Persistence, Perseverance & Change In Strategy Pays Off

[labsrule]

I have been having a "Battle Royale" with my 8.5mth old Lab Pup Tana to stop him pulling like the proverbial steam train on our walks and to not be so reactive (terribly excited) to any human, irrespective of whether or not they have a dog, that we encounter along the way.

From Day 1 when he came to live with me as a 10week old pup, I started training him in all the basics including loose lead walking and he was extremely responsive to the 2 x daily training sessions and picked things up very quickly . However, when it was safe enough after his last vaccination at 16 weeks to start taking him on walks, he got so excited from the time we stepped onto the driveway and started pulling and got so exciteable everytime he saw another human come into view and it got progressively worse, the older and bigger he got. As he is my 4th lab pup, I applied all my knowledge that I had learned over the years, along with new techniques, all to no avail and I was getting extremely frustrated with him on our walks as I spent at least 75-80% battling his pulling and excitedness and walking in the opposite direction or stopping still everytime he pulled. Treats or praise didn't seem to work and in fact, I found that praising in particular seemed to almost "give him permission" to start pulling again and rushing out the front As frustrated as I got, there was no way I was going to give up and stop taking him for his daily walks as I take my responsibility to my dogs seriously and Lab pups in particular, need lots of physical and mental stimulation.

I was obviously doing some wrong and not getting thru to my boy the way I got thru to his predecessors at the same age. His direct predecessor, Fitzy my beautiful 10 year old boy who I lost to cancer last year , was my most challenging pup prior to Tana and when he was 6mths old, I actually got in a trainer to work with us on some of the issues I was having with him, including him pulling on our walks. Well after one session with this trainer, he was walking brilliantly on the lead at 6mths of age and continued to be a pleasure to take on walks for the rest of his life

I thought about getting in a trainer for Tana like I did with Fitzy as I was so determined to get him loose lead walking on a flat collar as I didn't want to have to resort to a halti or harness as this doesn't correct the underlying problem. Despite having a bad experience with Fitzy at puppy school years ago which put me off obedience training, I started thinking about obedience training for Tana as we needed training with distractions as that was the biggest problem, as he does brilliantly with his home training but it all goes out the window the moment we leave our yard. I thought both of us could benefit from obedience training, so I enrolled him and off we went. He was beside himself with excitement when we arrived with all those other doggies to greet :D and he virtually dragged me around the ground like I was a light weight and I am not ;) and he was so hard to control in this exciteable state :D . Once class started though he was very good :p and I was very pleasantly surprised at his focus and he only got distracted when one of the other dogs in the class kept on barking or another one would wander over to him :D

We have been going to Obedience for 5 weeks now, with week 1 being an assessment, then Tana couldn't attend in week2 due to a leg injury, so from week3 onwards we actually started in the class environment, so he has had 3 classes now and whilst his excitement level when we first arrive is still high as he gets to meet and greet the other dogs, he is doing really well in class I really enjoy going to obedience and updating my dog handling skills and what I find most beneficial is having a trainer critique your task performance and give you advice on ways to improve or correct anything you may be doing wrong or could do better

Over the last few weeks I have been trying different approaches with Tana before and during our walks based on what I have been learning at obedience and about myself and about 9 days ago we finally had a break thru where he didn't pull for 35 out of the 45 minute walk . Since that day he has got better and better, not only with the pulling but with his reaction to other humans and dogs we encounter along the way and I feel like I am walking another dog I am so happy and so proud of my little man and our walks are now such a pleasure with this transformation in his behaviour He still gets beside himself with typical lab excitement meeting and greeting all the doggies at obedience, but hopefully :D that should improve over time, after all he is still a pup and a Labrador

I am no spring chicken, in fact I am of the baby boomer generation and a grandmother, so there is hope out there for any one who has the fortitude to resolve issues they may have with their dog by trying new things and learning new skills. We are also getting involved in Retrieving as I have encouraged his retrieving skills from day 1 and I took him to watch the Retrieving Trials at the DogsNSW Public Open Day last Saturday and the Retrieving people gave us an opportunity to show his retrieving skills so they could assess him :p

Sorry about the long post :D

[Lab_Rat]

Congrats labsrule!

