Training is going well with my 1 and a bit year old male lab. He is still a big puppy with regards other dogs but in general is coming on well. I mostly walk him on my own and I'll is fine. Main issue is when I am with the family. We have a small baby and a 2.5 yr old and Bertie then becomes very excited and all the training goes out of the window. He also starts to whine when the family is not all together. Is this normal? How do I train him out of this so we can have a more relaxing walk?
Re: Walking with my family! Hi there,welcome to the Forum,great to see you on here. I think young dogs do get excited when there are additions to their normal walks.....little people are exciting and distracting ....and exciting and distracting can mean they go a little deaf ;D That can certainly be the case for us...Bertie is still only a youngster .....so I think it's quite normal.I always upped my food reward treats if we were walking with other people and rewarded a lot more often and made myself loads of fun for Dexter to be around......yes,I still walk with a backpack FULL of different toys ......change direction mid conversation and leave friends talking to thin air when I've dived behind a tree to hide from him.....all to keep him on his toes and paying attention.... Whining....I'm not sure about as I've never had it...it can stem from frustration,fear or excitement....so with you saying he loses concentration through excitement I guess it's that,he's a little overwrought at you all being our together....I think someone else will have to help out with that ....my instinct is to say that if it's only happening in this situation then he will probably mature out of it.....but maybe if you up the games and rewards for focus on you he will be too busy to whine and peace will be restored. That might help,I'm currently learning as I go with my first dog so I haven't got a mass of experiences to draw on Best wishes Angela
