Positively | Victoria Stilwell | Forum

Great advice, I'll get hold of a whistle and swap our new recall word to 'whatsthis?' since he already associates that with something good. I know another dog owner in the park says 'chicken fillet!' if his dogs are particularly deaf, so I'll see if I can get Merlin interested the same way!

One question I want to ask about recall. We always used the 'come!' command and heavily rewarded that, however when he hit adolescence I stupidly over used it when really I knew he was going to blow me off. So now that word is on his list of 'things I can ignore'. I've discovered he responds to 'thi...

Oh god yeah, or a learner badge strapped to his harness! He learns too quickly for his(our) own good sometimes. He learnt that he got more chicken when he did a poo on a walk, so he started to just hold it in until he was so insufferable (biting, barking, inability to settle) we took him on a 'poo w...

@Shalista I feel like I should tattoo 'Sorry, I'm trying!' onto my forehead sometimes lol. Luckily for me with people Merlin decides he has to meet he just sits down and looks too cute for them to pass him by. If they still walk past him he just goes all wiggly and waggy and sniffs the general air a...

The mouthing WAS especially worse when we got back, so I assume that was his higher arousal levels playing a part too. He just couldn't settle at all even when exhausted, we had to put him in his playpen just to force downtime so he could relax which we've never had to do before. When he was a pup h...

He did fantastic in a new place generally speaking. His barking in general is getting a little worse. He now consistently barks at nothing when he's just really excited. No pulling or lunging just strolling along barking. We also ended up getting ALOT of practise with dogs whilst on holiday. Our vil...

Oh god, I didn't know that! He still comes back to me when he's really frightened so I hope I haven't lost that trust. His 'safe space' is between my legs, and I've taught him 'peekaboo' and 'hide' and made them really nice places to be. I use it if he's getting over excited or stressed, or just in ...

Just before I go away, I wondered what the best way is to help him with scary things. He is definately in some sort of fear period, and got very frightened by another plastic bag under a car, and a couple coming up behind us with some shopping. Normally he's oblivious to these things. I tend to just...

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I'll watch out for that and try to make sure I don't make him more frustrated. Should I have a time window where I should just walk away? It took him about 30 seconds for him to sit down on his own today. With a dog I want him to pass by, should I reward him when he's passed even if he has been pull...

Just a quick update to make sure I am doing it as I should be. I took him to the park this morning and met the other owners I know. The dogs there were a 9 month old wolfhoundx something (rescue) and a springer, the type of dogs our pup is better with. I kept him on a really short lead between my le...

That makes so much sense, and thinking back on his behaviour, it is likely the very reason he is better when we're street walking than he is everywhere else. On the street walks we have always done just what you described without thinking about it, because that is what our trainer has been teaching ...

We'll stick to the calmer walks for a while and see if it helps him out. It is a shame as he used to love just relaxing with us in those places, or 'cleaning the floor' at the pet shop, but hopefully when his teenage brain has given way to a more adult one he can again. I have heard the first three ...

...but I can tell you that some days OH used to come home from work and ask how Jasper had been and I'd burst into tears :lol: Not just me then? Thank god! Some mornings I retreat into the garden because for some reason its the only place our pup will lay down and relax long enough that I can have ...

Thank you so much for your reply, I really, really, REALLY needed to hear that! I said he was a Spitz x, but he is almost entirely Spitz looking. There are a few German Spitz' who run agility at crufts that are spitting images of his dad, but his mum had straighter softer hair on her double coat so ...