Hi. I had a polite request that my posts were really hard to understand and off putting, due to the way I write them :) So have created this post to basically write the same things, but with better punctuation :)

First of all, when we are on walks she is just sooooo excited. She pulls constantly. I will stop her and ask for a sit, which 9 times out of ten she will do, but then when asked to walk on again its pulling straight away. I do kkeep repeating the stop and sit the whole way to the field and back but with no change to her pulling. Also if someone walks past, even on the other side of the road she starts getting even more excited and ends up tripping me up alot of the time. She even gets excited with passing cars haha I ask for a sit id I see someone about to pass but she just does not concentrate on me at all when their is someone there, not even for a toy or a treat. She will not even eat a treat whilst outside.

When I take her out I like to be able to let her of the lead for her to run, because she loves it and I love to see her having fun. But there is only one place I can take her, and its a pretty boring place, But anywhere else she plays up rotten. Down this place she does not run of etc. There is only a small number of locals that go down there and they all love lacey and she loves them, and I have no problem getting her back usually. But even down there when its just me and her she constantly finds ways of playing up. Ie strong winds lately have knocked fences down into gardens, and she keeps oing into one garden (its not that easy to get into), she noes she is not allowed but I find her standing there looking at me as if daring me to go get her, to which she then runs in. I cant train with treats as I said she wont touch them when out. I take a toy with me and she will be playing with me but then all of a sudden run of to this garden or to the exit of the field, again as if daring me. I try to keep playing down there as fun as poss and varied but like I said she just randomly runs off and then is not interested anymore.

Training outside ie in local park is good, sit stay come etc (on lead) but again only for about ten mins then looses interest and does not listen to me at all afer then :(

In the house . . when I sit down she straight away will come over and jump on my sofa, automatically. I tell her off and go lie down and she does but again only for a min and then she is back and does not ask to come up just jumps up!! I have tried everytime she comes to sit next to me as soon as i sit down getting up straight away and moving either start doing something or onto the next sofa. This does not work, she just lies there on my sofa not caring becasue she has got what she wants, being able to be on my sofa without getting told 'off' !!

Crate . . I worked up the crate training and she took to it and actually when the house was 'busy' prefered to be in it, he felt as though she could relax in there. But that has all changed now and the separation anxiety has got worse :( I had to take the tray out of the crate becasue of her eating it, and she drags the blankets to te back corner. I tried tucking them under the crate but she still drags them to the back corner some how. I take her for a walk before i leave her to try and get her tired abit, but she noes, and now every walk I take her on she is disstressd the whole way back. And when we get in the house she runs and hides. After i leave her and I come home I let her out of the crate and instead of greeting me, she runs around disstressed and frantically crying. I take her for another walk and on the way home she is the same, becasue she thinks she is being left again.

She has been highly socialised since I had her with other dogs and people. So I no this is not a problem. And I no its not my training wyas that are much of a problem, becasue she takes to training, but then lik I said once she is wise to it she starts rebelling.

Thanks for reading :)

> She pulls constantly. I will stop her and ask for a sit, which 9 times out of ten she will do, but then when asked to walk on again its pulling straight away

From your dogs POV stopping her & asking her to sit has nothing to do with not pulling, she is simply obeying the sit command when you give it - good girl :) - BUT it obviously is not doing anything to tell her you don't want her to pull.

I used the 'tree method' for this, simply stop and stand still when pup pulls, the INSTANT you feel the lead slacken, praise & walk on (I also gave a food reward as food simply rocks my dogs world and as a pup he couldn't care less about verbal praise). You may only get to do a couple of steps before having to stop again, but it is giving the message that pup only gets to move when the lead is slack (ie, pulling gets you nowhere!)

> she keeps oing into one garden (its not that easy to get into), she noes she is not allowed but I find her standing there looking at me as if daring me to go get her, to which she then runs in.

If you think of everything as rewards it's a little easier to get to grips with things. Your dog will do what is MOST rewarding for her, it's up to you (through training) to show her that listening to you/doing as you teach is the MOST rewarding behaviour. Then you work on that untill the behaviour is so ingrained it's an automatic response.

> when I sit down she straight away will come over and jump on my sofa, automatically. I tell her off and go lie down and she does but again only for a min and then she is back and does not ask to come up just jumps up!!

