State of the Hound

[bunn]

At the moment, at about one and a half years old, Theo's actual recall is OK. He knows about coming when called, he enjoys the 'come and get a treat' game, he loves interaction and he doesn't want to lose me.

BUT - he is easily distracted. If he sees a rabbit, fox, or worst of all, deer, he will go deaf and chase. If he sees a dog, I sometimes can't get him back in time before he greets. He'll come back eventually, but I lose control and this is not OK. If he's all comfy in his bed, he sometimes won't want to get up, even for a treat!

I don't think this is unusual for a dog of this age, particularly a hound, so my plan is to keep working on it with loads of practice, and in the meanwhile do shorter offlead sessions with lots of practice recall-release rather than expecting him to be able to keep his brain together and focussed for the entire walk.

I am bad at this! I want to just bimble along and let him do his thing, but I don't think he's ready for that yet.

Comments

[rekishi]

Had a dachshund ages ago who never learned to listen (made worse by the fact that at the time in her life when she needed to be trained there was a long-lasting family emergency and it was the furthest from anyone's mind). It wasn't a terrible problem because she had a sweet temper otherwise and we could just pick her up if she got too obstinate, but there was no off-leash anything where there was no fence. Once the hunting instinct took over, she went completely deaf to anything. And dachshunds will hunt and face anything no matter the size.

[krait]

Awww, hounds! ♥ They do tend to be good at selective deafness. :D

[narya_flame]

You're not bad at it! You know your dog and you're aware of what he's good at and what he's likely to do in a given situation, which is lightyears ahead of most dog owners I used to encounter in Lancashire.

Oddly, the ones up here seem to be better behaved. (Owners and dogs.)

[narya_flame]

I did some flicking back through your dog training posts, and interestingly, this is about where we are wih Balto at roughly the same age. Recall excellent in most situations, but he would happily run for miles after a deer or hare if I let him, so we have gone back to using the long line on a lot of walks. I too wish I could just bimble along with him like I could when he was six or seven months, and know he would be right with me, but that just isn't where he is at the moment. Engagement games are the order of the day!

[bunn]

Yes, and it's hard work!

I wish I had managed to save Theo from his reactive phase, but I think the combination of life with Rosie and so many dogs struggling with socialisation as the lockdowns loosened up probably made that a tough proposition. At least I feel more confident now that we are coming out of it and are going the right way to a nice calm adult Theo.

Have to admit I think my next dog will probably be at least 5. Whatever issues it comes with won't be as hard as the Great Big Giant Issue of Being a Puppy!

[narya_flame]

Lockdowns have definitely made things harder. When he was a baby, Balto had some duff encounters with mad young adolescents and their clueless owners, and was very shy for a while. With dogs he is now at the other extreme and wants to be friends with ALL of them, in a very energetic and boisterous shepherd-y way that lots of dogs don't appreciate. So that's a different sort of nuisance.

Have to admit I think my next dog will probably be at least 5. Whatever issues it comes with won't be as hard as the Great Big Giant Issue of Being a Puppy!

We tried that, but I think we hit a bad time with rescues; most people were still at home at the time, the mass hand-back of lockdown pups hadn't started, and they could afford to be extremely picky about homes. Maybe next time, with the experience of raising a large active breed pup, we'll look a bit more appealing.