Several of us have new dogs. Puppies for some, older rescue dogs for others. Some of us just want a well-mannered household companion, others have competition plans in various performance venues. Let's use this thread to talk about whatever we're working on.

Our weather has finally warmed up and the snow is melting. That means I can do a little outside leash work with Hunter (four-year-old Labrador Retriever/Beagle mix, recently adopted). For the first week or so that he was here, I would take him outside on a long line, wanting to be extra careful, even though we have a securely fenced yard. (Who knows how high he can jump, right?) He was frequently running to the end of the line and pulling with all his might.

Now, a couple weeks later, he has relaxed quite a bit and can now be taken out to do his business without being on the leash. I still do not just turn him out by himself. Though I am not yet doing formal recalls, he does come to me beautifully with me just calling his name. The biggest problem is getting him to slow down before he plows into me!

Today, I started doing a little on-leash walking outside to see what needs work. Surprisingly, he almost never pulled at all, preferring to simply follow me on a loose lead. In fact, it seems like, if I want to start training formal heeling, I'm going to have more trouble with lagging than with forging. That will be totally new for me!

 Quote: Cheri Grissom

Several of us have new dogs. Puppies for some, older rescue dogs for others. Some of us just want a well-mannered household companion, others have competition plans in various performance venues. Let's use this thread to talk about whatever we're working on.

Our weather has finally warmed up and the snow is melting. That means I can do a little outside leash work with Hunter (four-year-old Labrador Retriever/Beagle mix, recently adopted). For the first week or so that he was here, I would take him outside on a long line, wanting to be extra careful, even though we have a securely fenced yard. (Who knows how high he can jump, right?) He was frequently running to the end of the line and pulling with all his might.

Now, a couple weeks later, he has relaxed quite a bit and can now be taken out to do his business without being on the leash. I still do not just turn him out by himself. Though I am not yet doing formal recalls, he does come to me beautifully with me just calling his name. The biggest problem is getting him to slow down before he plows into me!

Today, I started doing a little on-leash walking outside to see what needs work. Surprisingly, he almost never pulled at all, preferring to simply follow me on a loose lead. In fact, it seems like, if I want to start training formal heeling, I'm going to have more trouble with lagging that with forging. That will be totally new for me!

Love this thread idea, Cheri!

Plus, one of my daughters has a brand-new rescue, Penny, who also falls into Hunter's "more lagging than forging" category, which is new to me too. (Penny both lags and tends to walk right in the middle of Amy's legs.)

When we walked Quincy out of the yard for the first time the other day and yesterday he originally tried to pull ahead with all the barking dogs along side the park walking path. Around my block I would just stop, no commands, and as soon as he released tension on the leash he would start up again and i would repeat the same thing. After about a mile he was walking easily between the wife and me and I would mark that with a "easy" command and reward that.
for a dog that lags try and use a very high treat or Kong/ball on a string if he likes that. You can lure him if needed and reward when he catches up. Being a labxBeagle he may go for the toy. Being the beagle he may go for the nose on the ground searching for all the things Beagles love to find. Possible get him interested in some particular stuffed toy. Making a flirt pole can do wonders with that to get his attention. When he gets interested then reward when he catches up. That could be a treat or possibly the lab side will be happy carrying the toy.

A brief update on Hunter's progress. He's doing great on toenail trimming with the Dremel! I've been working on that very gradually, only doing a few nails at a time, then progressing to a whole foot. Now I'm doing either both hind feet or both front feet at once. He's doing well enough I'm confident I will be able to just do all of them at one time soon.

I'm struggling a bit with the down command. He still does not respond to the spoken command and requires luring. Then once I get him down, he often gets up when I stand up straight. If I stay stooped down near him, he'll stay down, but often ends up getting silly and rolling over on his back.

One thing I have discovered is going to be a big issue is walking on a loose leash anywhere away from home. I was encouraged by how he walks in my own backyard. I even mentioned how he often lags behind instead of pulling ahead, and I thought the lagging might be the easier problem. Well, we took him to a local park for the first time a few days ago, and from the time we got out of the car, he was shooting to the end of the leash and pulling like he was training for the Iditarod. None of the usual methods of discouraging this had any effect. It's not like there were a lot of distractions (other than the new location). In the twenty minutes or so that we were there, we only encountered one other person with a dog.

