Osiris (AKA Little Dude) saw ducks for the first time today - Page 1

So, Osiris, who we call Little Dude....who I would like to re name Little Wolf because of his extreme desire to hunt, got to see ducks for the first time today.  I took him and Buck to the lake today (you can't swim in it) to go for a second walk (We walked at 530 in the morning for a couple of miles around our neighborhood).  It's a mile around it, a lot of people walk there as well so I figured it would be a good place to continue his training and get him use to even more things.  This dog is rock solid in new environments, he's now 16 and 1/2 weeks old.  We started walking around and he was walking well on the leash, and then he saw the ducks and he lunged. (I expected that since it was the first time he saw them, there were so many of them and they're huge)  So we would walk back and forth, doing obedience exercises, doing sit, stay, down, come, and a little bit of focused heeling (all of this on leash obviously).  It took a little while since his desire to hunt is so extreme,  and at different points in our walk he would see more ducks and would lunge the first time he'd see them, but it got less and less that when we were getting ready to go back to the car he didn't pay any attention to them as he passed more ducks.  So I decided to do a little more obedience with him close to the ducks and he did great.    The funny thing though......I was just playing with the dogs a few minutes ago here at the house, and I was making weird noises (he still turns his head funny on occasion like a lot of puppies do when they hear a new noise)....Well, yes I'm weird, but I made a noise like a duck, and then he started whining and jumped on me lol.  I think we're going to go back out to the lake tomorrow to go walking and training again.    How did your guys dogs react the first time they saw something like ducks, or other animals when they were at that age?  Little Dude has such a high food drive that pretty much anything becomes non existant when you have a treat.  It helps a ton in the foundation work of all of our training.


 I'm also looking for other places to possibly take him, but I'm blank on ideas.  We've done a ton of different stores, vets, now the lake, but haven't been able to walk around main street in quite some time due to the reconstruction of everything there. (It should be finished in November they said).  When it cools down just a little more we will be going to the state park here (he's been like one time as a pup and did great) since a lot of people will be out there walking dogs, playing, and enjoying the weather it will be another good area to work on his training with all of the distractions.  Only on certain occasions do I let people pet him (we typically just train around people which seems to help his confidence a ton) and he always enjoys it.  Anyways, I'm looking for other ideas of places to take him. Places I can take him and get him use to training at.  Any ideas? Like I said, we've done stuff like Lowes, different banks,  lots of gaming and computer stores,  Tractor supply, Office Depot, and the list goes on and on.  Where all do you guys take your dogs other than stores? We'll do walks around certain parts of town when it cools down more, and Main Street (which is where pretty much any and everyone is at so it's always busy and a great area to train) when they finish working on it.

Kudo's to you;  if you feel really confident about his obedience and HIS confidence, try Wal Mart.  Beware it could unglue him.  But really builds confidence as long as the experience is good.  BOL  NAn  I am currently working with a Samoyed bitch, 2 years old; we are doing the same;  did park last week only saw the ducks from a distance and I don't think she actually connected but lunged the the running bunnys'.  Too funny;  hold on for dear life.  Nan

Do you mean the parking lot at Wal Mart? People know me around this town, but there is no way I could take him inside the store itself. I've been allowed in certain stores because just because of all the people that know me and my dogs, I doubt I could get in that store though if that's what you mean. I could definitely try the parking lot itself though.

Looks like you've been every  where there is to go!  Good!  I would just continue to take him the places that you might frequent.  ie, the road.  If your traveling on the road (sidewalk) there is no telling what you could encounter.   Police cars (w/sirens or honks)  Fire trucks, vagrants, eccentrics, etc. etc.  there's not telling what you'll get on the road.    Different roads.  Don't always take the same route.  Drive to another part of town, to the next town over and walk there.

And always have high value treats on hand!  You seem to know what your doing  so I won't elaborate..you know what I'm talking about.

Dunbar Cave has a 1.9 mile trail and it's different than walking the pup out in the open, joggers run up from behind, it's shaded and a dirt path so it's nice for the dogs. The people I've passed with dogs seem to control their dogs, I haven't run into anyone with crazy, out of control dogs, which in my experience, is unusual. My only complaint is that sometime people don't pick up after their dogs even though at the beginning of the trail they provide bags for that purpose.

Where is Dunbar Cave at?

JRANSOM, you just made me think of a few other roads that I had completely forgot about when you mentioned other roads.  There are some good areas for this, on a road called College Street.  Not a lot of people (even though it does have sidewalks), but tons of constant traffic, and a lot of times the police or fire trucks go by there with their sirens blaring.  In fact, the dogs are indoors and have cooled down from our early morning walk (Went at 5:45) in our neighborhood, and I think I may go for that street today instead of the lake again.   I'll head out here in around 30 minutes, and obviously I won't be able to do a ton of walking due to his age and the fact that we already did one walk and it will be getting warm today, but I know his limits.  Not to mention he enjoys going places, and he likes going for car rides as well.  Buck has helped tremendously with the puppy.  Taking Buck with us, no matter what environment we're in, or whats around us, Little Dude acts like he's been there a thousand times.  And just goes to work doing what I ask, or just walking along with us.   This coming week isn't suppose to be as hot as it has been, but I'll be so glad when it's September and starts to cool down.

Dunbar cave rd is off of Wilma Rudolph in Clarksville What I like about DC trails is that it's really shady, lots of scurrying noises, little animals, it's a dirt trail that has different things like roots and rocks, the path changes from wide to narrow, winding, uphill, downhill- a very different enviroment than walking in a neighborhood or around an open lake and another experience for a pup just learning.