Set her up for success, you know she will try to sit on the sofa, so block her from doing so and reward her for staying on the floor :)

If you can set up things in order to reward your dog for a behaviour, you'll get a better response than from scolding unwanted behaivour that you have allowed to happen. As it is, you are telling your dog what NOT to do (told off for getting on sofa), if you block her from getting on the sofa and reward her for staying on the floor, you are showing her what you WANT her to do - far easier for the dog to get it right :)

Do you do any clicker training with her?  The 300 peck method is brilliant for teaching loose lead walking:

http://www.druidalegsd.karoo.net/300_peck.pdf

Regarding the pulling, there's a variant on the "tree method" described by mastifflover which you might also like to try.  I've done it, and it works, but you have not to mind looking like a nutcase.  It's very simple, when she pulls, turn around and go the other way.  She wants to be in front, she has to speed up to pass you.  As soon as she pulls again, turn round again.  You don't get very far on the walks, at least initially, but the dog wonders what on earth you're doing and learns to pay attention in case you turn again.  When I first got my old lad, he pulled like a train and was a complete nightmare to walk.  It took several sessions, and a permanently red face, but he soon learnt that I might suddenly veer off unexpectedly.

It works with off lead too, dogs learn the routes and paths we take, and predict them and have a good idea of how we go, so if you confuse them by being unpredictable, even hiding (where they can find you) it makes them pay attention.  Combined with the "tree method" (love the name!) you should be able to keep her wondering.  Good luck, anyway.

Thank you all for your replys :) Im deffinatly going to try the 'tree method', on and off the lead :) And the rewarding the behavour you want instead of scolding behavour u dont want sounds really good common sense and I cant believe I never thought of it haha I think in my case 'life rewards' would be better than treat rewards ie no pulling means she is able to continue in the direction of the field etc.

I have done clicker training with her, she learnt all her tricks with help of a clicker :) Like I said she is such a smart dog, and is always trying to outsmart me, maybe I should give her even more to think about to keep her brain active in the right way so she does not have to think ways up herself, which I believe is happening (even though I do loads with her already).

Both of her walks today, I did not take her to the field like I usually do for her to run around, I took her to the local park, to do some on lead work with her aswell as being more entertaining for my son :). She still pulled on the way (I had not red your advice at that time) but in the park we did basic commands (on lead) like sit stay come and then she got a tug of war game with teddy :) and games were fully controlled by me and only happened when she gave an action I had asked for (when she is off lead they are not on my terms as she runs of with toy, even if she drops it and walks away if she catches me going to get it she races over and grabs it), so this time being on lead it was me in control and she took to it fine :) I also let her have a few walks roand just sniffing, but again on my terms as if I wanted to move away from a certain spot she also had to (again off lead this is not the case she only moves on when she wants to), and then we had a run around seen as though she was not getting any off lead exercise. She was really well behaved and there was a couple of times she was fixed looking at something and would not aknowledge me, so in these cases I would then turn and walk away from the distraction (she having to follow) and then ask for the command again :) She took to it anyway :) and looks just as tired now after two walks of that as she would after two walks off lead down the field :) Should I stick to this for a while or does she really need off lead running??

Hi there,

It helps to remember that at adolescence the brain is developing at a mega rate. Despite all your socialisation the world is still a brand new place because her senses and mental abilities have now developed enough to enable her to be much more aware of what is going on around her. Also her body has changed allowing her to do new things she couldn't before ie running faster than you. She is overwhelmed by novelties and her brain cannot keep up, in particular her short term memory. So things just keep dropping in and out and she simply cannot focus for very long. Hope that helps explain a bit about why her obedience is is up and down and what she knows one minute she forgets the next.

Help her by reminding yourself that she can only focus and concentrate in very short bursts. keep up the training in short chunks and try not to get too hung up on the control stuff, that is her trying to outsmart you. She is not being naughty she's simply pushing boundaries as a way of learning, like all teenagers do. If say she runs off with a teddy, just walk away like you've got something better to do. I used to find picking up a stick or leaf or stone, anything really, and oohing and aahing over it, whilst examining it in detail, soon got my dog back...nosiness generally wins out.

Anyway, this is a long way of saying you are not failing as a trainer- it is all normal, she a teenager and will be up and down like a yo-yo and make mistakes and drive you mad. Try not to worry, be consistent and it will all fall into place, once her brain has had a chance to catch up and she is mature.