I only hope one day I can say the same thing for me and my ridgy girl! Im sure our problem is actually "my" problem, and I need to change something Im doing, just dont know what atm!

Rat

[aussielover]

Well done!!!

I am having troubles walking my 10 week old lab puppy on the leash, I hope I can sort it out. She can only go for very short walks though, so not much chance to practice in the real world. She is actually ok in the house when I practice walking her on the leash. Obviously there are just too many distractions outside!

[OSoSwift]

Well done Labsrule - excellent effort I am sure you will have great fun.

Goes to show we never stop learning doesn't it

[Stitch]

So, on reflection, what would you consider you did differently that worked to change this pup from a puller to being better behaved??

[labsrule]

thanks everyone

So, on reflection, what would you consider you did differently that worked to change this pup from a puller to being better behaved??

I made the following changes:

• I changed his home daily training session to immediately prior to taking him on a walk and made sure I kept it at max 10mins - During our walk I also stop and give him one or two 5 minute training sessions so he has additional training with distractions
  
• I changed his treats to grilled chicken breast cut up into tiny treat size - being a Lab he loved all the treats I gave him but the chicken is his absolute favourite
  
• I modified the way I was actually walking to ensure that I was CONSISTENTLY walking with purpose and not looking down at him all the time. I have always been a fairly fast walker, but found found that the more he was pulling and stressing me and not improving when I either stopped or changed directions many times, the more I slowed down and spent more time focussing on him, insteading of head up and striding out and commanding the walk i.e being the Leader
  
• I improved my marking & feed treat responses to ensure I marked him verbally with "Yes" everytime he looked up at me or back at me or came back to me if I stopped or slowed down because he was pulling and I made sure the treat immediately followed the verbal marker.
  

Interestingly enough, he virtually stopped pulling overnight, as one day he was pulling like a steam train for 80-90% of our walk, then next day he was loose lead walking for for 80% of our walk and he continued to improve in leaps and bounds from that day on . Not only has this transformation occurred in the pulling dept on walks, but also in his reaction to people we encounter on our walks, particularly kids who he just loves, as he would just be beside himself and lunging and jumping around like a maniac :D , but now he may have a look, may slow down and watch or slightly pull, but doesn't lunge or jump around and I can get his focus back very quickly Yesterday on his walk on the way home thru a park a couple of young kids came running in our direction calling out doggy, doggy and my boy kept on walking but watching them out of the corner of his eye and they then ran pretty close to him and I was so proud of his "non-reaction" to them and he kept looking up at me and of course I was marking him and rewarding him for his great behaviour .

About a week after his greatly improved behaviour on our walks, I thought I would chop and change a couple of things to see if it made any difference to his behaviour. For a couple of days, I stopped the training session immediately prior to his walk and it made no difference I then changed his treats a couple of times and it made no difference :D, so at least if I run out of chicken, I know my dog won't run amok and turn back into a pulling steam train . I have also reduced the amount of marking and increased the time between the marking and feeding of treats and it made no difference

He is still a lunatic when we arrive at Obedience with so many dogs and people to meet and greet but he does settle down for his class and does really well with his tasks and commands and I know the initial excitement will be around for awhile as he is still only a pup. This once a week lunatic behaviour pales into insignificance compared to the overnight transformation of his walking behaviour

[RubyStar]

Well done, labsrule!!

[alexandrite]

That is actually really interesting, I'll have to try this with my Charlie the cocker spaniel! Except he's not a pup, he's 3 years old lol... He is also a furry little "steam train" - excited about everything! - and we're also always stopping, turning around, using check chain and harness etc etc and it can be quite frustrating to walk him.

May I ask, what exactly do you do on your 5min training sessions during your walk? Sit/stay/come practice etc? Or something different?

Edited July 1, 2010 by alexandrite

[julzjc]

Congratualtions! So proud of you both! I have now completly stopped walking the dogs together as Bonnie is a bad influence on Indie, Indie is great, Bonnie...umm old Tana in disguise lol. Good with adults but goes cazy seeing kids and other dogs,getting better but a long way to go with her yet.Lifts my spirits so much reading you and Tana have cracked it(doing exact same training/walking plan as you). Well done guys!

