NinjaKitteh

Hi all,

As some of you will recall from my intro post, i bought Ozzy last Sunday, and since then i've come across a few niggles i have with his behaviour. I realise he isn't fully adjusted yet to us (not after a week!!) but i was wondering if someone more experienced than me can shed some light on reasons, and possibly offer some advice

Firstly, and most irritatingly, he will NOT walk to heel, and attempts to pull me into roads, through hedges and just doesn't have any respect for the leash whatsoever. I have managed to get him to stop pulling me through the door though, by closing it every time he tries to lead me through it, and only opening it once he is sat calmly. This has worked wonders - after the third day doing this, he now calmly sits and waits without even being told!! As for outside, hes a different dog...I have been trying the stop/start method for every walk, every day (3 per day - 2 x half hour, 1 x hour) and he just stands there when i stop (which is as soon as my hand gets pulled away from its relaxed position), and waits ignorantly. Even if i have treats, he rarely comes back when i have stopped. When he does eventually look round to see why im just stood there, i praise him, take 2 steps back, he follows, i give him praise/treat, and then as soon as i try and step forward, he rushes off again, so i end up just stood there. It took us an hour to make it just 500yds yesterday, and im at my wits end Any advice at all is appreciated.

Another annoying habit is that he is quite pushy when he is seeking affection. I often wait for a couple minutes when i get up, or come in from uni or whatever, before petting him ( i read to do this on a dog training advice website), and he sits patiently with his rope toy so i can fuss him, which is lovely (and such a lovely change from my beagles i had a couple years ago, as they never sat still 5 seconds!!) However, as soon as i then move away and sit down, he comes and keeps butting me with his head for more attention. He does this for a good ten -fifteen minutes and when i dont give in he then starts whining, which is awful, he sounds in pain I don't know whether to give in the first time and pet him more, or ignore it, like ive been doing so far. Ignoring it for the last 8 days hasnt had any effect Im just not sure how to handle this. He does it with my 8yr old son and my partner as well, and ive told them to ignore it, and fuss him only when hes being passive and relaxed, but it hasnt stopped him pushing/butting them either.

Lastly, he seems to be funny about his food. I have him on a basic kibble (ordinary mix, not working dog as he is 10kg overweight) and feed him half his ration in the morning 20 mins after his walk, and half again at tea time (5pm) 20 mins after his afternoon walk. He never finishes it when i place it down, but just goes back to it every half hour or so. Is this normal?? I thought labradors loved any food, and im having trouble understanding why hes so fat, if he doesnt eat properly!! If this is normal, should i just leave the food down all day so he can eat when he wants, or take it away after a set period of time? His walks and meals are all done within 10 mins of the same time each day, so he does have a very set routine, which i thought was a good thing. If this isn't good, can someone suggest a better daily routine for us?

Sorry this was such a long post, but i appreciate any advice or guidance on any of these things - im not that experienced with dogs, i had 2 beagles a couple years ago who were model pets, and he's nothing like them, so i feel a little out of my depth

Thanks in advance

Nikki..x

seebrown

Hi, Ninja! The loose leash walking thread may really help you: "Loose Leash" walking Someone just asked a similar question so you may want to peruse those answers as well: Training yourself Here was my answer on that thread:

Are you overfeeding him? You should be giving him the recommended amount for his healthy weight (not to sustain his current weight if he's overweight) split into two feedings and subtracting treats. I used to feed for 15 minutes each time, and if my dog didn't finish, I would take it away. I know different owners feed different ways, but if you're doing the 2x a day feeding schedule, this is what has been suggested to me. He may also just not like the kibble he's eating if it's a lower quality, or he may just need more time to get used to it. I wouldn't switch after just a week.

It will take several weeks or longer for him to adjust to his new life. I think it took my old dog a good 3 weeks with a consistent schedule/training before he started settling in, but there was always something else to work on after he got one thing down.

Brittany

When I first started working with Kimber on loose leash I basically gave him a tiny treat every second!!! I wanted him to know that being next to me was the most awesome rewarding thing ever! Then I started waiting 5 seconds then 10 and so on. I used tinsy tiny cut up pieces of hotdogs! Plus the smell stayed on my hand so he liked being right there by my hand. ANd LOTS of praise.

Loose Leash is one of the most difficult things to train in my opinion so itis going to take a lot of patience.

As far as him being pushy....Does he ever sit nicely?? Try to make it a point to approach him and give him love when he is relaxing. I know then he will probably starting getting pushy, but then just ignore him. When he is relaxed give him attention again. Make sure if he is being pushy and then sits give him attention and praise immediately.

If you aren't opposed to free feeding and he isn't eating non-stop you could probably leave it down all day. If you want him to eat on your schedule, start picking it up after about 20 minutes and not giving back until the next feeding time. It won't take long for him to realize that he needs to eat when you feed him.

