My sister in-law has a female lab that is about 1 1/2 years old. She purchased this dog a year after her other lab drowned in a river from falling through ice in the winter =(. Needless to say, my sister-in-law was heartbroken and admits that when she got her new puppy, she didn't care about training, she just wanted a dog to hug and cuddle with, and boy does her dog cuddle!!!
Now that Sweet Pea is 1 1/2 years old, her lack of training is becoming quite a nuisance. This dog jumps on everyone none stop, scratches people's cars, and can be an all around terror. Luckily, Sweet Pea does not respond at all to "traditional" type training so my sister-in-law is receptive to learning about clicker training, but doesn't like the idea of using treats. Sweet Pea loves to fetch so I was thinking that toys/fetching might work with her. However, she is one of those labs that gets glazy eyed and losses all focus when a ball is near! Does anyone have step by step directions I could email to my sister-in-law to help her teach her dog to listen when fetching? Sweet Pea does know the commands "sit" and "back-up" with I’d guess 70% reliability, and her attention span is close to zero unless if she is searching for a ball (in which case she'll spend all day searching on their 5 acre property for her favorite ball lost in the weeds).
Any ideas are greatly appreciated!!
Now that Sweet Pea is 1 1/2 years old, her lack of training is becoming quite a nuisance. This dog jumps on everyone none stop, scratches people's cars, and can be an all around terror. Luckily, Sweet Pea does not respond at all to "traditional" type training so my sister-in-law is receptive to learning about clicker training, but doesn't like the idea of using treats. Sweet Pea loves to fetch so I was thinking that toys/fetching might work with her. However, she is one of those labs that gets glazy eyed and losses all focus when a ball is near! Does anyone have step by step directions I could email to my sister-in-law to help her teach her dog to listen when fetching? Sweet Pea does know the commands "sit" and "back-up" with I’d guess 70% reliability, and her attention span is close to zero unless if she is searching for a ball (in which case she'll spend all day searching on their 5 acre property for her favorite ball lost in the weeds).
Any ideas are greatly appreciated!!
So if Sweet Pea isn't as obsessive as my little Vito is, I would start by having Sweet Pea do her easiest tricks for the ball. Usually the first thing I work on is eye contact, and (if no treats are to be involved) I would hold the ball out to the side at arms length, ignore dog as dog really tries to get the toy, wait until the dog looks at me for the tiniest bit. As soon as the dog can pry her eyes off of the ball and onto me, click and throw the ball. I feel that this step needs to be done before you can do anything else since the dog needs to know that YOU control the ball and it will not magically be thrown just because it is stared at. This is a very hard exercise with a ball obsessed dog so this step may take some time!