Desperate for Advice with unruly lab

I love my dog very much she is a mixed breed with Lab and maybe Huskey, I have had her since January she is close to a year old. I saved her from a shelter. Me and my husbund are close to giving her away we dont want to but she has so many problems. Oh and she has had obediance training.

Her biggest problem is jumping on people we have a 3 yearold son and she jumps on him and who ever else walks through are door. Its a problem becuse theres lots of kids over here. As a side note she dosent jump on me or my husbund.

THe next biggest problem is she is always escapeing and when she dose she wont come. THis happens at least four times a week, and of course she always comes back but on her own accord. THis is why we might have to get rid of her we have a leash law here, but recently shes been chassing cats, and even people. Please help!!!!

 

Is she only jumping during greetings or she also jumping all over the kids to play? Since you have kids over all the time, there should be ample opportunities for you to practice greeting manners. If possible practice with adults or older children first. You can start by putting her on a leash or tether before opening the door. The person entering the house will completely ignore the dog until all four paws are on the floor. Then and only then will she get attention (not so much that she gets excited and begins jumping though). If she is no longer be reinforced for jumping up at all she will abondon this behavior but she needs to be taught an alternitive, she will learn that sitting or having all four paws on the floor gets her what she wants...attention.
How much exercise does she get? She is fairly young an increase in physical exercise may greatly decrease some of the problems you are having, especially jumping up on your 3yr old if she is doing so regularly trying to initiate play.

How is she escaping? Out of the yard, front door? The problem with coming for many dogs is that it ends all the fun. On top of that if when she finally does come she is punished, she is being punished for coming which will cause her to hesitate even more the next time. Coming has to cause good things to happen everytime to be reliable. Its a good idea to practice in the yard, in the house, while on leash in the begining. When you call her and she comes, praise her & treat her and then release her back to what she was doing. Using a clicker may speed things up.

Here is an article on teaching a good recall:
http://clickersolutions.com/articles/2002/recall.htm

If your not confident that you can work with her on your own, it might be a good idea to hire a private trainer that will come to your home and help you work with her on these issues.

 

I agree totally with all of Nern's advice. More behavioral training on a continuing basis is needed. Your dog recognizes you and your husband as authority figures therefore you should be able to teach proper behavior with positive reinforcement.
I have watched the "Dog Whisperer" on the National Geographic channel deal with every problem you mentioned so it is not a hopeless case. As also mentioned your dog may well need more exercise via walks.
Remember, training does not stop once you leave the obedience class. One good training concept is to make your dog EARN everything it receives from you including food, treats, and attention. Doing this reinforces your position as the authority figure the dog needs to follow. An example, my boys know they must sit before they receive their food bowls or any treat.
Don't give up on your pup. She is just unsure of what is expected of her.
Good luck.

 

Take a look at this site: http://www.nerdbook.com/sophia/movies.html

There are some nice movies that show you how to train some good behaviors. Especially look at "sit at doors," "say please by sitting," and "rewarding calm behavior."

How is she escaping from your house? Can you reinforce the fence? Or if she is escaping out a door, can you use baby gates to prevent her from accessing the room with the front door? Or put her on a leash or shut her in a room before opening the door?

Here's a good way to train a very reliable recall. If she already knows to avoid the word "come" then pick a new word. It should be something you don't normally say very often. Get some very high value treats - something she REALLY likes and rarely gets. Usually small bits of hot dog work well. Begin training it by using the word in a situation when you KNOW she will come - say it very happily and excitedly. As soon as she gets to you, start stuffing the treats into her. Feed them to her continuously - one after the other - for an entire MINUTE. Time it - it's really long. Make sure you have enough treats to continue for the whole minute. The treats can be tiny bits as long as she is getting them at a rapid pace.

Do this 3-4 times a day for the first few days. Then you can back off to about 2 times a day and then once and then maybe once every few days. Keep doing it probably once a week or so. Gradually start doing it in more distracting places, putting her on a long line to keep her safe when you are outside.

