A little advice please

[Ilyena]

Dante is a bit over 7 months now and is overall a happy obedient pup but there are a few things on our walks I'd like some advice on if possible. I've been working quite a bit with him not pulling the leash, and he's starting to understand it fairly good as long as there are no major distractions. So on to the problems..

#1: He's very scent driven. I don't mind him sniffing out some places, but his nose is on the ground nearly the whole walk (about 95% of it). Occasionally he's making 180 degree turns to follow whatever scent his nose picked up, which almost dislocated my shoulder once already. Treats don't mean anything when he has picked up a lovely (in his opinion) scent, and he won't willingly move until he is done sniffing. I tend to keep walking so he has no choice but to follow but I hate 'dragging' him away from whatever he's sniffing. I don't want to let him think he can sniff whatever he wants wherever he wants, though. I want it to be on my terms, not his. How do I get him to understand that?

#2: Being the big boy that he is, he's started marking on our walks. I'd rather not have him do it everywhere outside our garden so I correct it when I'm quick enough (he's fast.. he marks while walking if he has to) and it is slowly getting better, but is it confusing him when he is not allowed to mark when being on leash but can do so freely off-leash (=dragging the longline around, his recall isn't good enough to be let entirely off-leash)? Or is it possible to teach him to not mark when being off-leash?

#3: How do I stop his extreme excitement about people? Children, in particular. I know he is a cavalier and is supposed to love people but whenever he sees anyone, he goes insane. I've told him to sit down, which he sometimes will for a split second before returning to his frantic pulling so he can get to them. I'm usually fast but I'm still too slow to praise the short sit he performs. I've tried to wait it out for him to calm down before praising him, but he never calms down. I've tried to distract him with the yummiest treats he loves and normally does anything for to get his attention back to me, but he won't even look at the treats. It's like I don't even exist.

So I keep asking everyone that wants to pet him to ignore him and back off because I don't want to reinforce his behaviour, so unfortunately he doesn't meet nearly as many people as I would like. I guess it's an evil circle. He meets too few people so he gets too excited when he sees anyone, but he can't meet them unless he behaves himself... I'm seriously considering dropping out of his show classes because of this as it's just not getting any better and I can imagine some dog owners don't approve of a dog in class behaving this way. He doesn't learn anything when he's that busy trying to get to everybody else and I'm too busy to learn anything while trying to control him so he doesn't disturb the others. Help please?

 

[Dixie's Chick]

WOW
These are my thoughts,
I would walk him on a shorter leash, 4ft, it will help you keep his nose off the ground, Take the long line with you for places it ok to have his nose on the ground. the change of leash would be a good signal. I have gone to a 2ft leash for walking, she is fine in off lead places. we work on leaash manners and the longline will be good for off lead ork eventually.

I also think becuse he likes to track you can find a club in your area (?) work with what you got

we play a ton of "come find me" at home, hide the treats etc.

work on your sit/down stays at home where there are less destractions. get to the point where you can walk away ( a little at a time) lots of treats. You can work up to being able to leave a room and come back. This will help make it easier when you meet people. In the meantime, I would put my dog in a sit and step on the leash so he can't jump and get all wiggly on people, he will get better. i also ask people to wait a sec so i can get the dog ready. Most people ar really god about it and will wait to pet your pup.

 

[heartdogs]

#1: He's very scent driven. I don't mind him sniffing out some places, but his nose is on the ground nearly the whole walk (about 95% of it). Occasionally he's making 180 degree turns to follow whatever scent his nose picked up, which almost dislocated my shoulder once already. Treats don't mean anything when he has picked up a lovely (in his opinion) scent, and he won't willingly move until he is done sniffing.
When you say treats don't mean anything, are we talking bacon bits, or are we talking stinky liverwurst. Try upping the ante by using a smelly real-meat treat. Lure him a bit by putting it right up near his nose, then reward him with it when he follows you, and add a cue, like "let's go".

I tend to keep walking so he has no choice but to follow but I hate 'dragging' him away from whatever he's sniffing. I don't want to let him think he can sniff whatever he wants wherever he wants, though. I want it to be on my terms, not his. How do I get him to understand that?
Stop thinking that way, and instead think "how can I make it worth my dog's while to want to be with me?". You can use voice - high pitched tends to interest dogs more, and you can use a lure, as above. What you are really trying to do is be more exciting to the dog than the environment is, at least until you get him to understand that the cue "let's go" means "stop sniffing and come on with me". You can move off in an opposite direction, not exactly dragging, but quickly changing direction so that he is a bit off balance and has to move - then, as he gets to you, reward him with a tidbit for catching up and cue him "let's go".

