Almost 7 month old Pup

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JudyN
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Re: Almost 7 month old Pup

Post by JudyN »

Oh, I meant to add - have you tried a flirt pole as a distraction? Something like this, though a longer rope might work better: https://www.etsy.com/uk/listing/5096302 ... gallery_21
Jasper, lurcher, born December 2009
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Re: Almost 7 month old Pup

Post by Lotsaquestions »

He enjoys flirt poles but I need something small that other dogs won't try and grab, since he does this behaviour off lead (with a drag lead for me to take him away). I want to cut out the lead, since I think that is making him resent the lead and increases frustration.

I was worried it was to do with insecurity, he's always been a bit sensitive and we've had to do lots of things with 'kid gloves'. I think I just need to be thankful it is isolated to young intact boys in a certain age range and size, which is fairly straightforward to manage. Apparently his dad is also 'bossy' with boy dogs, so I guess it runs in the family (never aggressive, he runs away if a fight looks like its about to start). I guess I can just hope that he does 'grow out of it'. Did it take long for Jasper to stop?
JudyN
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Re: Almost 7 month old Pup

Post by JudyN »

Squeaky balls/toys? If he likes them in general you could stop using them in other situations and restrict them for 'emergency distraction' so they are very high value.

It took a long time for Jasper to grow out of it and to be honest, he still can have moments now, but he's a lot more restrained. Being a bigger dog, though, he matured a lot more slowly in general than Merlin will. And some of his issues in the early days were extreme - frustration would result in attacks on us, and I would not have been able to intervene when he kicked off if he wasn't muzzled - so although Merlin is similar to him in a lot of ways, I suspect he'll settle down a lot quicker.

Learning to control frustration is a big part of this, I think, and the 'It's Yer Choice' impulse control training will help a lot with that along with all the other training. We used to have major tantrums if we just passed a crust of bread in the gutter which he couldn't get to :shock:
Jasper, lurcher, born December 2009
Shalista
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Re: Almost 7 month old Pup

Post by Shalista »

oh those rascally crusts of bread :wink: i know the feelz though obv to a much lesser degree then either of you have experienced.
Baxter (AKA Bax, Chuckles, Chuckster) Rat Terrier, born 01/16/13
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Re: Almost 7 month old Pup

Post by Lotsaquestions »

He doesn't really like squeaky toys :(. I made a DIY version of that flirt pole you linked into a tug toy, and he went crazy for it in the house. Going to try and see if he likes it outside too. Old sheepskin tied to the end of a braided dishcloth, it won't last 5 mins :lol:

I HOPE he grows out of this soon. Luckily the other boys owner is someone I know (park regular), just the dog is new since he's dogsitting for his nephew. If I had to guess, Merlin would do his growly I'm a big dog impression, then either get told off and he backs off, or they end up playing. I don't really want to find out, though, incase I'm wrong. This has only started to happen in the last month, before that he didn't treat young boys any different to any other dogs. Now there is a definite difference between intact young boys and neutered boys / spayed or unspayed girls.
emmabeth
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Re: Almost 7 month old Pup

Post by emmabeth »

Just catching up with this..

I will read through properly later (read the start and end, missed the middle, bad me!)..

I want to re-iterate - adolescent dogs are a pain in the bum. It goes away in the end, but it might not happen until over 2 years old!

Girls are not much better, mines had almost a year OFF doing anything sensible or worky, because it was too much for her and shes now come back (she walks by my wheelchair, picks stuff up and also will pull the chair if necessary, not to haul me along but just for that fraction of a second when i take my hands off the wheels to reach back and re-grab).... to it brilliantly!

So I do wonder if in your desire to get him right and fix all the things... possibly you are actually doing too much and taking a few steps back and doing next to nothing, socially, might really help him?

Which IMDT trainer are you seeing btw (feel free to PM if you dont want to put it on here! am just nosey in case I know them)
West Midlands based 1-2-1 Training & Behaviour Canine Consultant
Lotsaquestions
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Re: Almost 7 month old Pup

Post by Lotsaquestions »

Thanks Emmabeth,

We used to go with Charlotte at My Happy Dog (who is fantastic) but the journey time (40mins) was too much for Merlin as he's a nervous traveller. Now we're with Ruby at Clickertastic, which we started last Saturday. So far so good with Ruby, she seems great. In her words 'Merlin could be at advanced, if he wasn't so distracted' if that gives you an idea of what his mind is like atm. He spent the entire lesson looking at the other dogs / licking Ruby's face / wiggling around her helpers / chewing up their equipment. :lol: Normally he's not THAT bad, but he had a bad run in with the boxer in the class which made him extra fidgety.

I do worry I am doing too much with him. There have been a few days where we decided we would have a 'stress free' day. Merlin had quiet walks only, played calm games of find it, a bit of fetch to burn off energy, lots of chewies and some trick work. But, he doesn't really do 'stress free', and we found that he would be more restless the next day to go out and meet dogs / go somewhere new / go classes, and his excitement levels at doing these things was turned up to 100. I assumed this was because he needs to go out and do things like that regularly, but maybe (probably) I am wrong.

