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Hi everybody. I own a black Labrador. Before you kick me out of the thread, I read the first post and I think my dog acts more like a primitive breed than like a Labrador. He never does the attention seeking most labs do. He only comes when I call him if he doesn't have something he'd rather be doing. He adores being outdoors and going on runs, he needs a lot of exercise and he could run all day if I wanted to. You literally can't keep him away from the front door if someone is going in or out. He likes new people but is really only interested in smelling them. He plays very rough and his favorite game is the neck biting game. I got him at a shelter and while he looks like a lab he doesn't act like one at all. His coat is a big too shaggy and thick for a lab anyway. I wouldn't have it any other way. My neighbor's attention whore lab mix can kiss my rear end, I picked this one when he was 2 months old specifically because in the visiting room he didn't seem to give a poo poo about me. That's my kinda dog, for some reason. I've been training hi myself and he's now fully socialized for other people and dogs, and has no aggression problems. He's still only 8 months so were working on pulling during runs and respecting new people's space, but he gets better every day. Long story short I'm going to hang out more in this thread because I think my dog fits better there than in whatever labrador thread I'm sure is out there.
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Sep 23, 2010 13:11
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| # ¿ May 5, 2024 18:50 |
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 Here's him as a puppy OMG SO CUTE   Don't be fooled by the wetness. He actually doesn't like water all that much. This was his first day at the lake and the only reason he went in was because he was chasing me and I ran in. Instant he hit the water you could tell he regretted it, and we couldn't get him to go in at all after that. This weekend we took him to the lake again and he ended up going in while chasing another dog, but never just because he wanted it, like I've seen other labradors do.  This is what he looks like when he's gotten outside and doesn't want to come back. I whistle for him and he looks at me pensively for a moment, decides "Nuts to you!" and then just completely ignores me until I chase him down.   In any case he has a big of scruff that most other labs I've seen don't have. His hair is about a 1/2 inch to an inch long and somewhat thick. He has the white fingertips and "soul patch" on his chin, I don't know how common that is in labs. He has very thick hackles that are a different kind of fur from the rest of his body, they almost look like a 5 inch wide stripe going down his back. I'm not really a dog breed expert by far but I've seen other dogs that look exactly like labradors but different sizes. One owner at the park told me her dog was a great dane when it looked just like an oversized labrador to my amateur eye. Plus this is a shelter dog so he's surely a mix of something. I don't think I'll ever get tired of posting pictures of my dog online but you guys probably already have so I'll stop now.
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Sep 23, 2010 22:40
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Sorry, waffle rejected them for being too big. I suppose now that I've scaled them down I could put them on waffle. They're just tinypic though, maybe if you did right click -> view images? Anyway what about him makes you think he's a mix? My neophyte eyes only see labrador.
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Sep 24, 2010 03:21
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Well poo poo, sorry. The service has been getting worse and worse, feel free to suggestion a better one for me. Waffle only works for SA.
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Sep 24, 2010 08:59
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I'll give that a try but:Vino posted:Anyway what about him makes you think he's a mix? My neophyte eyes only see labrador. I'm really interested. I looked at his tongue when I first got him but didn't see any purple so I ruled out chow.
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Sep 24, 2010 12:23
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Yes, I would love to see that.
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Sep 24, 2010 12:39
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The only thing my dog ever asks for is for you to play tug of war with him. I never do it when he asks, only after he's calmed down and is waiting patiently. He loves that drat game though, even if the poor guy has no traction on the hard wood floors, for hilarious effect. Your description of how your dog likes to be in the same room but in a different place sounds a lot like mine. If I'm working at my desk sometimes he'll be at my feet and sometimes in the next room, but as soon as I get up or move around he's following me with his eyes. I'm a first time dog owner and I still find it amazing how much in tune they are to everything you do. I guess not having words, they place a higher importance in body language and nonverbal things. He can tell if I'm going to go outside just by the way I get out of the chair.
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Sep 24, 2010 22:53
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WolfensteinBag posted:We ALWAYS eat in the living room, so we've taught Buddy to go lay in his bed while we eat, and even though he's a little rear end and tries to get away with scooting off or getting a drink of water then sitting closer, every time we make him go back. This. When there's people at the door and he's not allowed to go say hello until he calms down, he'll pretend like he's going to play with his toy and then the moment I stop paying attention he's jumping on our guest.