#2: Being the big boy that he is, he's started marking on our walks. I'd rather not have him do it everywhere outside our garden so I correct it when I'm quick enough (he's fast.. he marks while walking if he has to) and it is slowly getting better, but is it confusing him when he is not allowed to mark when being on leash but can do so freely off-leash (=dragging the longline around, his recall isn't good enough to be let entirely off-leash)? Or is it possible to teach him to not mark when being off-leash?
Is he intact? If so, marking is normal male canine behavior. If he was recently neutered, he may stop on his own, but he may not. It is possible to teach him to urinate on command, and not to urinate otherwise. Think about service dogs. That's mandatory training for them

#3: How do I stop his extreme excitement about people? Children, in particular. I know he is a cavalier and is supposed to love people but whenever he sees anyone, he goes insane. I've told him to sit down, which he sometimes will for a split second before returning to his frantic pulling so he can get to them. I'm usually fast but I'm still too slow to praise the short sit he performs. I've tried to wait it out for him to calm down before praising him, but he never calms down. I've tried to distract him with the yummiest treats he loves and normally does anything for to get his attention back to me, but he won't even look at the treats. It's like I don't even exist.
You cannot train with the distractions present. You must first teach him the cues for quiet behavior in a non-distracting environment and then work up to having kids around. Confirm him in the command first, then generalize it. Google on "fluency" & dogs

So I keep asking everyone that wants to pet him to ignore him and back off because I don't want to reinforce his behaviour, so unfortunately he doesn't meet nearly as many people as I would like. I guess it's an evil circle. He meets too few people so he gets too excited when he sees anyone, but he can't meet them unless he behaves himself... I'm seriously considering dropping out of his show classes because of this as it's just not getting any better and I can imagine some dog owners don't approve of a dog in class behaving this way. He doesn't learn anything when he's that busy trying to get to everybody else and I'm too busy to learn anything while trying to control him so he doesn't disturb the others. Help please?
I would drop out of the show class if he is behaving badly and causing a problem for others - but, I would take a clicker training class. You'd be surprised how fast you might be able to modify his behavior. Even though it was designed for aggressive dogs, you might want to pick up a copy of Emma Parsons' "Click to Calm". It's a step by step training protocol, using the clicker, that helps train a dog to focus on the handler, rather than the environment. HTH

 

[Ilyena]

Dixie, I do keep him on a separate short leash for walking, the longline when he can run, and another leash for potty breaks in the garden. I'll keep working on the sit/stays. He's pretty good at them at home and in our garden but tends to forget everything elsewhere. I'll check up if there's a tracking club in the area. I don't think there is but it's worth looking into as it does make sense to allow him to use his nose in a more appropriate way.

heartdogs, the treats I've tried so far is anything from pieces of hot dogs, raw meat of different kinds, sausage, ham, chicken, liver, bacon, different kinds of (cooked) fish, dog chocolate drops, his regular kibble (worth a try..), the low quality (pedigree probably) kibble he constantly tries to steal from my aunt's dog's food bowl and loves to eat more than his regular good quality food, cheese, hamburgers, apples, carrots, cucumbers, tomatoes, strawberries.. I think I've tried almost everything I've ever seen him eat to even take a step in my direction, and he eats just about everything. It's just not good enough when he sees something he wants to get to. He won't even look at his favourite toys that I tried with when I couldn't think of anything else.

He is intact so I know that has a lot to do with the marking. Most vets here won't neuter dogs before they are a year old and my breeder also asked me to wait. Since he has such a good pedigree, she was hoping she could take him to dog shows to get him titled and possibly later use him for breeding if everything checked out with the health tests but I'm leaning more and more to neutering him anyway.

I'll try out the clicker training again as well. I used the clicker to train the basic commands with him at first but I found it so difficult to manage the clicker, the leash and the treats at the same time that I just stopped using it outside.

He is always insanely rewarded when coming with me. It works okay as long as no people are around or he smells something really interesting. I've been working a lot on 'watch me' and 'follow me' lately and today he really seemed to get it. He looked at me, heeled, came back when asked, and even sat down and waited when seeing an elderly lady at a bike today. Needless to say he got tons of praise and treats that he surprisingly did eat. So maybe he just needs more time and practice.

Thanks for the advice, both of you.

 

[Lilavati]

Sniffing is fun! More importantly, its a key part of canine social behavior. Its like reading gossip column in the newspaper for them. This doesn't mean you have to let him sniff all the time, but its important to understand how important it is to him.

Here's what I did with Sarama:

Picket full of really yumy treats. Give them to her when she stays close. Stop to let her sniff at those places where I KNOW she's going to want to, say 'Go sniff!' Let her have her sniffs, then call her back, treat. If she pulls to get to a sniffy place (either a known one or another) then call her back, even gently pull her back, reward her, then approach the spot again "Go sniff!" . . .the idea was to teach her that she could read her gossip column, but that she had to wait until I gave her permission and had to return after she read the headlines. What I found to be important was that she knew that she WOULD get to sniff . . . just on my terms.

I use "leave it" if she's fascinated by a particular thing, and "lets go!" for general sniffing, staring, etc . . . let's go is lets keep going, and leave it is . . . well . . . leave it alone and come back to me.