Then ONLY use that word when you NEED her to come - like she has escaped and is running toward a street or chasing someone, etc. Don't start using it in these situations, though, until she knows what it means and comes to you without question during the practice sessions.

When you use it for real, you may not have treats on you. If this happens, when she comes to you, get really excited and praise her lavishly and keep up the praise as you go together to the kitchen and find something really tasty to give her.

Some good books to read are Pat Miller's "Power of Positive Dog Training" and Melissa Alexander's "Click for Joy."

Please let us know how it goes and if you are having problems with any of these suggestions. It CAN get better - you just need to find what works for your dog and your family.

 

How old was she when she had the obedience training? (how long ago) A lot of people make the mistake of putting their dog through a training course and once its finished they stop enforcing what theyve learned, both dog and owner.
Is she showing any agression? You didnt mention it so Im assuming no.

A quick and easy way to teach her to come back to you is use treats, something like small pieces of chicken, beef, hotdog...something soft and tasty not something like a dog biscuit or chewstick piece. Do a couple of sessions a day for about a week, have your husband and you start at about 3-5 feet apart gradually increasing the distance between you, once she has taken the treat the other person should call her immediately to tehm, take it turns to call her to you (strongly recommend that you only use 2 words, use her name and either 'here' or 'come'...whichever you like)...so what shes learning is when she hears...for example "Here Fido" she gets a small treat, if she doesnt come to you straight away use 'happy puppy noises' get on the floor, whistle...whatever it takes for her to come you, she has to come to you once she comes to you stand up straight (stay relaxed) and have her sit before giving the treat, (if you bend over towards her your body language could be telling her you want to play)hold the treat between your thumb and finger so it takes her a few seconds to eat it all (it only needs to be as big as your fingernail) as she is licking at it and trying to take it from you, pet her head and keep repeating "good here, good (?)Fido", you and your husband should do this at least 10 times a session 2-3 times a day for the first week, by week 2, IF she is now sitting automatically every time she comes to you you can start your son with the same 'trick' Ive seen kids as young as barely 2 do this....its a game! Stand with/behind your son initially and if you are confident that she is behaving well he should be able to do it himself, obviously if there is any risk at all of your son getting hurt that changes things and I would not recommend that he does this. It is important that she gets a treat every time she hears her name or the word youve chosen, we often 'forget' if we are not actually doing the lesson so I usually keep a couple of dry treats readily available up on counter tops or somewhere just in case. By the end of week 2 she should be coming back every single time you call her now, if she isnt your either not doing it often enough....or somehow confusing her, its vital that you do not use her name or yell "come here" with ANY negativity....as someone just said...what dog wants to come back to someone who is angry and is yelling at them...I know I wouldnt if I was a dog...
Week 3 you need to start tapering off the food, call her to you as you have been doing but only give the food every other time, then gradually ever 3 or 4 times, by week 4 she should only be getting a treat about once every session, some people want to never have to give a treat, just want the dog to come back every time without it, personally I dont see the harm in giving the occasional treat, your dogs doing what you want, your probably going to give treats anyway so why not do a little reminder session once a week even....just for the fun of it.

 

Thanks everyone for the advice, I'm going to work on it. Anytime I have been able to get her to come to me I have always made it positive never getting mad at her becuse I figured then she would never come. Overall she is a sweet dog with just some bad habits but shes always been very good around my son infact when he takes treats from him shes so careful its cute to watch. To answer some questions, Zoey only jumps on people when there first coming over, never dose she jump on anyone after that and for the most part all she dose is follow the kids around laying down in what ever room they are in. She gets out of my house when I take her to her kennal, which after five min no matter what I do she can dig out of. She only goes to her kennal for bathroom busness and is never left in there or outside without me being right at the gate. Her Kennel as I call is this part of my yard thats fenced in its pretty good size but if she sees a cat she will dig. SHe also gets out on her way to the kennel she will pull or lunge on her leash and I will lose control of her, yet another way shes escaped is jumping out a window from inside, useing the couch as her spring board, and the final way she gets out is pushing her way through the door when Im going outside or letting someone in.
Zoey has never shown any aggression when she was a small pup she would bite my son playfully but she changed the behavior real quick when she found out that was unacceptable. She never growls or barks at people (fans, and the dryer another story) The only time she barks and growls is at people on scateboards. I take her everywhere I go so shes been around alot of my friends that have dogs and has never been aggresive or met a dog she hasnt liked. She can be a shy dog, like she might have been abused when I got her. Hope I ansered all the questions thanks for the advice.