Same issue here with my 4 1/2 month old Standard Poodle Quincy. I lost a lot of time with him for the first month or two I had him and just now exposing him to the outside world and it distractions. Both Hunter's down and loose leash come down to the same issue. It's all a matter of adding distractions in a place where you can have better control over the distractions. From your back yard start at the front yard. I've take Quincy to the park now three times. I made the mistake to just start walking. Third time I found a quieter place in another park today. I initially sat on a park bench and let him just observe the people walking around. As they came up on us I would start putting him through his basic commands. He has a petty good grasp of sit, down, stand and come while in my yard. I found the point where the people and dogs were just to much distraction and I move further into the open grass areas. The distance helped a lot. I'll gradually move closer to the people and dog walkers as he progresses. Quincy has also shown that he doesn't like the cars coming down our street from behind him. I simply started on the other side with the traffic coming towards us, Extra caution for us because we have no sidewalks in our subdivision but it helped a LOT. Nail trimming! Just take your time. No rushing. I do my Poodles grooming and the first few times on the table he was a pistol. I used a LOT of treats with marker work and started touching him with the Dremal off. Gradually working up to touching him with the grinder on then touching him on the nail with grinder on on. It's all just basic marker training with rewards. We did the same thing when my brother got a 3 yr old Presa that would NOT allow anyone to even play with his feet. Vets and groomers refused to touch him unless they could drug him. Took about 2-3 weeks but it worked. All dogs are different even within a single breed. Learn YOUR dog, be patient and adjust. It will all come.

I will also add that there is no problem with luring. Its just a matter of weaning the dog off the reward gradually.

 Quote: Bob Scott

Same issue here with my 4 1/2 month old Standard Poodle Quincy. I lost a lot of time with him for the first month or two I had him and just now exposing him to the outside world and it distractions. Both Hunter's down and loose leash come down to the same issue. It's all a matter of adding distractions in a place where you can have better control over the distractions. From your back yard start at the front yard. I've take Quincy to the park now three times. I made the mistake to just start walking. Third time I found a quieter place in another park today. I initially sat on a park bench and let him just observe the people walking around. As they came up on us I would start putting him through his basic commands. He has a petty good grasp of sit, down, stand and come while in my yard. I found the point where the people and dogs were just to much distraction and I move further into the open grass areas. The distance helped a lot. I'll gradually move closer to the people and dog walkers as he progresses.

I'm definitely going to use this strategy. No more just going for a walk at the park. He's not ready for that yet. But I will go to the park often and just sit on a picnic table and let him observe, then work on a few basic obedience commands, then maybe stand up and walk around in the area of the picnic table before moving out to the trails, all over a long period of time.

Your Quincy is four and a half months, and my Hunter is about four and a half years, but it sounds like they are at a similar stage in their training!

Another idea that can help your dog adjust to seeing other dogs is outside one of the local pet stores. I plan on that in the next couple of days. I will start as far away as possible while still seeing the dogs come and go from the store. I don't want to load him up by standing right out in front. Doing this on a somewhat regular basis can show progression simply by seeing how you advance closer as the dog adjusts. Get to close and the dog starts ignoring me and I simply back up again. NEVER be afraid to back up in the training!

 Quote: Bob Scott

Another idea that can help your dog adjust to seeing other dogs is outside one of the local pet stores. I plan on that in the next couple of days. I will start as far away as possible while still seeing the dogs come and go from the store. I don't want to load him up by standing right out in front. Doing this on a somewhat regular basis can show progression simply by seeing how you advance closer as the dog adjusts. Get to close and the dog starts ignoring me and I simply back up again. NEVER be afraid to back up in the training!

I'm definitely planning on using this strategy, too. Yesterday, we had to go to Tractor Supply and we did take him in because there were only a couple other cars in the parking lot, so I knew it would be practically empty inside. He seemed a little intimidated at first but relaxed quite a bit when we went down the dog food aisles. I'm starting to think that, whoever he lived with before, they never took him anywhere.

So, in a lot of respects, I'm starting from scratch as if he was a puppy, going nice and slow, introducing new situations but only at his level of comfort. The weather is getting nicer here, so we're going to try to get him out of the house often, going to different parks, different dog-friendly stores, and so on.

I'm signing up for a basic household manners class at my dog training club. The term will start April 15. Before it even starts, though, I will be taking him to the club grounds and getting him used to being there.

Sounds like he will adjust easily to different distractions. That's a huge relief. Hoping to get in a class in the next month or two. The woman that was on my working dog club with me has her own training studio now. She trains in just about every venue I can think of. She and I were the first two to get our Schutzhund III on our dogs in the club we belonged to at that time. It will be a maybe a half hour drive but well worth it. I want a good club/trainer when I am training. Always good to have experienced eyes on you no matter how long you have been training.