Help Needed With 11month Old Lab

[Eyolf]

Would be grateful for any help please. Having trouble with my 11 month old lab, she keeps taking things from around the house usually things she is not allowed and running around in front of us. When I try to take it off her she runs away and won't let me get her. I'm not really sure what I should be doing here?

I'm also having trouble walking on lead as I let her have a long lead so she could sniff an walk but I'm now thinking that was a mistake as she is now becoming really stubborn and won't move when she wants to sniff until she wants to.

Would love to hear any suggestion. Thanks in advance :)

[Salukifan]

I think most dog trainers could help you with these.

Your dog's thieving is play. You're playing the game by her rules when you chase her. Stop chasing her and teach her a "give" and reward that.

If you need help with leash walking, a trainer or obedience classes would be your best bet.

You've got an intelligent dog bred do do a job and get a lot of exercise. She needs good physical and mental stimulation. Training could solve both those issues for you.

Edited March 5, 2013 by Haredown Whippets

[CellarDoor]

Yup, I'll add my 2 cents, but there are more experienced people on here than me :)

Our 5 year old lab did the same thing when younger. Well, a tad different tho; she liked to take things when excited then take them to you to 'show off'. We taught her a really solid 'drop it' (best thing we ever taught her).

eta it really helped when we found a toy that she absolutely fell in love with and that didnt drive us crazy with a high pitched squeeker :p instead of grabbing inappropriate things eg the bathroom mat to show off to people, she grabber 'her' toy.

If she wants to play, just ignore her. She wants to get your attention, so if you ignore her she learns picking up stuff means no attention.

There was this brilliant diagram I had on dog walking, but i can't find it basically it said, on walks, become the most important thing to her, so other things like dogs, people, different smells etc pale in comparison to they joy/excitement/attention you may give her.

Obedience training can really help too of course :)

Haha, im sure others can explain better than this, but I hope this is helpful.

Edited March 5, 2013 by Clozza

[Mudlark]

With the nicking off with stuff - get some treats and swap them for the thing she has nicked. She should spit out the nicked object to get the treat. Make a big fuss of her when she gives up the object for the treat. You can keep little dishes of kibble around so you can easily grab something to swap in return for the illegal object. When she nicks something never ever ever chase her or try to wrestle it off her - that is a wonderful game from her perspective and she will want to play it again and again. Provide her with a basket of dog toys that she can grab and chew on as an alternative to your possessions.

With the taking too long to move on from sniffing stuff: At home, work on getting your dog's attention in return for a treat. Put the treat in front of her nose and, when you have her attention, move the treat to between your eyes so she is looking you in the eye. Say 'watch' (or any word you like) and immediately reward her attention by giving her the treat. Work on this a lot till you can get her attention by saying 'watch' (rewarding with treats). Also work on short, fast recalls - get her attention with a treat and run backwards a short distance, calling very enthusiastically, to get her to chase you for a couple of metres - rewarding with the treat. Work on this a lot - at any moment you could call her to come to you and get a yummy treat! This will teach her to switch her attention to you for a reward. Once you are getting a reliable response at home and out on walks in areas where distractions are minimal, you can then step it up to using your 'watch' or quick recall to get her attention away from mildly distracting things like sniffs. Make sure you reward a quick, attentive response. Use good treats (eg. little bits of cabanossi) and an enthusiastic, over the top, goofy voice so that you can compete effectively against the interesting sniffs :)

I let my dog sniff but he is not allowed to pull to get to sniffs (if he pulls we stop dead or abruptly change direction) and he has been taught to come away from sniffs when called using the above approach. Sniffing all the fascinating smells is important to a dog, so I wouldn't want to deprive a dog of doing it completely.

Your dog is a teenager right now do don't despair - she will become more mellow over time. But teaching her that it is worth her while to pay attention to you will help in the meantime.

[Eyolf]

Thanks guys ill give those ideas a go! I really hope she does grow out of this stage haha

[persephone]

I really hope she does grow out of this stage haha

She will not really "grow out of it" without a good education , and help to learn new ways to behave.

I suggest you book in for some classes , where you can both learn better communication skills - so she can please you , and you can understand why she does things :)

[W Sibs]

I think you need to get a trainer in, because the sound of it, you both need some training.

Teenage stage for you! She is going to test and push the boundaries now, and unfortunately, she will not out grow this behaviour, if this behaviour is not dealt with.

