Well I kinda knew what I was doing wrong. And he has suffered as both me and the OH have had family problems.

To say I did Psychology at school - why didn't I think about writing everything down. I do have it all on my laptop for if he stays with my parents and I ask them to clicker train with him so it is written out as if I was talking to duds - so I'm halfway there.

Thanks everyone

The problem is that dogs don't generalize well. So having a perfect recall in the house and on your driveway, won't translate to having a perfect recall in a field or park filled with various distractions. You need to train directly in the environment you are having problems in.

With regards to birds, what exactly is he doing? both Springers and Labs are gundogs so a strong interest in birds and other game is to be expected. Provided he isn't running the for hills every time he spots a bird, is it an issue if he is trailing their scent/hunting/flushing them? my Bo lives to hunt and point birds & other small furries...she doesn't get to work for 'real', so getting to do this on walks satisfies her instincts.

As for ignoring other dogs, that won't happen. He is a young dog of two generally very dog-sociable breeds. Labs in particular are notorious for being difficult at this when young -- they really do just want to play with anything for four legs! when they are young and still very much in training, I find managing this issue to be the easiest solution. Provided you don't have a bolter (a dog that will run towards another that is any distance anyway), walking in wide open areas where you have good all round visibility is a good way to get the dog back under control in time.

Use the whistle! dogs hear our voices all the time and often just completely zone out and switch off to it. No doubt if you have been calling him enough and you have not been getting a response, he has learnt that it is ok to ignore you.

Can you try smaller steps? i.e. a couple of meters off the drive, 100yds down the path etc

Yep, I'd say whenever they 'dont get it' go back a step.

Also, I think Claire mentioned lead walking - Treat with boiled dried liver everytime he looks at you of his own accord, whether he is next to you, ahead of you, catching up with you...instead of a heel, reward him for looking at you, coming to you, waiting on you....then you can start adding the word in when he starts expecting the reward....and so on.

Oh I also found variety worked - so all the favourites, crispy bacon, mature cheddar, dried liver, warm hotdogs, blue cheese, lots of different foods that they dont get too fussy over, smell strong and that they dont get at other times, this way its a wonderful 'what's this, this is great' treat every time. (my boy wasnt into food much hence why he was spoiled with blue cheese and bacon..)

I also agree with Wilbar, in fact Iv done that and it did help.

Louie's reward is a click - treat and a high pitched good boy - all at the same time.

Er why are you using a click AND a word for a secondary reinforcer, only ONE is needed? Either or.

Secondly you NEVER click and treat simultaneously except in the beginning when charging the clicker/word and initial training. there must always be a delay between the secondary and primary reinforcer if you want the dog to move on; this is especially true for example if you want operant conditioning to work where the dog is clicked for the right behaviour but is too far away to immediately reinforce (eg at the end of a 300 yard sendaway).

It sounds like you have got "stuck" (it happens to all of us, even experienced trainers if you are not careful).

I wonder if you are asking too much at once?

What I mean is, are you waiting until the dog actually LOOKS at you with his whole being as in the house?

Sometimes you need to shape this behaviour in the face of distraction so for example with a dog that is very focused on something else the first you thing you need is HUGE amounts of patience (ie do not get tempted to get his attention via lots of noise, body movements etc) and secondly reinforce the TINIEST bit of attention, eg the first thing you might reinforce is stillness, the next might be one ear going back, the next might be slight movement of nearest eyeball, the next a tiny movement of the head, and keep on shaping ie asking for a teeny bit more each time before clicking and rewarding until he gets reinforced ONLY for the final product, but it is a slow process.

As for the comment:

As for ignoring other dogs, that won't happenWell, you might as well pack up now then!

It WILL happen provided a) you want it enough and b) your provide suitable and sufficient reward. There are THOUSANDS of Springer Spaniels and Labradors that ignore other dogs when they are working in the field, on shoots, in Working Trials, Agility, Obedience etc

The other thing to consider is are you using reinforcement correctly? Ie making the reward contingent on the behaviour rather than the behaviour contingent on the reward?


IE are you BRIBING your dog rather than PAYING him?

He runs for the hills whenever he sees one. I don't mind him trailing them - in fact I encourage him to go into the brushes and "find". I have lost my trailing lead also!
He's good at my parent's house because he has plenty of friends - he will run up and sniff a dog then if I say "bye then" he'll turn tail because I've walked off from him.

I tried that today, the thing is at my OH's house there is a main road right off the drive, at my parent's - there are other dogs allowed to roam the streets
And at our new house there is no just off the drive because it goes straight onto a 40mph country lane - ugh not much practising room. But I will try as much as I can at my OH's parents - which at least there is a bit of room.

Thank you everyone

Sure, a trained adult dog. Expecting a 7-8 month old pup to ignore all other dogs, ignore birds & have a perfect recall is IMO asking way too much. One step at a time.

Er yes that is what this thread is about, training and the steps needed.

You start training a dog at 7 weeks old, and incrementally build up expectations and duration.

A very young puppy is perfectly capable of ignoring other dogs whilst being trained provided of course training is done correctly, you do not WAIT until they are a certain age to start training what you eventually want!

If you do, the dog will have spent several months perfecting what you do NOT want, ie bogging off to other dogs!