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Sep 25, 2010 16:52
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Hi I'm still following this thread! On the topic of huskyballs and shibasprawls: Barret will choose to sleep in either one of these positions depending on what day it is. It's always cute/hilarious! Anyhow, I've been trying to teach him to ring the bell when he wants to go outside. I've done some training but he doesn't seem to get it. Currently he goes and scratches at the back door when there's a bell hanging two feet away. If we get near the backdoor then he starts to ring the bell, but if we're not around he just paws the door. It seems that he relates ringing the bell with opening the door, not with having to pee. I used to take the bell outside with me and ring it while he was peeing but he doesn't seem to get that either. I have run out of ideas on how to get him to relate having to pee with ringing the bell, anybody have any ideas?
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Oct 23, 2010 17:50
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He's 9 months and I worked on it from when we first got him at 2 months until about a month ago and he never picked it up. If anybody else has any good ideas I figure I can keep working on it but nothing I've done seems to work.
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Oct 25, 2010 06:41
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poo poo my dad gave him a grape. Is one grape something to worry about? The internet says it can cause permanent damage.
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Nov 3, 2010 22:14
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Oh god he doesn't stop eating. After i finished a muffin I held the wrapper up so he could lick it, but to my surprise he put it in his mouth and didn't let go until he'd swallowed it. I can't imagine that muffin wrappers are dangerous to dogs.
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Nov 4, 2010 03:37
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Wow. He just found a toy that I had written off as being lost for months. Oddly enough it's not squeaky, it's not chewable, it's one of those bouncy balls that you get at conventions that makes blinky light when you bounce it, but for some reason it was one of his favorite toys. edit: Oh no what if the muffin wrapper and the grape mix together in his stomach in an unholy poisonous chemical reaction? I couldn't live with myself! Vino fucked around with this message at 10:34 on Nov 4, 2010 |
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Nov 4, 2010 10:15
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I think the trick to teaching any dog anything is consistency and repetition. If you find the right method and do it enough times, they'll probably get it. I know a lot of people who complained they couldn't teach their dog a trick, and when I pressed them for how they tried they say they did it for a day or two but the dog didn't get it. You need to be more consistent and do it every day for a week, the dog will get it eventually.
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Nov 10, 2010 08:39
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My dog has finally learned to use the bell when going outside! He knew to ring it when we were standing there to let him outside, but when we were in another room he wouldn't ring it. So, we took some time to train him to ring the bell while we were in another room. We did this by first standing in the same room as the bell, and having him ring it, and then slowly backing up until he would ring the bell from the other room. Then the next couple times he had to go we had him use his training and told him to go ring the bell from the other room. Now he goes and rings the bell by himself! Success. Now I just need to get him to stop pulling on the leash and recall when he's outside. If he gets outside the house he gets so excited that he simply stops listening to anything anybody says, so I'm thinking of getting an electronic training collar. I'm also thinking about Ceasar's special collar for this purpose. You know the special long one that keeps the choke at the top? Has anybody used this before? Any thoughts?
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Nov 20, 2010 00:20
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Yeah the buzz is all I want. The reason I haven't bought any already is that (aside from being way too expensive) the only ones I could find didn't have buzzers, only shocks. I'm not in the mood to electrocute my dog. The reason I ask about Ceasar's collar is he always stays by my side if I move the collar up higher on the neck, and that collar seems to be a good way to keep it up there. We've also given him one of those over-the-nose collars and as soon as you put it on he starts behaving. I don't like that over-the-nose one, but it does keep the collar up by the top of the neck. Any time he has something on higher on the neck, it's like he goes into work mode. We go on runs almost every day and when we first set off he pulls like crazy, but later on he chills out. Problem is that first ten minutes. Or if he manages to get out at other times, he goes absolutely crazy and won't come back.
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Nov 20, 2010 03:52
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That's true, I could. He had one before and it liked to fall back down just like a normal collar, but he was a baby then.
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Nov 20, 2010 14:54
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pcczk5NGFbw I said "rump" twice.
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Nov 24, 2010 05:05
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Sister was in town for thanksgiving so I have her pictures of my dog:     I like this one because it looks like he's sticking his tongue out at me in defiance which is exactly what that dumb dog acts like all the time.
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Dec 24, 2010 10:55
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As I was shoveling the driveway I let the dog run around outside. Nobody's driving around and who would steal a dog in this snowfall so I'm not worried about anything happening to him, and he never wanders off very far. I must have been shoveling for an hour and the dog was happy go lucky playing in the snow the whole time. Didn't seem to notice how drat cold it is or show any signs of wanting to go back inside. My friends have dogs that can't stay outside for more than five or ten minutes without crying and trying to get back in the house but this guy has a nice double coat and doesn't notice the cold. He looks like a black labrador but I swear he's just a smaller blacker chow or something.
