Hyperactivitiy - what is "normal"

[anna114young]

I have a 6 month lab who is lovely, she has done so well with her training at home and is really reliable around the house. No chewing furniture, no barking, doesn't go on the sofa without being invited and seems generally happy and well. She can walk to heel on our walks but does get distracted.

My concern is when we take her to new places, for example someone's house/the pub etc. She gets so so excited to see other dogs and people! She does calm down eventually but I wish I could calmly walk into a pub without having a mini kangaroo on a lead! I have tried luring her with treats etc but nothing is higher value than the sight of another dog!

I guess I am feeling frustrated as we do KC puppy classes and she is ready to move up to the next level (has shown she has good recall, can sit and stay for one minute, walking to heel, sit/down/stand and can play nicely and drop her toy on command - all the things required for puppy foundation and more) but we've been told she can't progress until she can calmly enter the room at the start of training. I have high expectations of her but I thought it was a little normal that she was excited to be there? She loves other dogs and she's not barking, or biting or going mad, she's just lively and takes a moment to focus. Maybe I'm biased but it's frustrating being in a class with 12 week pups and being taught how to sit when she's six months and needs more input now.

Any tips on keeping her calmer would be amazing, I do enrichment stuff, take her for good walks, make sure she has lots of sleep but feel like I must be failing in some way....

Our lab is 15 months but still gives the impression she's never had a day of training when we first get to training classes! Your pup's behaviour sounds like a fairly typical 6 month old lab to me.

The thing to remember is that adolescent behavior can often be more challenging than 12 week old pup behaviour.

I've never done KC classes so don't know what's typical, i.e. not moving up. Can you look for other classes that might stretch her further, e.g. pet gundog classes?

Very common (especially in the lovely labs)

In the same way that you have trained you stays, sit etc you need to train a calm greeting.

So start in low key environment and decide what behaviour you want your dog to do. Sit can work.

So get lab to look at the person from a long distance ask for sit and reward
dog and move away.

Continue to do this but gradually make the distance shorter between your dog and the person. At no point should you dog or the person interact

When you can get really close to the person and your dog stays sitting you are nearly there.

TBH if you are moving onto Bronze good citizen this is a requirement to be able to pass - meet and greet people. Your trainers should help you work on this in class.

Ask for a 121 with your trainer so they can tailor exactly the training you need to do.

@tizwozliz @forumsempronii THANK YOU! Your messages came at the perfect time. I have just been on a walk with little lab and every time she saw a human she just got so excited and distracted. I've worked SO hard training her and it feels like people judge when they see this bouncy black dog!

Is she a working lab?

We have a working cocker who is just like this.

The best thing about it is the enthusiasm. It's so lovely having an enthusiastic dog.

However we actually got asked to leave training courses twice because of this and eventually ended up doing 1:1 training.

It's also an age thing. Ours is over 2 now and a bit like bit calmer but WCS are notorious for being mad!

@SpotOnMyBot You got it! Strong working lines, high energy, high enthusiasm and loves training. I love her energy (most of the time) but walking into a village hall full of chilled out cockerpoos, we stand out a little.....

I'm looking into 1:1 gun dog training now as I think that might be better suited!

It's worth looking for pet gundog classes. They're often a good introduction. It doesn't sound like your pup would stand out in any of the group classes I've been to, so I wouldn't say you definitely need 1 to 1. We always had a bit of a therapy session at the beginning, discussing the highs and lows of the week which was great!

Some gundog trainers are quite old fashioned so you need to do your research if you want to find positive trainers.

She’s 6 months sounds like she’s doing amazing
dogs aren’t robots
keep practising and doing what your doing and you’ll get there

This came up on my Instagram this evening, made me think of this thread :-)
www.instagram.com/reel/ChE93_5lm9x/?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=

I have done the KC bronze and silver awards with mine - who was (often still is) excitable at first sight of other dogs. One of the trainers recommended us all to take the dogs on a long walk before the class that way the dogs are pretty tired so less chance of being hyper and more chance of being compliant - it definitely helped as I worried we wouldn't pass silver but we did!