oh wise training ones please help!

[morethanyoubargainfor]

I would like to know any tips to help my lurcher (aka the stripey one!).

A bit of background had him 5 months from rescue, before that he was a stray. He is approx 18 months old now.

Since being with us he has learn't a heck of alot right from his name and he is in fact a briliant dog. Recently i have decided on working intensley on keeping him away from the boot room when we are getting ready for a walk, there were more important things to work on before. Here is my problem he is like a child with ADHD (which isn't a problem) and he LOVES his walks, in fact he lives for them. When we ar getting into our walking gear he used to jump around and bark quite a bit, we have now stopped this but we are triying to teach him to lay in his bed and wait for us to call him, (5 months ago we couldn't have got dressed without he jumping all over us).

The problem is he can do it if there are two of us here, so DH gets ready and i sit next to his bed and tell him stay whilst treating frequently (he one love more than a walk is food!) you can feel the anticipation and i know it is very hard for him to sit and wait.

If we are not going out for a walk i can put him in his bed and tell him to stay and walk around the house can go and stand outside of hhis view for 5 minutes and he doesn't move, ialso pick my coat up and walk around and he is the same doesn't move, and i also open the door and have a fake chat with someone and again he doesn't move. i constantly treat him for his good work.

So how do i teach him to wiat until i am ready and that he isn't going to be left behind? the door/boot room is too far from his bed to throw treats for him. So how do i do it?

hope that makes sense.

Sorry for long post but my fingars just can't stop! {grin].

Hi there

I am a new membert and a dog trainer.

Its not separation anxiety

What your lucher has done has made an association

He has learnt a certain routine equals walk, fun, and excitement.
You have listed the triggers yourself already.

It's possible that even being sent to the bed in the manner you do it on those occasions is also an associative trigger (dogs dont generalise, so your lurcher may think that 'bed' on this occasion is context specific to the BIG FUN WALK).

What you need to do is mess with this association, so the triggers dont always equal walk, fun, and excitment

That means at random timse you perform your going your going for walk routine, then either dont go, or sit down adn watch telly for 20 minutews, or sit down wathc telly for 20 minutes, take all your kit off, then put it back on then go, or sit down and watch telly for 20 minutes, take all your kit off, do something for another 20 minutes, then put all your kit back on and then go.

Or get ready for something else (ie, non dog walking clothes/kit), then at the last moment when he has no clue, take him for a walk.

You get my drift?

Also, lurchers love to run, so im guessing a walk to him equals adrenaline.

If that is so, mix up your walks a bit.
Do some on-lead, that include obedience training, or clicker training, or scent games.

Are part whippets given a name like lurcher? My ddog is part whippet and he loves a race against his friends. He has to go after breakfast or he would be difficult to live with. Thankfully my getting ready routine is very quick!

i hvae never thought it was seperation anxiety. I know it is association so have been working hard on that, but i honestly can't tell you how much he has leanrt and come on in the short time we have had him.

we also always use his bed for calming situations if you get me, whilst we are eating, when we greet people at the door etc etc.

I am aware of his triggers so that is why i vary that as well, like picking up coat/trousers etc and just wandering around the house and sitting around in them. He is improving daily still at the moment and never has his walks the same time everyday, nor does he do the same walk two days running and we always do circular routs so we never retrace our steps, (thats more me than the dogs ).

He also has two 10 minutes mental trainig everyday, that is on toop of atleast 90 minutes of good hard fast walking.

He does love to run and does get as much in as possible . He is a really good dog.

I'd love mine to have a greyhound or lurcher friend to run with, he is the fastest of his friends. He really likes to go to the same place for his morning exercise, where the other dogs hang out. He also has preferred routes when on other walks. We set out to get a greyhound or lurcher from the rescue place, having heard and read so much good about them; we made the mistake of taking dd2 and ended up with the whippety lad. He is lovely, but prone to being overly enthusiastic too.

lurchers rock, they are just the best, and i am totally in love with him! We also have a curly coated retriever who also rocks but in a different way .

my lurcher lad decided to take himself for a sprint the other day and covered 4 big fields and around the outside and back accross the same way in 15 minutes, he was with a friend and her heart was in her mouth by all accounts. I don't know what he was chasing. He is extremely fast and luckily does have other fast dogs to keep up with him (not my other lad).

We meet a young husky most days, but he is more of a distance runner and mine is a sprinter. He is in a 'gang' with a retriever, a boxer,a husky and several labradors. And a King Charles who watches in amazement. We are trying to convince dh that another dog would be good - we used to have our neighbour's elderly beagle on a daily basis. (She knew the word walk in Irish and English)

Hi morethan,

i was referring to another poster when i mentioned Separation Anxiety

i hadnt notice you were already onto all my recommendations

how is it going, do you still have the problem?

just out of interest, and as another available solution, have you taught your lurcher to do a sit in this siutaion?

(dogs dont generalise, they are context specific...a sit taught in another situation may not apply in this one)

Diet can have an impact as well, what brand are you feeding?

hi,

he has to sit whilst lead is being put on and he is waiting to go, but i have to say his stay isn't 100% but he has improved ten fold! he is much calmer and happy to wait whilst i get ready so he is more managable IYKWIM

I am funny about both dogs diets, they have NO human food and no titbits. They are fed chappie dry wiith a small aount of nature diet for variety. (the other lad need sthe variety)