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Dec 26, 2010 16:52
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Bonerclese posted:We call out his name and tell him to come but instead he stops, looks back, gives a "what up?" look, then continues doing his own thing. I managed to capture this look on camera for my dog one day. I posted it in this thread a few months ago let's see if I can dig it up again: Here it is! From my photodump in this post. I called his name and he's considering whether or not to come back. (He didn't.)
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Dec 31, 2010 22:08
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D94GylyDSQs
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Jan 23, 2011 13:48
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After months of trying many different things to get my dog to stop pulling on the walk I finally caved in and got a prong collar. I didn't want to use a prong collar because it looks downright inhumane and can hurt the dog and I didn't want the walk to be a negative experience, but I'd run out of options. I'd tried using food techniques and he started snubbing the food as soon as he realized there was a condition attached. I tried the gentle leader and he eventually learned how to pull against it too, and he reverted as soon as it came off. A bunch of other stuff too, including Cesar's techniques. The prong collar eventually worked and the key was using it only to correct when he started pulling ahead, alongside my usual snap (I snap at him to discipline him instead of the usual "no") I never let him get so far as to pull against it. Result: with relatively few corrections he stays by my side now and doesn't even try to chase squirrels, although he definitely tries to stare them down. Ideally after a while of training with the prong collar he'll get the idea where he should stay and then I'll be able to take it off. Hopefully.
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Jan 29, 2011 01:54
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Kiri koli posted:Unfortunately a lot of times when a deterrent like a prong collar is removed, the dog is smart enough to notice the difference and can start old behavior again as up saw with the gentle leader. Just like the gentle leader, yes. My hope is that the prong collar can train him well enough so that I can correct him with the regular collar eventually. My other hope is that since he's only a year old (in fact his birthday is on Wednesday) he'll eventually grow out of it. Kiri koli posted:Did you try stopping or turning around and walking in the other direction when your dog pulls? Yes his response was "oh we're going this way now?" *pullpullpull* He doesn't really care which way he goes, he just wants to run there at full speed. Siochain posted:If you want to get around the "conditioning" aspect of it, do what I've started doing...regular collar and prong collar on. I randomly attach one to the leash. This is a good idea, thank you.
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Jan 29, 2011 22:58
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What's wrong with correction based training? I use what works. Sometimes rewards based training works, sometimes correction training works. What would you suggest?
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Jan 30, 2011 00:25
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Kiri koli posted:The problem with correction based training is that a lot of the time people do not utilize it properly. No worries, my friend. I never hurt the dog and only use a correction at the very instant when he's doing something he's not supposed to do to make sure he understands the connection. It's not used when I want him to do something, only when I want him to stop doing something. I don't even use words like "No" but rather I've taught him that snapping means disapproval, and usually that's enough to get him off whatever he's doing. Then other times I'll use treats or affection to encourage behaviors, like where he should sleep, what he can chew, how to behave around food, tricks, yadeya. Corrections sound harsh but it's really not the way I use them. If snapping doesn't work, a soft poke to the chest or ribs lets him know I mean business. There's never any pain involved for the dog or anger involved on my part. I like to give myself as many tools as possible to get a job done, so if corrections work (and don't hurt the dog) there's no reason not to use them. I tried dead stops for a while and it worked for about five seconds after I started moving, and then he'd be off running again in one direction or another. They're also tough for me because usually my walk with the dog is actually a run. I still use them though if the pulling gets really bad, if only to give him a chance to calm down. @rivals I like what you've described. We did this when he was a 3 month puppy and he seemed to respond to it well. When he was smaller and he couldn't outrun me, he'd obviously never pull, he grew into it later. I never thought to go back and try that exercise again. It's food based and he doesn't react very well to that but it's worth a shot, maybe I can make it work. Thank you for the help. I may have seen that post you're talking about by a life less where she links a video with her training her two dogs and drops the leashes at the end. Is that the one you mean?
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Jan 30, 2011 14:34
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I taught mine "put it in my hand" so I don't have to bend over to pick it up. I also trained him that if he puts it on the ground I say, "I can't reach it down there" and he picks it back up. Right now I am enjoying training him not to eat the chicken that is cooling on the counter. It's driving him nuts!
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Mar 1, 2011 06:28
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| # ¿ May 5, 2024 18:50 |
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"Firefox" is an appropriate name for that dog. Why did her previous owners give her up?
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Mar 11, 2011 14:17
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