Our 1.5 red lab is so excitable and overstimulated, especially when it comes to other dogs. He LOVES other dogs, and loves to play, and if he can see other dogs, especially if they are playing or running, he is completely fixated on them and whining or pulling towards them. I want sooo badly to get to a point where we can walk or hike off leash in areas where it is permitted, but he will sprint up to any and every dog in eye sight and is still not great at taking a hint if dogs don’t like his energy.
We do longline training sessions 3-4 times a week where we try to go in an area where he can see dogs at a distance and work on recall and commands, he does okay if you are far enough away but you can tell he is still hyper aware of the presence of other dogs and if we were to get closer or let him off lead he would pull or run immediately. He tends to ping pong where he will reach the end of the long line towards the dog and then recall back for a treat but them run right back towards the dog.
Looking for any advice on training routes, because it seems like we are at a plateau with everything we’ve been doing- high value treats, making ourselves the most ”fun” thing and praising lots. Is this just an age thing? Will he grow out of it or be less excitable when he is neutered?
We haven’t yet worked with a professional trainer (just going off of youtube and blogs online so far) but we will be soon- he gets neutered next week so after he is healed we will be registering for training, but needing some help in the meantime. Also advice on if group classes would be good for him to learn obedience around other dogs or if that would just be to overstimulating to start with? (He can walk by another dog on the sidewalk without fulling pulling towards them, but it still fixated on them)
I feel like such a failure for not being able to train a lab when everyone says they are such a trainable dogs 🙁
submitted by /u/jsews
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