 

everyone has given great advice, I think she may be bolting is one 20 get to you when you leave, and 2 jsut to escape if that makes sense, I have a dog that was a stray and for about a year and half al she wanted to do was run. , like if you left he door open, gate, whatever, she would take off, d she also had seperation anxiety, where if I went out the front door and had a window open she would jump thru the screen has now been almost 6 years since we have had her and I still work the recall with her, like what was posted. Find what she likes for recall for wylie she is not very food oriented so that as hard traning, I finally found beef jerkey works for her.

as for jumping that can be fixed too. My 100# still does it and he is 8 years old. I was bad and never trained him shame on me!!

It will just take time, sometimes its a lot harder for shelter dogs to adjust and because of this they need more work and for a longer period of time, so dont give up

 

Zoey is a big dog she has lab in her and something else were not sure but she is already bigger then an adult lab, and she is a few months shy of being a yearold.

 

That wonderlust sounds like huskey to me. Digging out and escaping through windows is what a friend of mine's huskey used to do. Sorry though, don't have any advice for ya! Just thought I'd add my two cents worth.

 

Funny you should say Huskey, I asked the vet what she thought she was mixed with and she said Huskey. She has Huskey length hair, and a long tasil that curls up, she prances when she walks, she has two Huskey colerd patches on her but (where deers have white spots) and two more patches on her shoulders, her whole undercoat is a grayish color, we always get comments on how pretty her markings are and questions about what she is mixed with. I wish I knew.

 

Huskies are known for their tendency to escape. They are dogs that love to run, since that is what they were bred for!

Since she only jumps up when a person first comes in, you need to work on that specific situation. Did you watch the movies on the link I gave you? The "sit at the door" one would be helpful. You will need to practice leaving the house and coming in. When she gets to the point that she doesn't jump on you, then you need to find a friend to help you and have the friend ring the doorbell and be invited in so she can practice in that situation.

Some people train their dog to go to a special place when the doorbell rings. You need help for this. Basically, you have someone ring the doorbell. You then call the dog to a specific place - like put a mat down somewhere on the other side of the room or something. Feed the dog a whole bunch of treats while she lays on the mat. The treats have to be something she likes better than jumping on people. You may need to use a leash to begin with. The end result is that if you do this enough, you have taught her the doorbell means to go lay on her mat and she will get treats.

There is a special device that you can get that helps with this, although it's expensive. There are demos of how it works on that movie page also. It is a special bowl that dispenses food one kibble at a time when you push a button on a remote. It makes a sound so the dog learns that when they hear the tone, they run to the bowl to get a treat. You put the bowl at the end of the mat and then when the doorbell rings, you push the button so the dog runs to the mat and lays down to get treats. Keep the treats coming, especially while the dog is learning. The video shows how it works.

If she digs out of her kennel, I wouldn't leave her in it anymore. Take her out on leash and make sure it is secure. Work with her on not pulling on the leash so she can't run off and drag you around. Keep the window closed. Put her on leash or gate her into another room when the doorbell rings so she can't get out the door, or work on training her to sit or go lie down when the doorbell rings.

 

Im going to work on that thats a good idea to train her to laydown I would of never thought of that. THank you so much. By any chance do huskys like to chew??? Or is that the lab in her? She has a million dog toys and bones.....yet she loves eatting shoes, toys, anything she shouldn't have. Its not as big a deal to me as the jumping and escapeing though.

 

Not sure about Huskies, but Labs are like giant goats with drool. They chew on anything and everything!