Help me with my dog problems, they are many!

[SoupDragon]

Dill.
Cocker spaniel, show type
DOB July 2009

1. Fecking recall.
   He can do this beautifully. Provided there are no other distractions, in which case you can whistle as much as you like, he won't be coming back. I have spent many hours with a pocketful of cheese/chicken/bacon and a clicker. I am too afraid to let him off the wad on walks because of this and...

2. Jumping up at people.
   Few people are impressed by a wet, muddy, excitable spaniel jumping up at them. how do I teach him this is unacceptable? We ignore him when he does it to us so he gets no attention unless all feet are on the floor. Clearly there is more I need to do.

3. Pulling on the lead
   No surprises here! Do I just keep stopping when he pulls? This makes a walk tedious and unpleasant for the walker! What else should i be doing?

Off to get him wet, muddy and (hopefully) exhausted [hollow laugh]

SoupD back on the electric fencing system, it is much much cheaper than fencing because it just requires the laying of a thin transmitting cable around the boundary either clipped to the existing fencing or buried a couple of inches deep. It was a good few years ago but I think it cost us about £500 to make our acre of land safe whereas the quote for dog prrof and dig proof fencing ran into the thousands. The dog cannot dig or force his way out because he is trained not to go near the boundary. It really does work if you follow the training instructions correctly. You put flags up to start with so there is a visual as well as an audio reminder and my lab refused to go near them without ever having felt the correction. The springer who was older and more determined got the correction twice. He however would "test" the system, creeping close to see if we had remembered to put the collar on and if he didn't get the warning buzz he would go....! A very clever dog.

Right, I hate to say this but, I have almost had it with our 20 week old cockapoo. She snaps and digs her teeth in almost to the point of breaking skin. When I say snap, I mean you can literally hear her teeth snapping together, as you put your hand towards her. She flies her head back and around to dig her teeth in. It mainly happens when we stop her from doing something, try to get her off the furniture and lasts for a few minutes afterwards. This is really getting me down now, the enjoyment factor is zero! Is this normal? Please anyone. I am in tears over this most days. I need to know how many others are experiencing this. She has always flown into a white eye rage since she was a tiny puppy, but it has escalated.

Do you have a house line? By which I mean a light lead that she can wear in the house that trails behind her. that way you can remove her from the sofa or whereever without having to grab her collar or grab at her which could provoke the bite.

You could then remain calm and give a positive reward when she has done what you ask.

Your description of "white eye rage" does sound alarming though. I hope one of the real trainers will spot this and advise

Thanks battery.

Assumpta you have mentioned this before - has the breeder seen her in action when she is in the white rage?

A puppy can be tiring and frustrating but should not drive you to daily tears I wish I could see your puppy in action then could advise in detail.

I'm sorry to hear things haven't got much better for you assumpta.
Puppies are hard work but there should also be some enjoyment there too. It sounds like you are working very hard with your pup. I really do hope you get some positive and happy time together soon x

I have the problem of my pup (5 1/2months) jumping up at people. A lot of people say its fine, others give me the worst look imagineable. When I see people approaching us, I wait till they are quite close and then tell pup to sit and 'watch me' while holding my hand to my face. He is so intrigued by what I have, he will glance at the person walking past us, but then his gaze comes back to my face so I will treat him at that point. He is getting brilliant at it and I am hoping to try it when dogs are passing us too.

My aim is that I won't even need to treat him to let people pass us without being jumped up at.

Btw, he too is a spaniel (springer) and pulls on the lead, jumps up at people and his recall is okay as long as he doesn't get spooked by anything.

Mini and Kid - I have spoken to the breeder and the decision has been made to return her to her. She will sort out a barrage of tests. Let's see what happens. I know that she will be happy back with her and her other dogs, and although we have shed buckets, we know that it can't continue. I realised it in the cold light of day yesterday afternoon, that it is the right thing, but very hard to do. She is still not drinking, but I am getting fluid into her via ice, and also using a syringe of water.

Assumpta I think you have made the right, all be it heartbreaking, decision. You have put your heart and soul into this and noone could do more. The breeder will be able to recognise what the issues are. Keep in touch with the breeder and see what reasons she can give.

Big hugs (don't care about it being unmumsnetty) and don't feel any regrets you have done all that is possible and have put the welfare of the dog first despite it making you all unhappy. x

Poor you assumpta - I have only just come to this thread and it all sounds so trying and sad, but you have done the right thing, I'm sure.

I have a spaniel. He pulls on the lead too. I have been working on this for a long time and wanted to tell you owners of younger spaniels that it does get better, and it is possible to get them behaving sensibly. Minimu1 gives really good advice; I'd add that you might find that outside in the real world (not garden, house or concrete car park) you might find that it is hard to reward with food (even with a clicker) as they just don't care - the world smells too exciting. I have had a real revelation this weekend after visiting another owner with dogs of my breed that the not pulling on the leash is all about focusing their attention on you, the owner, so that they are looking to you for direction, rather than pulling ahead on their own mission. So get the dog really focussed on you, and keep him looking at you as you go along. I can't believe the difference this made even in a two hour session this weekend. I used a pheasant wing to get his attention and by golly it worked a treat!

My new friend also showed me a neat trick to stop pulling in a very short term (literally, 5 mins) to start getting that attention on you - take the lead along the dog's back, loop round the body and back under the lead (like tying a parcel) - the dog then actually can't pull without getting into a horrible knot, so they don't! In the case of mine, he just looked at me, very confused! It got me started on walking with a slack lead, so he got the feel of it and so did I.

Soupy I had exact same probs with my ridgeback girl
Selectively deaf if dog/person in sight
Pulled like a ... Erm bitch lol
And leaping over dogs and people really usually making them cross and being a 30kg dog...
I took control
Bought a dogmatic headcollar and she got offlead ONLY in deserted fields.
I used these to work on recall
I got my mate to approach with her dog on a lead several times
I worked out at which point I retained her recall and worked on keeping attention.
I walked her fast and firmly past dogs while on lead, Jo stop, no sniff, no greeting people
A dull daily drill miles of pedestrian footpaths, me pushing the pram and this headcollared dog
Well it bloody worked
Just sayin...

Thank you for the support.