looks at the dog and then rewarding with a scattering of kibble - but can't seem to progress beyond the quiet residential streets. If we are remotely near anywhere interesting (trees, woodland areas, parks, even the local high st) She lunges, bolts ahead, loses any focus on me and ignores the clicker and kibble. I've tried tiny pieces of cheese as a lure but she's more interested in a ball than food in these situations. She was the same with recall months back when we were able to have off lead walks. The problem is she stares at the ball as she's desperate to have it to carry it and get back to her independent hunt for squirrels or birds - all while dragging me along on the lead. It makes walks quite unbearable at times - probably for her as well! - and isn't much fun. She hasn't been off lead since early Feb, before the leg issues began, so I'm planning to start recall training from scratch again. I use a long training lead if I take her to a field or country park nearby for more scent work rather than just paved streets and she's pretty good trotting along ahead and sniffing around. She loves just having a ball to carry and will run back to me if I have a second ball to throw to her. We do a lot of enrichment work at home several times a day and lots of play - hide and seek with toys, tug, treasure hunts with the kibble, interactive toys - I'm just really struggling with getting her more comfortable with exciting things outside. I think a lot of it may come down to a nervousness - even the jumping up at people/other dog owners - as she does get pretty jumpy if a car door slams or a flock of birds take flight. With the lockdown life forced upon us, I'm working with her every day and will persevere but would love any help or tips with how to keep a very excitable and energetic - and strong! - chocolate labrador focused on me without the lure of wonderful treats! Any help hugely appreciated!! Thank you!
*To clarify - she had sudden onset lameness in her right hind leg during the nightmare Giardia and Campylobacter period. Thankfully x-rays revealed there were no structural problems and anti inflammatory medication had her walking comfortably again. Unfortunately she still can't run off lead yet as she had a brief relapse a few weeks back when chasing some birds, even after 5 weeks complete rest. So strictly lead (and long lead) walks until the vets reopen for non emergencies...
I think you probably need to pursue an answer to the food allergies and find a wider range of food which she can eat. It's not really a solution for her to permanently eat kibble only - especially kibble as poor quality as the Hills - at best, that should just be a temporary solution whilst she recovers. I would be really working at introducing a new food item, one item at a time, and observing any effects at the other end. Avoid chicken if you think that is the culprit and stick to other meats. Introduce just one meat and only use that (for training) for 1-2 weeks to give it time to see any effects. Once you are able to use higher value treats, I think you will see more success when working around distractions!
Brilliant, thanks so much for the reply. The vet had suggested white fish would be a gentle treat to introduce so will give that a try for training to begin with. We're looking towards a fish and potato base kibble once we're through the Hills - rather than the chicken and rice based kibbles she's tried before the Hills diet - so that will be the next step food wise. Will see how we go!
