Our little Guinness is what we like to think "perfect" (haha), however she does have two habits that we would like to break her of and are at a loss as to what to try next. Her first problem is bolting when she sees another dog in the park. We live in a great town where there are tons of trails and parks where we go everynight to let Guinness run free. Lots of other people use this one particular park we like to frequent. The dogs are always loose in this area.
(A little history) When we first adopted Guinness she was 1 year old. She use to live with another aussie (her sister) who was 1 year older than her and a bully. (one reason why they thought Guinness would be better off with another family) as they often saw her retreat socially because of the treatment from this older dog. Since we've had Guinness (1.5 years now) I have had her in obedience, where she reached advanced trial ready level...also agililty (where she truly excels)...and my husband does flyball with her. You can probably guess that since we have adopted her...her confidence level has skyrocketed! Which of course is a good thing.
Back to the first problem, when we first had her out on loose walks in the beginning, she would stick close to us when she saw another dog and we practically had to coach her with "go say hi"...so she would socialize. Now she sees another dog a football field away and off she goes to investigate at mock speed. When we see other dogs first, we leash her...but if she notices first, she's gone. I don't like yelling my head off for her to come back b/c in this instance, she doesn't listen...and also it tends to scare the other dog owner. Once she investigates, she flys back to us no problem, but she is very protective of me (specifically) not so much my husband, and if the dog follows her back to us, she (sometimes) gets snappy.
The second bad habit she has developed is going too far ahead of us on these trail walks. We are calling for her every few seconds. We want her to have freedom but we want her to know she has a boundary...of how far ahead she can be before she has to come back. How do we train her for this? She does listen to the command "here" and comes back, but then when we release her, she goes off in the bush or way too far ahead again and the game continues.
Any suggestions?.....
Reply With Quote
Bookmarks