[labsrule]

That is actually really interesting, I'll have to try this with my Charlie the cocker spaniel! Except he's not a pup, he's 3 years old lol... He is also a furry little "steam train" - excited about everything! - and we're also always stopping, turning around, using check chain and harness etc etc and it can be quite frustrating to walk him.

May I ask, what exactly do you do on your 5min training sessions during your walk? Sit/stay/come practice etc? Or something different?

In one session, we do the sits, drops, stands, spins, crawls, roll overs, high fives and in the other session we do stays with variations like staying whilst I walk out a distance in front of him, also I get him to stay whilst I walk around him as well as stay whilst I place treats out in front of him. His stays are actually very good, even better at home as I can disappear around a corner of the yard and then walk around the entire yard and he won't break his stay. However, when we are out at a park, he will break his stay sometimes, if I walk out too far into the distance, so I am working on this area more. I do mix up the 2 x training sessions during our walks, so that the stays session may be either the 1st or 2nd session and vice versa for the other session with the other commands (sits, drops, spins etc).

During our walks, I try to give him some offleash time in a safe area and I work on his recall which is actually very good and has been since I gave him his first off leash time The first time he didn't actually come when I called him was a few months ago when he found a dead rat (or killed it as it was freshly dead) and he was running around with it hanging out of his mouth After some cajoling he did come and I got him to drop his prize and the 2nd time he didn't come straight away was about a week ago, when we encountered another dog, but I was really proud of him as we had turned around to walk back the way we had just come and didn't know that a woman with her dog on a leash was following at a discreet distance behind us. Anyway, when Tana saw the dog he started running over to it and I was calling him and he kept on going then just stopped and when into a sit position at a discreet distance from the dog and I called him some more and he looked back at me and then the dog and continued sitting there and I called out the woman who had stopped with her dog and asked her to please stay there until I got my dog to come back to me. I called him again and this time he came running back to me Obviously I want him to come back the first time I call him, not when he is ready but I was very pleased with the fact that he didn't rush right up to the dog and try to play with it, he just sat and waited a discreet distance away from the dog

With the recall training during our walks, I let him run off into the distance to have a run around and then call him back and reward him with a treat when he comes back and then let him run off again and call him back again and reward and repeat these steps throughout the duration of his offlead time. This way he knows he can't just run off and not come back and now quite often he just comes back on his own accord without me even calling him so I reward him and let him run off again I did purchase a couple of long leads/lines which I was going to use for the recall training, but he surprised me with such good recall the first time I let him off and then consistently time and time again during subsequent offleash time, so I haven't used these long leads/lines on him yet. I am working on giving him more recall training with distractions and took him to a dog park today, where we got to practice his recall with the distractions of two other dogs and he didn't do too badly at all. Definitely room for improvement, so I will expose him more and more to recalls with distractions.

Goodluck with Charlie and he is still a youngster so there is hope I know full well how frustrating it must be to walk him. Let us know how you go.

[labsrule]

Well done, labsrule!!

Congratualtions! So proud of you both! I have now completly stopped walking the dogs together as Bonnie is a bad influence on Indie, Indie is great, Bonnie...umm old Tana in disguise lol. Good with adults but goes cazy seeing kids and other dogs,getting better but a long way to go with her yet.Lifts my spirits so much reading you and Tana have cracked it(doing exact same training/walking plan as you). Well done guys!

Thanks guys Yes I haven't been game to walk Tana with any of my other two boys, as I think there will be a competition happening as to who can walk the fastest/pull the hardest, instigated by Master Tana of course I actually walk them all separately as it gives them all one on one time with mum and I can concentrate on Tana's training sessions during his walk and the older boys get to walk in peace

Goodluck with Bonnie and hope you "crack it" with her as well. Let us know how you go

[Gamby]

Hey labsrule

So happy for you.

You have made an effort to find or change the training levels. and through that thought process it has proved positive.

What you wrote should be added to all Dog Club Newsletters so that people who have a dog pulling problem know that IT CAN BE FIXED if they put the time in.

Way to go Kiddo