Hi guys hoping you can help. My 6 month old pup is so very excitable when seeing other dogs. We have only let him off the lead in one particular park that we have found to have no other exits or anything dangerous and is relatively quiet. However whenever another dog comes into sight he will run off to greet them/play fight/actually fight (?) I'm not sure. I don't know how to tell between friendly doggy banter and a real fight and as such I am very nervous around the owners - do I call him back or run and grab him, do I let him do his thing, do I say a certain code word to the owner to let them know I don't have a clue what I'm doing?! Last week he was bitten (not badly just a scratch by his nose) by an older dog he had ran up to that was very sensitive and had bad legs and bad back. The owner was apologetic but obviously my dog shouldn't have ran in the face of a stranger dog. What do I do to train this behaviour? And what's the socially accepted norm for how dogs should/shouldn't react when another dog comes into view? So often I see dogs barking at each other and pulling on the leads - is this normal or a sign of badly trained dogs? I'm so confused! I'm guessing they need to be allowed sometimes in order to learn what's what but I just feel so nervous that i am starting to dread taking him on his walks. Hope you lovely people can help. Xx
Hi. How much has your pup been socialised? Has he had the chance to be around other dogs such as in puppy class or in a pet shop? I always made myself exciting to Harley by playing games with her, hiding behind trees, dropping treats for her to find and throwing her ball. This made her more interested in me than other dogs. Nowadays she ignores most other dogs unless we are walking towards them.....in this case she stops, looks at me and waits for me to say go on or wait - if the other dog is on lead I don't allow her to move as they may be on lead for a number of reasons - poor health, recovering from an operation or are reactive. I am always scanning the area I'm in to make sure I know what's around me and pick up any possible issues. What you could do is put your boy on lead as soon as you see another dog, get him to sit and feed him really high value treats for sitting and looking at you. I trained 'look at me' which really helps when outside. You do this by rewarding every time he looks at you and say 'look'. Make sure you train it at home and outside. If hackles are up and teeth bared that is usually a signal that the dog wants to be left alone. Dogs barking at each other on lead isnt good. It could be frustration or aggression. Hope this helps
Hello there Your dog is completely normal for a 6 month old Labrador. It doesn't sound like he gets off lead much, and you do have to be able to train around other dogs. So, like Naya says, going to a class to do this is your best bet. You need to train your dog to stay with you when he sees other dogs. This can be quite challenging for friendly, young Labradors and there is no other way to train it apart from training around other dogs. It might also help to find a socialisation class too - they are not just for puppies, there are classes for teenagers too. This can help a lot in terms of your dog learning that it's not polite to dash up to other dogs. You could also seek out more informal opportunities for him to be off lead around other dogs in the form of group walks and so on. You can usually find these through a training class, they are like sort of social things arranged around training. In terms of what you should do when you are out and about....the first thing is stop him rushing up to other dogs. If you don't want him to do this, you have to stop him from doing it. If you find a trainer, they might be able to show you how you can use a long line with your dog on a harness to help you. It's best to learn how to do this from an experienced trainer though. If your dog does run up to another dog, just go and get him as quickly as possible. I say this because I assume that you might have difficulty in recalling your dog away from another dog as it doesn't sound like you have had the opportunity to train this. It is not fair to allow your dog to bother other dogs, whether they are on or off lead, so if your dog does run up, you should get over there as quickly as possible. If the other owner doesn't mind, and the other dog wants to play, then you can release your dog to play but get him to focus on you first. The idea being that he gets the reward of playing with the other dog only when you say he can. Dogs pulling on their leads and barking at each other is, unfortunately, quite common but not at all desirable and if your dog does anything like this, a good training class will give you some help in trying to tackle it.
