Pups!

[gundy89]

I have a 4 1/2 year old yellow lab, my first dog. We work every morning and most evenings. She is doing well with training, but am running into troubles. She would retrieve a dummy all the way to my hand until she started teething. Now she brings it to about 10 feet from me and either 1) veers off and tries to run by or 2) stops, grabs the string and starts playing. I have tried turning and walking/running away, but she tries to run circles from me. I started putting her on the check cord. Sometimes she gets the message and we can get the cord off, sometimes not. Is this something to be worried about at her young age or should I keep her on the check cord for a couple weeks and keep pounding it in? Everything else is going well. She really listens to the whistle well. I can get her to sit and stay, no questions asked. Come is good unless she's in a bad mood. Thanks for all the help.

[DuluthGuy]

A 4.5 year-old teething lab?

[gundy89]

4 1/2 month. Sorry

[marine_man]

It's hard when they're teething.. that's for sure.. what I did was lay off retrieves and work on obedience.. sit, heel, etc....

If you want to continue throwing marks then I would use the check cord over and over until the point is driven home (1 week for sure, even if things are going good)... consistency is the key here...

marine_man

[DuluthGuy]

Do a couple of good fetch’s then call it off, and end training on a positive note.(then play time) Remember, if they think its work, they will not want to do it. Keep it fun!

If you have kids, I bet the dog will come to them with the dummy if they stand still. Why, because they don't make the dog wait when doing a retrieve and they are laughing and giggling the whole time. I am just playing out a scenario I have seen many time with people and training. A 4.5 m the pup has the attention span of an toddler, short!

I assume you know that this is only teething - however, just putting out ideas to consider.

Otherwise follow the advice already giving on working other 'non-mouth' training.

B2