When pups go bad!

[TIMMAY 6]

Right until last thursday, i thought i had the most amazing pup in the world! Then she started diving at cars, (which i have started another thread about), but rather than having her retrieve to hand out in the fields, even her recall is totally gone, even in the garden. I know she's only just over 3 months old, and i may have been asking too much of her, but what do i do now?

Basically i've been unsucessfully trying to call her in, but i'm worried that just calling her in while she's bolting about the place, will instill behaviour where she'll just ignore me. I've tried running away from her, but she just seems totally disinterested in me, untill i'm a real distance away, and then she won't come to me, just run around me!

Is this just teenage angst? What should i do now?

 

Cheers

[Guest SJM]

Some pups can go through a "funny phase" Ive had it with a couple of saluki lurcher pups, my present lurcher bitch pup has had a moody stage she was great until she got to about 12 weeks then she went all weird and "spooky" not wanting to come to me, not wagging her tail, not wanting to come anywhere near visitors or strange people and generally a bit withdrawn if there were strange dogs there. I took her a walk with chesters pups, her litter brother and sister and she was overwhelmed by it all and refused to run or play with them, and yet at home she will happily play in the back garden with a mixed pack of dogs of all ages and sizes. You just have to bite your tongue sometimes when they are playing up and focus on the good points and work on them as well as the faults. I just did lots of recall with her for titbits, crouching down and calling her and giving her a treat every time she came to me, and taken her out for walks with my old dog, hes really laid back and she seems to have built confidence up again from being around him. Shes 5 months old now and seems to be coming out of it, pups with saluki in their breeding can be like this sometimes, the grandmother to my pup was a bit like this and she might have taken it from her? I would just advise you to build the bond using anything you can, treats, toys etc, recall is the most important part of a dogs training everything else is built on that, if you can get the pup coming to you for bribes, eventually it will come to you out of habit, or because it wants to. Keep up with the titbits or treats until the pup has a solid recall and comes back every time, first time its called or whistled

[TIMMAY 6]

cheers SJM, tried all that to get her to the point she was at, reckon i'll just try and start at the begining again. But she won't retrieve back to me when i sit in her bed in the kitchen, with all the doors closed like she did at 7 weeks!

[Guest SJM]

Perhaps because she has learned that when your sitting in her bed and she brings to you, it will be taken off her? just a thought. Try retreiving training in a different setting and see if that works, a change is as good as a rest as they say I use a little narrow bit between 2 sheep fences, theres about 4ft of grass path in between the 2 stock fences, I throw the dummy or ball and then run backwards a bit to the end of the fence, the pup cant run out past me so its good for channelling the retreive right back to me. But of course if the pup is at the stage where its totally refusing to retreive back to you no matter what you do, you might have to get a bit crafty and change your tactics. If the pups mouthing or holding the object but just not bringing back, then try putting the pup on a long thin leash and when it mouths the dummy, slowly and gently "reel" it back in to you using the length of cord. Try to do it with as little jerking motion or tugging as possible and use your voice tone to suggest that if the pup retreives it will get a reward. When you get the pup back to you, spend lots of time fussing it verbally and physically before taking the object away from it. Then try again, you should see a slight improvement. Do this maybe 3 times then stop while the pup is showing progress or getting interested. Always leave them wanting more, never sicken them.

 

You can also try attatching the long line to the dummy rather than the pup, and reeling it in that way too, vary it and keep the lessons short and sweet.

 

If the pup is refusing to even mouth the object then you may have over done the training and you will have to go right back to square one and start off with whatever originally sparked the pups interest, whether it was an old sock a tennis ball or whatever, and try and rekindle the desire to retreive from there.

 

Hope that helps

Edited October 28, 2008 by SJM

[TIMMAY 6]

Lifesaver mate cheers! Did the narrow corridor thing to begin with, not working at home now though, but i think i'll try it on the drive to my mates farm, which has thick hedges each side, and a gate at the end to keep his alsations in the yard. She hasn't lost interest in the toys i've been using, just not interested in me having them back! Again thanks for the advice.