Thanks guys, I have been thinking I need to get him back into training class asap - I think I will go back next week. I was so embarrassed by him barking at and harassing the other dogs that I stopped going but at least he was on lead so I guess that is necessary in order to train him to focus on me? I like the idea of exercises to get him to see me as more exciting then the other dog/anything else - I will use this in our training too. Off to the pet shop to get some suitable treats..! Thanks !! Xx
Have a look at this thread too: http://thelabradorforum.com/forum/n...ining/260292-keeping-your-dog-close-on-a-walk
Hi there... I totally understand when you say you felt embarrassed at your training class.....most of us have suffered humiliation at the paws of our Labradors! My first set of obedience classes at 5 months were horrendous ....I did persevere though and took what I was being told home and practiced there....when Dexter was older and more able to cope with working around other dogs I went back and did a second set of classes and it went much better...so dont feel embarrassed ,stick with it ..don't get disheartened if you can't do anything in the class straight away...it will get better the more you practice. Dexter is our first dog and appropriate play used used to confuse me too.I always felt like I was getting it wrong...stepping in too early and him missing a lesson or 2 from a dog or leaving it too long and him getting treated too roughly ( for my liking ) or getting too excited ( again for my liking) Other owners didn't help,when they would say...'It's ok,they are only playing' Mostly they were but after watching lots of YouTube videos and reading up on doggie body language ...I now break anything up that I don't like or I can see Dexter doesn't like.....whatever another owner says. Great to see you on the Forum,let us know how youn get on when you go back to classes,good luck x
You have a very normal lab . I think most are like this at 6m. The best thing that helped Meg was classes. There she got used to being trained with distractions. It was not easy but we stuck at it and now she is 18m and off the lead all the time with a nice "meet and greet". Find a good class and a pocket full of sausages and you will be on the right path. Also read pippas book, total recall. It's all hard work but worth it. Good luck
Oh yes, it's very very normal behaviour for young Labs. Of course it needs addressing and training for - lots of good articles on this site. But please don't feel bad - our dogs exuberance is what we love them for! 'Look at me' is the best cue for on lead. I don't let mine interact with other dogs at all on lead.
My experience is the size of the off leash park and what YOU do in it is an important key to this behaviour. It's going to be hard to control most dogs in a two acre park where all the owners do is stand around and watch - that basically leaves it up to the dogs to make their own rules and govern their own interactions. If such a park is your only option then I would go in off peak times so there are few dogs and preferably one at least your pup is friends with. It's important for YOU to keep moving. Most pups will want to stick close to you. This is hard in a mere two acres if pup can see you without moving. I know I am lucky to have 100s upon 1,000s of acres of off leash opportunities where we walk or hike the trails. I am pups best friend, he stays with me. Is there any such place you can go? If you have to actively train to keep your dog with you in such a place I'll be pretty surprised. I see leads have been mentionned. Here we have what are called off leash dog parks. It doesn't matter if you have them or not but you should know, one dog on leash and the others off is a bad mix. Leashes impede body language. You are more apt to have bad meetings with one on and one off. Leslie McDevitt's book, "Control Unleashed" has helped us immensely with many interactions. I didn't discover this book till my dog was about two years old so no idea how it would work on such a young pup. She has a puppy book out now too, I am so pleased with how the first has helped us, it might be worth a look.
The UK is very different, Snowshoe , although it's an extremely useful prompt that you give - it might not be the case that the OP is in the UK? Are you Smileandsparkle? If so though....we don't have dog parks - well, I know of one, but the normal park outside it is off leash too. So it's more to keep the kids out, than keep the dogs in. No-one uses it, anyway. We have no general leash laws at all, except in very special circumstances - for example, there is a local by-law that obliges you to keep your dog on a lead through the flower beds outside Buckingham Palace. But you can walk your dog off lead down Oxford Street in London if you want, and people do. And our countryside has pretty open access in the forms of public right of way, and we have a right to roam across pretty much all uncultivated land. But what this means, in a small country, is that off lead dogs are everywhere, with some on lead dogs. You don't have a choice about your dog meeting dogs off lead, even if your dog is on-lead, off lead dogs will run up to you. And if you don't have control of your off lead dog, it will run up to dogs that are on lead, and so you have to train your dog not to do that. Long lines (rather than leashes) can be your best friend when you have to walk and train in areas where there are many, many distractions in the form of other dogs (a big distraction for many young Labradors). There are some excellent videos online by someone called The Glasgow Dog Trainer - his videos are on facebook showing dogs being trained in UK parks using long lines. It might be worth checking these out, Smileandsparkle. I can't link to them, because I don't know how.....
Here are the Glasgow Dog Trainer videos. I've only watched a few, but he's very good: https://www.youtube.com/user/GlasgowDogTrainer/videos
Ah, thanks, Fiona. I can't quite see the ones I was thinking about there, but there are a few that might be useful to the OP.
You've been given some very good advice. It is one of the hardest things to train as it is totally against their friendly bouncy nature.
