Total braggy moment (new dog owner)

[FuckingHateRats]

Yesterday we were down on our local beach with our puppy. She's thirteen weeks.

We have been working incredibly hard with her, and have practised recall since day 1 of getting her. We have built this up, first in the garden going between us, then in the house where she can't see us, then out in enclosed spaces when she could be off lead. We've been reinforcing this through high-value rewards and she is very reliable, for how young she is.

We went for a coffee on the beach and she met another puppy who was eighteen weeks. They had a good sniff and greet and then we settled for our coffee. Afterwards we went back to the sand and water and she was off lead, doing some work on 'stay with me' amongst all the distractions.

This other puppy was back on the beach so they got a great go at puppy play - bolting, chasing, wrestling etc. Really good fun and enjoyable.

And then, in this highly stimulated environment with another puppy to play with, passers by, beach goers etc, I called time and called her back to me . She left the play immediately and bounded over, and then and listened to the 'stay with me' cue to walk closely with me whilst off lead. She handled it like a DREAM. The other puppy less so and kept coming after us (totally understandable) but Maggie sat at my request, waited until the owner caught up and then came calmly with me, ignoring the other puppy.

This was the highest stake situation yet - and all the input we've done in the last month totally came together.

I know we have much more to do, and I know she'll have regressions and teenage hiccups, but I also just wanted to celebrate how incredible she was and how proud I am. The other dog owner asked if I was a dog-trainer because he couldn't believe she was so young and so obedient.

Just wanted to share my win because none of my pals are dog people!

I definitely don't do that. She is walked with a lead every day ( we live in a big city) and, further up the beach I put her on the lead because there was little children running around and I knew I hadn't done enough work with her to know she could ignore them safely.

I know she may become less compliant, absolutely.

Well done Maggie and well done to you. I’m sure all your hardwork will pay off later down the line. She is very cute too !

Even more than your cute story I love you’ve got a Maggie….so have I!

Ooh meant to add picture of my Maggie

The upside of having a biddable breed!

Mine is super intelligent and I can teach her anything in a few minutes but she's a guard dog type bred to be intelligent but independent.

This basically means she learns quickly but is completely obstinate and only obeys when she deems it favourable to her

(My) Maggie is a labradoodle/mini poodle cross so heavy on the poodle genes. Gave heard they're fast learners and keen to please.. and the Labrador in her is massively motivated by the food rewards!

The faux 'don't want to rain on your peace/burst you bubble/be the one to tell you.....oh wait' is very transparent. You can't wait to do so and look smug/right otherwise you'd just ignore or send a nice post.

Not at all. Just saying don’t be complacent.

I’ve got two dogs. One never did the teenage phase and has impeccable manners.

The other was a perfect puppy. House trained quickly, did as she was told, came back whilst off a lead. Then she hit sort of 6 months and it was like “you suckers!!” Everything went out the window.

Shes 4 now and still a little shit. We have days where we can let her off her lead and she’s an angel. Then some days she just doesn’t fancy coming back and manages to run these tight little circles around you. Close enough to tease, but not so close you can catch her. I only let her off now if we are on a field where there are no people or other animals.

Oh I remember being this smug. All changed at 8 months!

Tbh I think it's lovely that peoples puppies are well trained and it's a great feeling of pride when they behave but always a bit concerned that it might come crashing down on the OP later.

I remember at a puppy class someone saying how great theirs was sleeping through and well behaved etc. A few weeks in when their puppy had settled and was now driving them potty they were very extremely frazzled wondering what had happened to cause that.

As long as the OP knows that if it all goes to shit in a few months time that it's perfectly normal and can last for months but it's just another phase.

It's not about being smug or horrible. I work with dogs and see a lot of owners who make the mistake of being complacent with their puppies - adolescence then kicks in and they really start to struggle because all their training vanishes overnight and their teen dog then proceeds to get themselves in trouble.

I'm not saying OP is going to be complacent, but I don't think there's anything wrong with putting a warning out there. The last thing anyone wants is for someone to relax a bit too much and end up with an injured or lost dog.

And believe me, it happens every single day. Dogs run off and get hit by cars, bolt over roads, disappear after scents, approach the wrong on-lead dog and end up snapped at, bitten or worse, and every single owner says "Oh, well they've never done that before, they're always so good!".