In regard to the separation anxiety I wonder if something has happened while you were out that has scared the bejesus out of her. Smart ones like her can also be highly sensitive and noise sensitive. I'm thinking high winds, rain that kind of thing? This is the one aspect you may need help with and I would say see a behaviourist now before it develops. If possible you may just have to go right back to retraining separation in tiny time bites, as you would a puppy. You might have to change the crate and where it is- the idea being to rebuild her confidence from scratch and build new associations. It could be that she has strog fear associations with this crate. This is the area I would really advise professional help and quickly. This is not to scare you- many dogs go through a second fear stage in adolescence, but separation anxiety can be hard to treat when really entrenched, so I'd advise getting the right expert help now.

Sorry this is a bit garbled but hope it helps.

Hi Freelancerukuk, I thank you very much as you have really explained things in your post, and i understand more now about the way she is thinking and the stage she is at :)

With the crate, she was fine with it for ages, and now she is not, so could be that she is just testing or something, but on the other hand she shows clear signs of anxiety and I have moved the crate to a different place and still no change :( I have emailed a women about training classes (just waiting for a reply) just for some basics and more socialisaion (with a chance to move up levels and competitions they do aswell) so am really exited about this. Would this help with the anxiety and would this women advise on this or do you think I need someone to come to my home 1 on 1 ??
Another idea I had is to get rid of the crate and get a staire gate and so confine her to one room when I leave the house, preferably the hall way or kitchen so no chance of ripping things up, would you think this would help or just make things worse ??

I would say for this one issue get someone in for a one to one but please make sure they are properly qualified. The person needs to see what is going on and the level of your dog's anxiety. I am erring on the side of caution here because, as I said, separation anxiety can become a very difficult problem.

I'd pull out all the stops now to nip it in the bud. On something like this I think it is better to get an expert in for 1:1 than try to get advice here and attempt different things yourself, because you don't want to make it worse. This should be a properly qualified behaviourist, not just a trainer. Have a look at the APBC  website http://www.apbc.org.uk/ for someone in your area, or the UKRCB http://www.ukrcb.org/.

Good luck

I have just emailed a women called Claire Kirby, pet behavour councellor and trainer :) Found her in my area on the first link you sent me :)

As an owner of a just 11 months old puppy who has 4 older relatives to take the edge off, I can feel your pain, I sometimes wonder if she has ADD, but then it is so easy to forget the others were the same, on that not she is telling em by stares and squeaks that it is about time for our evening walk.

>Hi. I had a polite request that my posts were really hard to understand and off putting, due to the way I write them :-) So have created this post to basically write the same things, but with better punctuation :-)

And it is very much appreciated that you did not take offence!  :-)

And this was so much easier for my ancient eyes.  :-(

Not much point in me adding to what has already been said, as you have had some great advice already. 

Good Luck! :-)

Hi LUrcherOwner, I have a lurcher too and he was a bit of a challenge when he went through the teenage period! He would become very focused on other things while out and I might as well have been a rock on the end of the lead for all the mind he paid me.
If you are getting ten minutes of attention from her to train at the park thats brilliant, just keep plugging away and try and stop the lesson before her attention wanders.
The best thing I ever did with mine was get him addicted to the ball on a rope toy and taught him to retrieve, he loves this beyond words and it gives me a way to let him run but at the same time be in control of the running. He never gets the ball on a rope toy unless we are out so it stays a very high value object and he will recall every time without fail if there is a game of fetch on the cards.
Saying that there are some areas where I just wouldn't let him off lead, there is a certain spot in the woods that is super squirrelly where he once ran off, luckily he came back when I blew my whistle but it was just luck, I always pop him on his lead till we have passed the danger zone now so he doesn't get the chance to practice the running off habit.
Could you keep your girl leashed till you pass the garden with the blown down fence or is she the sort that would run the length of the field to go and have a sniff there?
I found the training articles on clicker solutions to be a brilliant help
http://www.clickersolutions.com/articles/index.htm

I also recently got Jean Donaldsons Train your Dog like a Pro book and have been having great success using the methods there to get some really solid training in with my OHs terrier cross.

Thanks, its good to no im not the only one who finds it challenging :) Your dog sounds lovely, really are nice dogs all roand lurchers :) and yes she would be the type of girl who goes running the length of the field to go and investigate, and more so knowing that I have tried to keep her away from it haha
Thanks for the link i shall enjoy reading it :)