Playfull Puppy or Stressful Puppy???

[Petros]

We go for walks and there is nobody around but me. so he runs around and eventually comes back and circles around me barking, I growl back at him and try to catch him. otherwise he will be on my ankles with his teeth. But he eventually gives up or gets destracted by something around. He is 5 months old. Is it because he is stressful of all the things around and me giving him freedom? or he wants to play?

Have any of you experienced this?
I do understand many of you have more than one setter which may be helpfull but I have only one.

A week ago I was more stricked with him. demanding all the comands that I give him, not giving one slip up. putting him on a leash before he does something wrong. if he sits on a chair, take it over and sit on it. and all other things. and he seemed to be calm for that whole week. but know again he barks has started to dig the garden and when I am not there he gets away with it.

BTW. what sort of games do you guys play with the dogs. I do play fetch but he doesnt fetch, If i through a stick he will run after it but carry it around with him or lay down and chew it...
any other suggestions?

[Ilona & Gina]

We got two setters, who are now 19 months old. They are our first Irish setters. No, two dogs are not always helpful - quite the opposite, as they can egg each other on. Both were very boisterous, and our boy, Anton, always tried to bite my ankles, especially when I ran away from him so that he could chase me. He grew out of it, but everytime he did it I yelled "ouch!" and walked away. Which meant - you bite - I stop playing. It worked. The same with biting my hands and arms. They bit - I yelled "ouch" and stopped whatever we were doing.

I am sure your puppy will calm down eventually. Being strict helps. We gave ours training twice a day, just for five minutes one session. And we still do training every day, and we will do it all their lives. We notice that when we get slack with training, they think they can run wild. But don't worry, it'll get better! Apart from physical exercise, mental stimulation helps heaps. And we are a lot more relaxed now.

Oh, and garden digging - it's normal. You should have seen our garden :)) Do you have enough space to give him a corner where he can dig as he pleases? Hide food or toys there. It may help.

For the forbidden areas, we put their poop into the holes. They don't like their own poop and stop diggng there. Our garden was like a doggy doo doo minefield.

The sort of games: Hide and seek. We hide behind a tree or bush and they find us and get a treat and lots of praise. Maybe you can play something with your human partner? Position yourself on either end of the hallway and call him? It's fun, as every time he comes to one of you he gets praise and a treat.

Or use an old linnen and screw it into a bundle. Hide tiny food treats or toys in it. You can put it in a shallow laundry basket. He will have fun poking out the treats!

Fetch is something they need to learn (patience is the key virtue here). Anton and Gina finally tiwgged it when they were about nine months old. But we trained it. I stuffed a ball into a sock and added a treat. I tied that sock into a bundle and threw it. They ran! They had to give me the sock, as otherwise, they couldn't get the food out. Mind you, sometimes they chewed the sock to pieces...


There's a lot more you can do - I am sure the longer you live with your darling, the more creative you get. Enjoy!

All the best

Ilona

[Petros]

Thanks for reply... I appreciate you puting good effort to explain

[Petros]

Hi mate... Good point.

As a gundog.... well that is his purpose, and thats what I will be training him for.... I realy do want him to run around due to that reason. So I do let him run while we are in the park. so he doesnt get much leash time. I have trained him to walk on a leash, not very reliably because he gets very destracted by other stuff, especially if we are in new places. he is only 5 months but I know thats not an excuse...

A typical walk would be down the street for 20minutes, if we walk around in new areas, busy roads or places with more people he will start to jump around, so I try to sit him allot and change directions. but if I see it is safe for him to be off leash i let him go.

[Melinda Auld]

It sounds to me like if you growl and try to catch him when he is already running around, he probably thinks you're playing with him, and you'll just be egging him on. The best thing to do would be to stand absolutely still and ignore him when he is over-excited.

I think you must also remember that you said he does come back eventually. And when he does, no matter how angry you are with him, this is the time to praise him for doing what you asked. He came back. He might have done it in his own time, but he did come back. He is only 5 months old - that's very young, and Setters are a very immature breed, mentally and physically, for a long, long time. They can also be quite cocky when around this age! Stop putting so much pressure on him to be perfect. He won't understand, and you will only end up frightening him, or teaching him not to obey you. If he doesn't understand the command, he can't obey you. Does he really know what a recall is? I doubt it!

What training do you do with him? How do you reinforce the good things he does? Do you ignore the bad things? If you pay any attention to him when he doesn't do what you ask, you are only reinforcing the behaviour. Remember, he doesn't speak "human." Any attention to him from you, his loving owner, is a reward to him. It also pays to remember that Irish Setters have long memories when it comes to harsh reprimands. You can ruin a dog for life if you reprimand him too harshly.

There is no way I would be expecting a 5 month old baby puppy to obey every single command, every single time. You won't be able to expect that level of obedience from him for maybe years!! (And being a Setter, you may NEVER get him to obey you every single time.)

A 5 month old puppy has really only one thing on his mind - FUN!! When he doesn't come back, he's having fun. It's up to you to teach him that you are always more fun that whatever it is he has discovered, especially if he is off-lead. If he won't come, maybe you could try running in the other direction while calling him. And when (if!) he does come, reward him with a big game, or even some food, if he likes his food (mine don't, so this never worked with them, but they always respond to toys).

My advice would be to relax your expectations of your baby. Teach him patiently and kindly at home before expecting him to obey off-lead, with all the world to explore.

[Petros]

Melinda you are completly right. he does not obey everithing but he does when he is told. If not I am consistant Until i get the command. then I let him go off. I try to not control him as much as possible, and I do run alway as you said, when he was 3 moths he would wonder of to the end of the beach which is about 1km away and Id be on the other end. but the last few times we have been on the beach (mind you its the most destractive place as there are 1000 dogs there) I wistle and he follows me. If not I leave and he gets anxtious coz Im not there so he looks for me, it is quite funny looking at him then coz he runs in a full speed as if he is a wippet.


Tho it is hard to let everything go pass when he is not behaving. Especially when he chasses other dog's tails. espacially those little toy dogs. the owners get Pi...sed of at me, IT is not so much of a problem with big dogs. so I go there and try and catch him and put him on the lead.

[danielle rowles]

I have 4 dogs, one of which is 8months old, and the puppy comes back to me better than the other 3!!!!
I use a whislte and a pocket of treats, put him on a long lead and let him go off, then blow the whistle and get him to come back and then give him a treat. Eventually you will be able to do this off the lead, but don't just blow the whistle and treat when its time to go home, do it through out your walk and make it fun!!!

[Sue and Cash]

Great ideas danielle. Mine is only 14 weeks old, but today at the dog park I call him back to me every few minutes, no treats, just a hug and a good boy is a high voice and then tell him go play. I want him to know that he has to check with me often but can still go play again. We are only at the dog park about once a week for half an hour since it is so cold out and the others aren't playing so nice with a puppy, but he has to get used to the freedom so he can learn recall. I won't always use treats with him. My happiness has to be his reward many times as well. I have found my setters were all "close" dogs. They naturally stay close to me or have one eye on me when we are in crowds of people and dogs. Petro your dog will learn with patience. Enjoy this time for it goes so fast. I agree you can break their spirit very easily if your not slow and kind in your approach with them.

[Petros]

Today we went for an run-around the local lake we came across a couple of golden retrievers. Achi was playing with them, but after they have gone I called him to come back to get in to the car and saw bit of blood on the ground where he was walking. He had cut his paw pad. not big. about 1 cm. bit bleeding but it stoped . I called the vet they said its hard to stitch it so I should just treat it with clean salted water and monitor it.

I cleaned it the first time. and put it in the crate. he has been in the crate all day. I occasionally take him out for toilet and a bit a 5 minute walk. and I tryed to clean the wound the second time. but as I reached for the leg, he putts an aggressive face like a hungry wolf and mouths on my hand.

bloody hell, is he turning into a agressive ferocious, or just being protective of the wound?
He is not limping or anything like that, he acts normal as he walks, but as sooon as i had the salted water on him he, the second time he did not allow it. It better be the itching from the salt, and not any agressive signs.

this really screws up the whole week.

[danielle rowles]

Petros I have just had a similar thing happen with my puppy, though the wound is on the top of the paw and not on the pad.
Its being cleaned with salt water and he's on anti biotics.
The first day when his paw was swollen he got angry with me if I touched it for too long, he would give a little moan, almost a growl but not quite and then he would go to bite me, though it wasn't really a bite, more telling me that what I was doing hurt and to please stop it! Now, a couple of day on, he's fine with me cleaning it
Its is just the dogs way of telling us that it hurts and they are scared, there's no real aggresion in it. I think in a couple of days your boy will be quite happy for you to go near the paw again.
Still keep trying to clean it and be calm with him and give him lots of praise, if you can, have some one there with you just to keep him still and hold his head while you clean it.

[Petros]

thanks danielle.

I dont give him antibiotics.
the vet sugested those if it had swollen or stoped eating. Then Id had to take him to the vet.

Its worrying having a puppy,
My family makes jokes of me now. "Being a solo father"

[Sue and Cash]

Oh I hope he is well soon. Mine will nip hard on my hands when I am just cleaning his feet off after he comes in. And he isn't injured. Brushing him also makes him bite me hard as well. i think it is just a pup thing and they have to get used to being messed with.

[Petros]

True True....

Same for today. He wouldnt let me touch his paw that is injured. So I managed to clean it once.
Then I tried to brush him, but he got angry again at me, and had that hungry wolf face with the lips up, showing his teeth and biting hard.

Lets hope it is not any aggression signs.