What are her options?

This is a good HELP me thread. Abigail is 4 1/2 months old. She is crate trained and tethered to me when loose in the house. We are well bonded. She is smart and when I brought her home at 12 weeks, she immediately started basic training. I was worried about her "stay" until she did a down-stay allowing me to walk 1/2 way across Petco without getting up until called. She nailed it. Her basics are in both word and hand signal. I would easily train her for service dog work if I needed her. The instructor will be testing her for CGC by the time she is 7 1/2 - 8 months old.

My question is what are my options to keep training her? If she was your's, what route would you take her? She can be playing and as soon as kibble comes out, all else is forgotten until the kibble is gone. She isn't all that hip on fetching either, she will bring back the tennis ball but it is more fun to run around it. She knows the commands, just not into games.

For those with a lab about the same age who are going through problems, Abigail is not perfect. LOL She will lunge at the cat when giving the chance. Play rough with her Shih Tzu sister, 1/3 Abigail's size and loves to leave teeth marks when trying to be sweet. *Teething* And she piddles when she meets new people. Nope not perfect. LOL

Thanks

She's just a baby puppy and often baby puppies are "here to serve" and then suddenly they become interested in the rest of the world and unless you continue to work very hard, they are no longer the focused little people pleasers they once were. Some puppies can have better focus and bidability than others, depending on breeding and it sounds like you have done a good job on foundations. I would warn against too much too soon as that means you often have to take a step backwards in your training or start all over again because you poison your cue. Also, if you choose to continue training, be prepared for adolescence in a few months where she may forget everything you taught her for a little bit. It's normal and natural and the best advice is to work through it, but keep sessions short and simple until the pup comes out on the other side. Severity of adolescence depends on the dog.

I would not worry about the kibble; use it as a motivator and something that reinforces the work. Make training fun over time so she learns to enjoy it, even the stuff that isn't that fun for dogs, and eventually you should be getting her working happily without food when you have to. Keep sessions very short and very upbeat and very fun. I still use food with my competition dog and he is three. I don't carry it on my body anymore and amount of rewards vary depending on what we are doing. But he has learned to love work for the sake of work and the food is icing on the cake. Fetch may come later, she is just a baby puppy and sometimes it takes a while. I just got my six year old excited about the chuck-it last year.

Some suggestions would be: Obedience, rally, agility (foundations for now; no jumping for another year or so), nosework, tricks (often as a part of your foundation).

I'm curious to see how we works through her adolescence. I am familiar with slow is fast in training, she seems to enjoy learning. We have been working on some tricks; such as "leave it" with kibble on her feet.

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Originally Posted by Abigails mom

I'm curious to see how we works through her adolescence. I am familiar with slow is fast in training, she seems to enjoy learning. We have been working on some tricks; such as "leave it" with kibble on her feet.

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Your puppy sounds like she is a little soft, and if that is the case, I would recommend low-pressure doing stuff tricks versus higher-pressure doing nothing tricks. Puppies like this need to learn that they can make their own decisions and need us to encourage being active versus more subdued. Not saying don't train impulse control type exercises, but with puppies with softer temperaments, there is a reason why they are easier to teach these things to. Examples are spin left and right, bounce (when she is older, probably), fly around a cone (which then you can fly her around people, which is fun), fetching things and handing them to you (so she can eventually help with laundry, picking up her toys and unpacking groceries), nose touch (which can lead to shutting drawers, pushing small shopping carts, etc.) and a paw touch (or whack).

Well, if it was me and it was me, I would simply look for more trainers to keep going. My boy Hemi was very much the same at 8 months he passed his CGC. We continued to learn and I really honestly found the limiting factor in his training was me. We found dog scouts of america as well and it really changed our lives. Feel free to go tot he website and look at all the badges they offer to look at some of the activities you can do with your dog. Quite frankly the sky is the limit.

Hemi is trained in Wilderness Search and Rescue, he can track and find people lost in the woods or my great nephew hiding from him as a games.
Scent Discrimination, he has several scents he can find, just small scents and hide them anywhere in the house and tell him to go find them. He has competed and titled in this as well.
Agility, he competes regularly in agility and has several ribbon. We prefer CPE over AKC.
Rally and Rally Free, rally is obedience maneuvers set to a course rally free is the same thing with dance moves put in from Canine musical freestyle.
Canine Musical Freestyle, Hemi is titled as a Dancing dog. Also he has participated in a choreographed dance troop with 12 other people and dogs.
Along with his artistic side, he is a painter, yes he paints pictures and has been in art prize. You would have to search the forums here there are several painting posted. He even has an art gallery at the local training center.
Flyball, Dock Diving, Hunt Retreiver, Lure coursing as well.
He helps me around the house, he closes all the drawers and doors I leave open, he helps with laundry and picking up his own toys. I put a rope toy through a laundry basket. I load it up with laundry or he puts all his toys in it and then he drags the basket where it needs to go. Anytime he wants to learn something around the house I just take the time to teach him so he helps.
He is trained as a carriage dog which he gets into a horse carriage with me and I drive and he sits calmly.
Biking dog, as he will run along side me while I am on a bike.
Backpacking, he carries his own pack with water and food and we go out for long hikes.
This summer he is doing Do as I do training and Treibball and Doga (Yoga for humans and dogs together).
At the end of the day he is my snuggly little 90 lb pup that cuddles with me in bed at night.

Now he can not do everything, I have been trying for years to get boating and canoeing and water badges. That's rough, basically he can't stay out of the water. His favorite thing canoeing is launching himself off one side while I get dumped in the water out the other.

Basically though, you have to do things you like as well as Abigail. The funnest thing to me is just working with Hemi it might be the main reason we do so many different things. I in no way shape or form wanted to to Canine Musical freestyle. I am a guy and I don't dance. I got talked into trying it out and Hemi just loved it, he lights up and has so much fun when we are dancing together. So another thing he got me to do.

My advice look at whats around you, look for positive training, have fun and enjoy the ride and bring lots of treats.

I agree- just try classes that sound interesting, and see what works for you and for Abigail. And remember that something she doesn't like at 1, she might love at 4. Although we can't compare to Jeff and Hemi (grin), Kimber and I have a pile of certificates for all the classes we took in her first four years: Puppy K, Obedience I, Obedience II, flyball, rally, agility.

Some were more successful than others. One trainer I just did not like. Another time, the venue turned out to be a PITA to get to, so we only did one class with that group. Kimber did not enjoy rally. We first did agility when she was 2, and she didn't have the patience for it. We tried again when she was four, and it clicked. She absolutely loved it, and we started competing regionally until she was 7, when she had a serious injury (not related to agility).

Have fun!