Good luck. I also have a 10 month old Samoyed who has hit the teenage phase too... it's going to be one hell of a ride :)

[Christina]

Its called being a teenager. Every dog tries it on.

My dogs would keep nicking things more if I gave them a treat to swap for them. They would soon learn more nicking = more treats. I would ignore the nicking & retrieve the object when she has lost interest unless she is destroying it.

Try a shorter lead if you want a faster walk but part of the pleasure of the walk for the dog is the stopping & smelling the interesting stuff. You may be finding the walk boring but she probably loves it.

[tdierikx]

I taught my Lab "whatcha got?", which means "show me what you have in your mouth" - then she learned "give" which means either "spit it out now" or "let mummy have that nasty thing you've scavenged up from dog knows where"... oh - and reward with treat that is more interesting than what she has in her mouth.

As for walking nicely on lead... well... basic obedience classes can be good for learning that sort of thing - or shorten the lead and take control yourself for a while... your pup will work it out pretty quickly.

T.

[Pretty Miss Emma]

In terms of pulling on the lead to sniff things... Hamish is currently doing a bit of this. I've taught him "ok, let's go" which means you've had your sniff now it's time to keep walking. I taught him that by having super good smelly treats and I'd let him have a sniff when he found a tree etc then when I was ready to move on I'd say ok let's go and if he didn't start walking I'd hold a treat in the "sniff zone" (!!) to distract him and get him moving, obviously once he started walking he'd get the treat! Sniffing is lots of fun and tells them lots about what has been going on in the neighbourhood, they need to do it, but on your terms not theirs! I also reward Hamish for walking beside me on a loose lead. Again I do it with food, if he's walking nicely beside me he gets a treat (which may even be his normal food) every few steps. Just makes it profitable for him to be walking in a place a like. At the moment we are still on a really high reinforcement schedule, but he is also 11 months so pushing the boundaries! The reinforcement rate will drop when he starts to come in to line a little more frequently!

You could also try "crazy walking", take the dog to a space where you can change dirctions every few steps, don't tell the dog where you're going just walk fast and in a determined way and randomly change directions, reward the dog for changing with you. I've done a bit of this and it does help them to learn to watch you and be attentive to where you are going to go next.

[Brookestar]

Its called being a teenager. Every dog tries it on.

My dogs would keep nicking things more if I gave them a treat to swap for them. They would soon learn more nicking = more treats. I would ignore the nicking & retrieve the object when she has lost interest unless she is destroying it.

Try a shorter lead if you want a faster walk but part of the pleasure of the walk for the dog is the stopping & smelling the interesting stuff. You may be finding the walk boring but she probably loves it.

The key is to know how to faze out treats and to swap it over for toys they can have. If you give me my object i will give you something you can have.

Of course the most important thing is to not let dogs learn this behaviour to begin with. You need to make sure when very young puppies that everything is kept out of there reach, all shoes, cords, etc, etc. Once they learn any behaviour it is much harder to change.

It is also important to make sure dogs are taught what you do want them to do. It is much easier to teach a dog what you do want it to do, ie to sit when they see someone, than to stop them from doing an undesirable behaviour, like jumping up. If you are correcting them for doing something you don't want them doing they still have no idea of what they should be doing. They are only dogs and can only think like dogs.

Everything a dog does is normal behaviour for a dog, it just does not sit will with humans. They don't know how to live with humans, if we do not teach them. The best way to teach them is to simply not let them learn a bad behaviour or to teach them what you do want them to do. Ie you want something in your mouth, go and get a toy of yours. But to dogs everything is a toy. It is also much easier to teach a dog that a few toys are things they are allowed to chew on, than to teach them not to chew or pick up every single other item, object, etc.

I agree with the advice of others, some dog training would go along way for both of you.

[Eyolf]

Thanks for the advice everyone :)

[tdierikx]

If it makes you feel any better, my Lab's name is Trouble... *grin*

... and she was actually expelled from obedience classes when she was around 12 months old... errr!

What I did was to start taking her out more, but the minute she started acting up, I took her straight back home again... she quickly worked out that we would stay out longer if she behaved herself. I also would walk a few steps then stop, and make her sit - changing up how far I would go before she had to sit - she also started paying more attention to me when she didn't know what I was going to do next.

T.

[Eyolf]

Haha trouble is a Great name!!

Amazingly my lab is pretty good at obedience, it's on the streets she acts up, she is slowly improving! But lots of work still needs to be done :)