What next with delinquent dog?

[lainiekazan]

I have a golden retriever, aged 10 months, who has always been quite a handful.

He is, however, loving, cuddly, friendly and has 100% recall in garden and obeys a whole range of commands instantly.

BUT - when out and about he is a nightmare. In spite of strenuous training efforts he still pulls on the lead and can even wriggle out of his Dogmatic harness. He is obsessed by other dogs and not even the tastiest snack will divert his attention from a likely-looking playmate. I cannot let him off the lead as I tried once and he was off and refused to come back until captured.

Training classes are a disaster. All the other dogs his age are trotting round obediently going round cones and through gates. Dog has no clue what he's supposed to be doing. Week after week we go and he can't remember (or doesn't want to remember) any of his commands. He just strains and strains to try to get at the other dogs. This week, to my mortification, he suddenly lunged at a passing female dog and starting humping her! I was paralysed for what seemed like hours but must have been half a second before I leapt on him and dragged him off. He is by far the worst dog there and it's so dispiriting.

Should I quit these training classes? How can I make dog into a great walking companion instead of a manic liability?

Lol at stand offish south. It was the same when we lived in Kent. I remember moving to here, beds, and I took the dog a walk and a couple stopped and talked to us for about ten minutes and my son was open mouthed and asked if everyone was like that round here :o

My dog also sounds similar but is a King Charles so much smaller! Also 10 months, absolutely spaniel-bonkers. I also don't let him off the lead yet as he's totally over the top and distractable and since he came back from a week at my mum's he's lost any sense of recall that he ever had. I've just bought a clicker and am going to see if that helps any.

My dog also pulls at the lead - I've tried stopping, walking backwards and pulling him back in but it doesn't help so watching this thread for general tips with interest...

Have you tried chAnging direction every time? You look mad but it can work if they are completely hyped up

at red bull.

I could be a giant sausage and dog would prefer a dog at training classes. This week I took whole slices of luncheon meat (his fave) and he wouldn't even look at them. During the week he sits so nicely when we have toast and coffee together (actually he doesn't have the coffee!) but the impression he gives to others is that he is a rabid insane dingo.

To be honest, we go to Kent (with hooligan mutt) a couple of times a year and I have always found people to talk to there too. I am naturally shy but part of my way of dealing with it is eye contact and a smile to anyone I pass. If they smile back, I say hello. If someone stops to stroke the dog I initiate inane chatter Worst that can happen is that I get thought of as a bit batty or dim...I can live with that!

I have walked dog with a friend at our local park and we stopped at tea rooms this morning for tea and bacon butties and started a chat with all those sat outside on tables

:o
I bet the teacher doesn't care though but you have to do what you think is best. If you feel having a break for a few months would work, do it. You know your dog better than we do. I had a break with mine for a while, and she was better for it.

Lainie mine was exactly the same at class, he wouldn't even look at treats no matter how high value.

He WILL calm down as he gets older, honest !

It sounds like he is clever, so build on that with the training and LOTS of exercise...you will be very fit!

My Goldies also love squeeky toys...the ones shaped like ducks or pheasants that make a realistic dying bird noise in particular. Perhaps you could get him to concentrate using one of these as a reward?

"He reverted to his old ways of hunkering to the floor and refusing to move as he knew there was a dog behind." Yep my dog does this - so embarrassing! Does it less and less now though...

I find that people are really nice when I explain that he is still a pup and just obsessed with playing with other dogs, not aggressive etc etc. Some leave you alone to carry on training and others come and get their dogs to say hello and most say that their dogs were the same as puppies! I tend to see the same people now so am probably known as the lady with the dog obsessed doodle!

Lainiekazan definitely speak to the surveyor's wife, she is probably going through the same thing if he said the dog is mad!

I am in the SE too (Essex).

I find it hilarious taking mine to the vet. She gets so excited, whilst all the other dogs look on in petrified bemusement

Oh god the vets is so embarrassing! Everyone else's dog sits there calmly, mine is panting and straining like a rabid dog trying to get to them, he barks, whines - everything!

Two things keeps me going - the thought that I might have one more year of this and then he might calm down a bit when he gets to the magic 2 (he is 1 tomorrow!), and the trainer saying that as our first dog he is a baptism of fire, any other dog we get in the future will be easy! Bless him I feel bad that she never gets to see the calm gentle soul he is indoors...

Oh and wine helps

Yeah, the vetenary nurses take cover when dog bounds in, tongue lolling, wagging his tail, delighted to be there. He was very ill last week (ate something nasty - God knows what) and I took him into the vet's. He was so ill he lay down on the floor panting. Some while later I got a terse call to collect him straightaway - he was charging round out back going completely bonkers.

I fostered a dog recently (in stand-offish SE!) but found that nearly everyone would chat happily in parks etc. Met some lovely people and really so much easier to chat if dogs in common!

The only person who was a tough(er) nut to crack was the lady "in charge" of the Collie Crew, as I called them. A breeder of collies, she walked about 3 or 4 and had her little group. A couple were more friendly but she would only deign to converse with other collie owners or "her" group, who'd obviously had to work themselves into her graces slowly over the years!

She wouldn't talk to me at all, didn't look at me in the first week or two, but then softened very gradually and would say hello, pat dog's head (major step forward!) after a time.

Hmm I lived in Kent for eight years with two collies :o I promise it wasn't me! Nor am I one of those collie owners.....

You really need to get him neutered op. if there is a bitch in season near by your life will not be worth living and neither will his, some dogs get so stressed with the randiness they cannot eat or drink, they stray and can attack other dogs to get to the female.

No, it wasn't you, Owllday I'm in Surrey, not one of the really posh bits but Surrey nonetheless

I neutered my own dog at 8 months but I really do think there is more to consider with a large breed who isn't fully grown than just behaviour.

Sarf croydon then ladyturmoil? ;) hehe
I wasn't in posh Kent either :o

What do you mean, more to consider? (btw, I hope you are a vet, neutering your own dog! [imagines approaching dog, delving through thick fur covering and wielding large pair of wire cutters in region of offending articles...]

Lainie not that literally no! I am not a vet and nor did I take him into the garden with a couple of bricks!

I didn't read too much on it as mine is a small breed and was fully grown. But I believr it can affect growth and large breeds (particularly ones prone to hip/joint problems) shouldn't be done until the growth plates have closed which is later in larger breeds.

Mine is female, but vets are much more laid back about it than everyone on the internet I found
Mine was quite happy to stop the sable collie population carry on breeding :o

i have a 16 month old collie. He is BONKERS. I have tried 2 different training classes, the first I took him to from 10 weeks old. the second ones I went to for about 3 months with him. He got no better and it just ended up being really stressful every week, and I actually think he was getting worse. I am now working on him myself! The lead pulling is slow work, but he is getting a bit better with other dogs. I am also going to get him neutered in the next few weeks, not sure it will make much difference but you never know.