Labrador Check-In

[Halcyon]

I remember a "Puppy Check-In" and a "Senior Check-In" and thought I would start a new thread just to see how we're all doing.

At the moment, Bobby is 11 months old and just a fortnight or so away from his first birthday! He can be a brat at times and make me want to bang my head against the wall. Recall has gone out the window and we have restarted with a new word since everyone is using "come" without him obeying. To be fair, we have been slack with training the recall considering the weather. Manners have also been whisked away and we are working through the humping and reminding him no teeth on skin. We also need to work on greeting people which is a bit difficult since we don't get visitors but I'll find a way. The goal is to get him to accomplish down-stays and polite greetings outside the local supermarket.

We took him to the dog park yesterday and he has officially lost his puppy license!

"Control Unleashed: The Puppy Program" arrived around a week ago and am enjoying it so far. Still working through it but have started on a few attention games. Hopefully we'll see results soon. Loose leash walking is a nightmare. We've been walking up and down the street, stopping, starting and turning around enough to make the whole neighbourhood think we're a bunch of weirdos. I plan on playing attention games tomorrow since he has been doing very well in the house and in the backyard. I was extremely proud of him when I got him to leave and walk away from a loud group of kids on scooters calling, "PUPPY! PUPPY! PUPPY!" as they approached a few weeks ago.

Wow, this update sounds so negative! Haha. On the bright side, behaviour has improved indoors. His counter-surfing is becoming a lot less common and he is pretty mellow indoors now. Despite how big he is, he still thinks he is a little puppy and enjoys being a lapdog. I now understand the complaints of shedding! Yikes. His energy level has sky-rocketed but I've been able to keep up.Two hours at the dog park and a half hour run around in the backyard kept him mellow. Nothing more satisfying then watching him sleep and snore beneath the table as I surf the internet. I've been hiding his meals around the backyard. Unfortunately, it doesn't take him long to track it down no matter where I hide it! It's a shame we don't have nosework classes.

Anyway, that's all for now. School and Bobby have been keeping me busy. Don't get to visit the Lab Board as often now!

How are your Labs?

[furballs]

Rocket has matured tremendously in the last 2 months. He's just over a year now. He's generally a calm dog now, willing to drop socks (his favourite) on command. For us, the calmness has come as a result of 3 things. He goes to doggy daycare for half days 3x week, he's been snipped, and a focus on NILIF. Keeping him tired and focused is the key for him.

His recall is decent, but not great. In the backyard he may ignore us, but up at friend's cottages he comes a-running.

The only major task we have is to keep him calmer when he meets other dogs. We're working on it.

[Georgie]

At 2 and 1/2 years my lab is really showing a massive improvement in training. It's a really nice age to train. A turning point in the last 6 months has been me ensuring she gets maximum FUN by being with me. I treat or clicker every time she looks at me, advances to me, comes without and with calling. I have higher value treats to give whenever she comes when there is a high distraction, eg other dogs or people. I am also including some advanced moves so eventually I can put a small canine freestyle dance together, only for fun and probably only lasting 2-3mins. Today she finally has learnt how to do a circle movement.

Funnily after teaching her not to jump I am now struggling to get her to jump up as a dance move....I think it's going to take some time to teach this move.

[Wrigley'smama]

Wrigley is 4 mos and reading the previous posts has got me a but overwhelmed!! Lol! I know it's going to be a long journey of ups and downs!

Our new thing is going to a dog beach and a nature trail where he can be on the 30 ft leash and get some really good exercise in! He is such a good dog when he's tired!

The counter surfing has started and he can now climb up on the couch. It's a 1000 times a day of "off!". Anything else I should be doing?

[Maxx&Emma]

I think this is one of the toughest ages! Thier manners, (what manners?), hearing is selective recall sucks, and they do, well, what ever they darn well feel like doing a good bit of the time, lol! You really have to be consistent and NILF is very appropriate for many. It is really hard to remember how much they have learned, that they do grow out of this stage with lots of hard work and all the craziness, selective hearing, lack of previously learned manners, etc eventually fades for the most part. I found the more good exercise, physical and mental, that Maxx got, the better he listened/responded. Keeping the training sessions short and frequent is also very helpful. Have faith!

[jessesnewperson]

Jesse is about to start obedience class. He is about 23 months old.

[MightyThor]

Thor is almost 7 months and it sounds like we're in a similar place as furballs. Basic training has gone really well. His recall is great, he has solid stays, drop it is good, and he knows a lot of tricks. Subscribing to the NILIF method has been the key to our success.

But we're still working on the greeting other people and dogs. For the first 2 minutes he is an absolute maniac, straining at the leash, jumping, wiggling, and will not listen to a thing. Once he gets it out of his system he's an angel again and behaves perfectly. The amount of time where he's a bonkers monster has diminished significantly though. It used to go on forever, and now he's back to his normal obedient self within a couple of minutes of meeting someone.

We've been working on trail manners and outdoor behavior around camp since we do so many outdoor activities. He really seems to love it out there, and it's almost like he is on his best behavior so we don't take him home!

[kimbersmom]

Hang in there! Kimber's 9 and she mostly sleeps. A walk in the morning, a walk after work, some fetch in the yard, and she's a happy camper. I remember posting on here with very, very similar stories but by the time she was 3, I was mostly just reading other people's stories!

[MikeLynn]

Mel is 1 year, 1 month, 2 weeks and 2 days old today. Was her Gotcha Day yesterday; she celebrated with a spontaneous and thorough mud bath, to my dismay, and obviously had a lot of fun looking like a horror movie monster Hard to imagine how small she was when I brought her home. Must say we have a great bond, she's really easy to communicate with (there are exceptions every now and then, of course) but she's a real sweetheart. On our early morning off-leash walks we spend some time playing fetch although she is pretty distracted by all those wonderful smells and sounds and then there are quails, and hares and rabbits. Guess I'm pretty lucky because she has almost no prey drive and when she sees a rabbit she either ignores it completely or runs just a few meters and comes back. If that fails I just call, she turns around and returns. We've been through our first heat, first false pregnancy, lost our puppy face and seem to be doing just fine. When I'm not home, she's allowed anywhere except for the living room, but she has no destructive tendencies, so I'm sort of thinking I'll soon leave all the doors open. She prefers to nap in the kitchen anyway

[Murphy030813]

Murphy is 16 months old and we feel like we won the doggy lottery!!! He is such a good, chill doggy. He goes to doggy day care twice a week to burn off some energy, we walk every day and I am slowly introducing some light jogging on a soft trail. We've started agility training and I think he LOVES it! He gives me the best look during agility - "what's next mommy?"

We're so proud of our little boy!!!