And that DIY toy, tried it this morning... No interest outside of the house. Had more luck with his ball on a rope :lol:
JudyN
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Re: Almost 7 month old Pup

Post by JudyN »

Just a thought - what food is he on? I'm sure his general excitement levels are just him, but if you mentioned he was on the dogfood equivalent of blue Smarties then a change would be in order.
Jasper, lurcher, born December 2009
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Re: Almost 7 month old Pup

Post by Lotsaquestions »

He eats Fishmonger's Finest white fish and potato for puppies.

For his morning walk he gets a boiled chicken breast so I can practice recall, attention, and trade him for balls he steals from other dogs (I know I shouldn't do this, but if I didn't he would steal them and run away. He does leave them if I notice before he nicks them! He now has the nickname 'Ball boy' because he waits at the sidelines while dogs play fetch, and if a dog drops it and runs off / doesn't bring it back all the way, he brings them back to us. :lol:).

During the day, he gets some ham slices for doing tricks / find its. Or cheese (rare) if we're out of ham.
JudyN
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Re: Almost 7 month old Pup

Post by JudyN »

Jasper, lurcher, born December 2009
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Re: Almost 7 month old Pup

Post by Lotsaquestions »

We tried lots of different dry foods until he finally ate one. He was a picky little sod :lol: Been thinking about swapping him over to Eden fish cuisine (he only eats fish dry food) but haven't been able to convince the partner that the extra expense is worth it, especially when he's likely to turn his nose up at it!
Lotsaquestions
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Re: Almost 7 month old Pup

Post by Lotsaquestions »

Ok. He met up with a young boy terrier he's known for a few months, and Merlin jumped on him and growled. Because Merlin has never started any fights / hurt dogs at all even in play we decided to see where it would go... A few seconds later they were both rolling around the ground playing bitey face, both growling like gremlins!

It is quite nice at the moment, actually. Coincidentally a few other dog owners got boy puppies around the same time as us at our local park, so they've sort of grown up together. After talking it through with each other, we've also decided to keep them intact to help them mature. Merlin is one of the oldest, but the others are catching up and are entering teenagehood and I am seeing everything Merlin did a few months ago surface in them. Increased mouthing, brattiness, being distracted, new behaviours surfacing, more barking, machoness. And, of course, everytime it happens everyone else says 'oh get him done' so its like a little self help club of intact boys, as we tell each other 'it will get better' :lol: They have yet to start the lady dog obsession and teeth chattering at lady wee though, maybe Merlin was just more of a wannabe lothario at that age. :roll:
JudyN
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Re: Almost 7 month old Pup

Post by JudyN »

Yay!! :D
Jasper, lurcher, born December 2009
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Re: Almost 7 month old Pup

Post by Lotsaquestions »

Well I made my original post late August, he's now fast approaching 9 months old and... He's back at it again (the barking and lunging). I have no idea why he's slipped back into his old ways, it is still definately excitement since it is still accompanied by crying and whining and almost supersonic barking. Is it often the case there is regression? We hadn't stopped with the training, we still rewarded him for passing dogs even when he barely acknowledged them. I am assuming just keep doing the rewarding when passing dogs again?

To go with that he's now bolting to see dogs further away. He had a radius of trust with us that we've worked really hard on since he started being a teen, and I knew that dogs outside of this radius we could call him back from (it was a very big radius!). Unfortunately that has totally gone out the window and he bolted to the other side of a very, very large nature reserve to see a Lab. Doubly unfortunate is the Lab was a 14 month old girl and they played together so he was reinforced for it quite heavily :cry:.

He's back on his longline again now, but instead of playing with me like he did before he now just spends his walks at the end of his longline whining to get to dogs that are far away. We've even taken him to places where there are either no dogs at all or very, very few. He still spends the walk at the end of the longline looking for the possibility of a dog, to the point where he doesn't seem to be actually enjoying the walk anymore. He just sits down and watches like a sentry for any four legged movement. EVEN his favourite spiderman ball that he herds around wasn't enough, and my god does he love that ball.

He also has mastered the art of tricking me into thinking he's ignoring the dogs, and I've been fooled twice by this (outwitted by a dog, oh dear). I've taken him ages away from the dog like to the other side of the park, let him off to play ball, and as soon as the lead is unclipped he bolts to see the dog he was pretending to completley ignore before.

So I was wondering if anyone knows how to make myself more interesting to him? Tug just doesn't work anymore. He'll chase something half heartedly but then just go back to watching. We've tried hide and seek, but he looses interest really quickly. If he's in the presence of even one dog he's much happier and plays with me / listens to me more. I bring about 6 different toys out with me to rotate them, I have a treat bag full of liver cake and boiled chicken that every dog but him seems to want, and I run around like a lunatic with my mother hiding behind trees. I just don't know what else to try :cry:
JudyN
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Re: Almost 7 month old Pup

Post by JudyN »

Has this been a gradual regression or has it been since his 'odd' day? If the latter, it could well be related to something external, or a health issue.

If gradual - dogs' testosterone levels (depending on what you read) can peak at about 10 months old. They also consider themselves more grown up and may want to be more independent, go to all-night parties, borrow the car, start dating, and so on... :wink: The general advice is to grit your teeth, do what worked in the past because it will, eventually, work again, and keep a good stock of emergency gin in.
Jasper, lurcher, born December 2009
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