It's normal every once in a while to hit bumps in the road when training dogs. Even dogs as perfect as Mr. Indy. His bumps, thus far, have been pretty minor.
He has shown a little bit of fear on a few occasions; when meeting the cat for the first time, when I place a file folder on the ground, and when they started tearing down the house behind mine. He's at the right age for a fear period, which is just a normal developmental period in a dog, usually associated with a period of rapid growth. During fear periods, things that your puppy readily accepted and was familiar with suddenly becomes a scary object. It usually looks something like this; puppy walks past laundry basket every day of his life but, after doing this a zillion times in the past, suddenly he's barking with hackles up at the laundry basket. Most puppies go through these periods unscathed. Occasionally something will stick with a dog or they become fearful in general. The cat and the file folder are pretty classic fear period type reactions. The house being torn down, well, that's just plain scary. But I deal with them in the same way.
I don't force dogs to investigate scary things. I can encourage them, sometimes by touching the scary thing so he sees it's ok. Mostly, though, I just act as normal as possible and tell him it's no big deal. If he's really scared, I might get him at a distance where he can handle it and play with him. Play is a lovely way to get a dog into a different state of mind.
It is pretty easy to get Indy to play even when scary things are happening nearby which tells me this isn't a huge deal for him. Because I didn't push him into investigating a scary thing, he eventually gets over it (like he did with cat who he is now good friends with.
We increased the difficulty level of his "leave it." And it was a challenge for him!
He did really well with treats on the ground.
But now it's time to start working on real life objects.
No easy task! Especially when he was just having a good time with that toy. He did it but needed a little more support to get it done.
It's ok. He's young and mistakes happen. Mistakes can even be good. It gives us a chance to more thoroughly teach him what behavior we want.
We had to back up on his "Go to Mat" command the last couple of days too. We were starting to send him from a distance and now he's back to physical cues to go to his mat. And, no, it's not because Mo is teasing him. It just happens sometimes when puppies are learning. They go on overload and can't remember things they knew well just the other day. Staying consistent with him and following through will help with these little bumps in the road.
Indy, at least you didn't hit the same bump in the road that Pioneer faced today. That whole neuter thing is a distant memory for you.
But it didn't stop him from being sympathetic.
It was a busy day. Rest up, little guy, we've got more work to do tomorrow.
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