Hope I was of some help! Good luck and keep us posted on his progress

catahoulaowner

For the walking thing...my dog is doing the same thing. She walks great with me when in public, which is where we were having problems, now thats great but she pulls me all over the street and I have her on the gentle leader so who knows with that one. The affection thing... i "rescued" my dog from a shelter about 5 or 6 weeks ago. She did that at first too, all the time. I gave in because she had been in the shelter for about 4 mos and really needed the attention. She has started not needing it as much, and will now sit and wait to be petted rather than jumping up and down and almost knocking me down in the process. Food...i have had a 2 labs. One would eat ANYTHING. The other was very picky, we ended up on a canned food/dry food mix that she really liked. But it took trial and error. Good luck, and give him a little more time to settle in. Mine is still adjusting to some things.

seebrown

Yes! My dog LOVED cooked chicken pieces. Walks were so much easier when nothing else in the world mattered but delicious chicken (unless he saw another dog, but that was a different problem!).

NinjaKitteh

Thanks for your help Ive been doing the loose leash training this week again ,and he was starting to make an improvement, and would follow me for about 5 mins until pulling again (better than nothing .. However, this all went out of the window when he saw another dog today, even though it was across the street and ages away. He pulled me straight into heavy traffic, and i just couldnt hold him - had i let go instead of tripping (he pulled me over), he would have certainly been run over. I cant bear the thought that he is going to injure himself, but i dont want him to have to miss his morning walk either, and im now dreading going back out tomorrow morning. We live in the city centre and there just aren't any places close enough that arent busy with traffic in the morning (between 7.30 and 9.30am). I thought this may be because he hasnt been neutered, but i really cannot afford the £140 to have him done just yet. Any further ideas about this?

Thanks for the advice on his pushiness - I have been doing what Brittany suggested (many thanks!!) and he seems to have realised he only gets attention when he is sat now, but then as soon as i show him any attention he starts jumping about again - i guess im just gonna have to be patient - he'll learn eventually!! I do move away again as soon as he tries to jump, and then he sits again, and it just goes on and on like that. Will he learn what im trying to do, or is this just him thinking its a fun game? I dont want him thinking he is supposed to be jumping!!

As for food, i took it away after 20 mins yesterday and he whined for it, but i didnt give in. He wolfed his dinner last night tho - and sure enough he ate more of his breakfast this morning. Still left some to come and find me, so he hasnt had his whole portion, but i think he will understand soon enough that if he doesnt eat it its lost. I have him on slightly less than what the bag says for his ideal weight, not his actual weight, so i dont think im overfeeding him.

Thanks for all your help so far!

BoxLove

How about an easy walk harness or head collar? How old is Ozzy? It will take some time but loose leash training is worth sticking with.

Also I would try the watch me command. Have some high value treats (I use chicken, cheese or hot dogs), say watch me & when Ozzy looks (even glances) at you give a treat.

Try this in the home & then when out for a walk it may help keep his attention on you & not other dogs - again this takes time.

seebrown

Hi, Ninjah! It looks like you have a bit of a reactive dog (freaks out over certain stimuli: dogs, people, floating baloons). It's actually a fairly common problem in dogs. My dog did the same thing, but had the problem with ANYTHING moving. The thing about a reactive dog is that you want to reward them (delicious treats) below their threshold for whatever they respond to. For example, with my dog, we would see another dog 30 feet away before he became a mess, and I would feed feed feed him and praise praise praise him (calmly so that he didn't get excited) for being calm. If your dog is clicker trained, even better. Click treat click treat click treat for looking at stimuli calmly. If you know any friends with safe/non-reactive dogs, you can practice in a park and start really far away. It takes a REALLY long time to change this behavior. There are a lot of YouTube videos showing before/after with a year long period, where the dog is still slightly reactive but its more like 5 feet away versus 50.

You'll have instances where dogs (or other things) come up quickly and your dog freaks, and in those cases, you can either turn the other way and calmly walk away, or you can stand calmly and wait for the stimuli to move past and wait for your dog to calm down before beginning your walk again. It depends on how crazy your dog gets and what works best for him. I've even shoved food in my dog's face/mouth while other dogs were passing my house and he was freaking and we couldn't get away (we were stuck on the porch, the door was locked, and I couldn't control the dog enough to unlock the door).

If your dog is scared of the other dogs, the idea is that food = good, so other dogs (which might be scary) will eventually = good/food. I'm not clear if your dog is excited to see other dogs and wants to play, or he is putting on a SHOW of aggression (this is what my dog did). Either way, reward him for behaving calmly when he does see other dogs or other stimuli.

All of this is in Amazon.com: Control Unleashed - Creating a Focused and Confident Dog: Leslie McDevitt: Books, and if you feel like it's a major problem, I'd really suggest purchasing the book. You can also read this thread, which talks more about reactivity: Crios..Help me.. with Control Unleashed.

seebrown

And not to beat a dead horse, but Crio has really great insights in the other thread, which I'm going to re-post for clarity: