Dealing with frustration

[dawn]

Henry is an 18 month show/worker cross. He is a very confident, happy, high energy, persistent dog. However he has a problem with patience and can soon become frustrated, especially when on a lead.

Last night when my OH was chatting to a friend, at the end of a walk, Henry became bored and started chewing the lead, jumping up and eventually mouthing my OH. Is there anyway we can improve his patience? He can do sit and stay for short times off lead, especially if expecting a treat or a throw of a ball.

(our local dog training club suggested shaking the lead and shouting, needless to say this made things worse, so we stopped that!)

[Vicki]

Well, that was some rotten advice your local training club gave you!! 

One of the exercises at the training school we go to, is standing and chatting with someone else in the class, while both dogs are expected to sit or lie patiently.

It sounds like you already have the basics there - so you just to need to keep on working on this and gradually building up the time Henry will wait.

Don't push him too far, too fast. You might start with a five second wait, then reward with a treat, praise or a game. Over time and with practice, this can be increased and increased until eventually he will happily wait for longer periods of time. But there are no short cuts.

There are some great training experts on this site, so hopefully you will get some more good advice from others soon!

[max2011]

Hi, I had a similar problem with Max struggling to relax. Top Barks suggested trying the relaxation protocol which I found really useful. Just search on google for it. Max now happily lies down at the school gates 15 minutes before the kids come out and just waits patiently while I chat to other mums. Hope you find something that helps.

[dawn]

Thanks for your relpies guys.

When I originally posted Henry had just returned from doggy day care, playing with a high energy pup all day. He was consequently hyper. Since then he has been much calmer, and hasn't repeated this impatient behaviour. Maybe doggy daycare isn't for him, although he loves going, he comes back a hyper crazy pup!

However, I am going to look into the relaxation protocol anyway. It'll be good training and you never know when it'll come in handy.  I'll also practice chatting with Henry on a lead, the chatting part shouldn't be difficult!