Posted: Sat Aug 12, 2006 11:50 am Post subject: What else can I try?????????
My Lab Zac is 15 months old and is very obedient apart from when he sees either another dog, cat or bird.
He can be walking beautifully along next to me, but as soon as he spots a dog etc, he starts bouncing, pulling and occasionally he will bark. There doesn't appear to be any agression in this behaviour, however my worst fear is him becoming dog aggressive.
Zac has pulled to the point where he nearly goes of the pavement. I'm not as scared for me as I am for him.
My mum can no longer walk him safely and my dad is living away on business. So I am the walker. Which I love when he is good and could walk him forever.
But when he pulls I feel so frustrated and let down with myself.
We did attend puppy classes but the class was so large we did not really get the help we needed. Unfortunately there are very few trainers in my area and as we have no car it is hard for us to travel. We have been in touch with a trainer but she has yet to reply.
We have used a one on one dog trainer to help with this matter as well as with his heeling.
The heeling is now sorted.
But the trainers method for dealing with the pulling to other dogs etc was spray Zac with water or shake a bottle of stones at him.
This was even after she had said he is a sensitive dog.
Plus he loves water anyway.
Needless to say we didn't do this!!!!!!!!!
We have tried the turning round method. I walk that way he hops facing the dog still.
We have tried the sit method which sometimes works.
On the same walk he could pull to one dog but not another. So we know he can ignore them.
Please could someone [as many as possible please, PLEASE] give us a step by step training plan that we could put into action to help this behaviour.
Zac wears a harness.
He has worn a halti and a canny collar. Neither stopped his bouncing or pulling.
It is just the fact that he wants to play which we understand. However no dog owners want to let their dogs near us when they see this behaviour.
We have also tried using a word and treat. Whenever we saw a distraction [bird,cat,dog] we would say the word "ignore" and treat him when he had passed the dog etc.
The only reason we stopped doing this was becuase after we had given him the treat he would turn round and pull back in that direction. Then we would say "ignore" again which he would usually do. But should we give him another treat or not? Does he just do that so he gets another treat?
We were worried about him putting too much weight on.
Basically we are lost for ideas and all the methods we have tried we think we must have done wrong as they didn't work.
The best one was food and word.
Sooooooooo sorry for the long post.
Thanks if you read it all.
Thanks even more if you reply.
We really really do need the help and appreciate any replies we get.
I was very interested in reading your post as my Kimmy can do this as well. Mainly to other dogs and only goes as far as pulling and never to barking. He also just wants to play and say hello and most of the pets owners in our area know Kimmy and will stop so that he can say hello, once he has done this Kimmy will just carry on walking as normal. The problem I get during the summer is tourist who obviously have never seen Kimmy and will pull there dog away from him, if I use the word 'leave' it will sometime work or by just pulling him away. I did use a water spray to get him out of the habit of chewing his lead while walking and this worked on the second time of using and he has never done it again so I was thinking of using it again for this problem. He loves water as well but doesnt like the spray at all.
Kimmy is a Pets As Therapy dog and when he wares his yellow PAT jacket he act so totally different and can walk straight past other dogs.
I know this is maybe not the responce you wanted but I just wanted you to know that you are not alone on this subject.
All the best.
Ann
____________ Kimmy you will always be our superstar, we love you
As much as I know my Zac isn't the only one with the problem it doesn't make me feel any better just after he's done it and people are giving you funny looks.
These are usually other people with dogs.
I just want to yell at them "was your dog born trained?"
If Zac does get close enough to meet the other dog he will butt-tuck on the lead and play bow.
If I were you Ann I would be tempted to get a similar looking jacket for Kimmy to wear all the time so that he walks as well as when he does when he's working.
I was thinking about getting another jacket but the only problem is I want him to know when he is going to work and when he's not. I know what you mean about other people's faces you would think that they would be more understanding.
Ann
____________ Kimmy you will always be our superstar, we love you
It is just the fact that he wants to play which we understand. However no dog owners want to let their dogs near us when they see this behaviour.
i know how you feel
bob is the same age but he does bark when he sees another dog or cat
hes getting better at not barking back when a dog is behind a fence when we walk past and i give him a huge amount of praise for that but when he sees another dog he just wants to get there and play, but i can see the way people look at me and it actually gets me really down to the point sometimes i dread walking him
Stormy use to do this too and I know what you mean about them putting on weight as we had that problem too. Anyway, to get stormy out of this I did what you did by giving him a treat, but I made sure I had a few spare treats in my hand too and yes I did give him another treat. it does not matter if we think they are doing it to get another treat, because once you have installed the behaviour that you want you can gradually reduce the treats. I use to use cheese as a treat for stormy when doing the walks, but as he put on weight I changed to his breakfast and used that on the walk instead once I knew he knew what I wanted. It is important though to use a treat that they really like. Cheese is a good one, just small bits, so he don't get full up. We use to go by a house that had a football in the garden and stormy always wanted it. He would tug me trying to get to it, so my trainer told me I had to teach him the leave it. We had to get a footie and start off in the living room. Stormy had to sit on lead with someone holding it. Me and someone else had to throw the footie to each other and stormy was not allowed to come near it, he had to stay in the sit. Everytime he did he got a treat. When he didn't we used a key word which for us is ahh ahh, some people use no. Then we had to put him back in the sit. The first time was the hardest as it took 20 times of putting him back in the sit. We did this every day until he learnt he could only have it if I said so. Now we can walk down the street with kids bouncing a footie and it does not bother him. Remember that when they get it right, be generous with your praise. Clicker training always works very well for walks. If they know what a clicker is for, then you can use it on the walks as they learn that once you click, that means a treat will follow. Always stop when he pulls and wait for the lead to slacken before moving on. If your in a hurry use a treat to lure him back to your side. Practice getting him to sit at every kerb and then use the command heel when you walk off. Heel work takes a lot of hard work and a long time to get right, but if you persevere, you will get there.
You may already do this, but if not if you see a dog in the street, cross over way before. Your dog will still look at the dog, but if you have the road between you and your dog, you have more room to get the control back without being pulled to the other dog. Once you see the dog and you have crossed over, use treats or a toy to get his attention. If he looks at the other dog say something like walk on. When he does give him a treat. The same would go for people, bikes and buggies. This is what I did with Stormy and now I can walk on the same side as all these without having to cross the rd. Another thing I was taught was to make a small loop in your lead, so if you dog pulls, drop the loop bit and go the other way. Just as though you are trying to get away from him or just as you would if you remembered you had left your purse at home. The dog will follow you and then praise him. He will learn by that to watch you and go where you go and not you go where he wants to pull you.
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