But the Op doesn't need to be told that. She said in her OP she was well aware of regressions and the teenage phase. She also didn't ask for advice, just wanted to share a happy moment!

I don't want to be bursting your well deserved bubble which you should be enjoying while it lasts, but it is normal for puppies to have good recall. It then goes a bit wrong when they are adolescents and then it comes right again when they mature.

And OP has been polite and friendly to every single person who, in your words, acted "smug".

I really don't think she needs to you to dive in and defend her. It's ironic that the thread was perfectly friendly and respectful until you decided to jump on and criticise half the posters

Fab! Clever puppy ❤️

Wait til she hits the teen years and fucks off 🤣 it does get better!

My working bred Goldie was a dream until 8 months and then he suddenly went "Nah, dogs are more interesting, see ya in a bit."

No, doggo that doesn't work. So he went back on the long line.

Today at 17 months he's done off lead heelwork for around 1000m with me past some low level distractions and I was 50% certain he was about to fuck off when we both spotted the dog in the distance (he thinks of himself as a Casanova) but he didn't! 💥 not tempting fate he was put back on the lead, but it shows it does come back!

Another one saying wait till teenager. If you had just been basking in your own success I wouldn't have said anything but you were very smug/judgemental about the older puppy.

Absolutely not. I think it’s great that the OP’s puppy is doing so well and I hope everything continues to go well. But the OP has owned this puppy for a month or so and has probably only been taking her out on walks for a couple of weeks at most. These are very early days. It’s a bit like someone with an 18-month-old child who is pleased because the child has never had a tantrum. More experienced parents may urge caution on that score. Of course some children never have tantrums. But there’s a reason we refer to the terrible twos. Just as some dogs are more biddable than others but most experience some selective deafness and rebellious periods.

It is not coincidental that many dogs are rehomed when they reach more challenging stages (between about 7 months and 2 years). I’m not suggesting the OP would be one of them. But dog training is definitely a marathon, not a sprint.

Not at all . I train dogs for a living and have excellent puppy recall and them BOOM there is time when it all goes out the window. It is good to be prepared. The early foundation work will make this period shorter but it helps to expect it and work with it accordingly.

Muy smugness came with a lab puppy that was amazing and recall was great and heel work was great and we got past 8 months and it was still fab and I began to feel smug and relaxed and then at 13 months we had a period that we needed to work on things more

I literally said them not coming to their name was "totally understandable" in the OP and only gave more detail on their reaction when another poster said all puppies have this recall instinct.

Apologies if I came off smug, it wasn't my intention and I only wanted to share my giddy joy that comes with the early wins in puppy training.

I do know and anticipate she'll regress and ignore us down the line. I hope some of what were doing will help us when the time comes.

She's also been socialising for a bit longer than a PP estimated. We have other fully vaccinated dogs in our family and have private land, so we've been in the fortunate position of being able to have her meet other dogs and be out the house practising pretty much since we got her at eight and a bit weeks.

She’s scrummy, OP- what a beautiful little girl. I would just be rolling around cuddling her all day!! ❤️ 🐶 🌟

A working dog trainer said to me it was essential that you nail recall as a puppy when you are their world. That means when the teenage phrase kicks in they 'know' what they should do even if they decide to stick two fingers up at you. The worst thing is that they don't understand what recall means when they become independent and essentially run off and never come back.

So OP you are doing exactly the right thing but I think most of us are just calling for caution because you haven't even got to the hard part yet so as long as you aren't complacent then well done puppy 🐶

Well done op for putting such time and effort into training. Maybe ask you pup to have a word with mine as he doesn't have a sodding clue! He's 11.5 weeks and HUGE 😂

The other puppy definitely wasn't! The owner must have shouted his name about twenty times and he didn't even react to it, let alone respond by returning.

This is where you lost me, your op said 'totally understandable' but this shows you were smug. Which is fine BTW, own it, enjoy that it is working for you and hopefully it will continue to do so. I have owned dogs where I was smug their whole lives, and equally had dogs that seemed to have one goal in life, the goal to make me look like a dick.

Meant to say he is gorgeous