I know there are SO many threads on this, but this is more of a vent thread than anything haha. Gaia is so awful with paying attention when there's exciting things going on around her. When she's at home, she focuses like a laser beam when I pull treats out to work on obedience training, and is perfectly behaved. She's even starting to learn not to pull on the leash when we go for a walk. But when we go to Petsmart, YIKES. Forget about it! She practically levitates off the ground trying to pull out of her harness and get at everything. I can't get her attention even if I wave my hand in front of her face. It's like she zeroes in on everything BUT me.

I know part of it is puppy ADD, and part of it is just husky nature, but OMG. She acts like such a turd in public lol.

I'm still holding out hope that one day she can be well-behaved enough in public to be my service dog, but at this rate, it doesn't even look possible. Fingers crossed that she kind of grows out of it at least somewhat.

/endrant xD

Hahahahaha Lycus is 3 and still does this!

His focus at home is incredible but the second we're in an excited place...forget it.

It has gotten better, but it's still there lol.

Rocio_Caballero wrote:

Hahahahaha Lycus is 3 and still does this!

His focus at home is incredible but the second we're in an excited place...forget it.

It has gotten better, but it's still there lol.

Hahaha, that's comforting. xD

We're having her temperament tested in January, and if she fails that, we will have to get a service dog from the company and pay for that one's training. Worried about that because I don't think we can afford the upkeep for another dog. But eh. C'est la vie. We'll have to find a way to make it work. =/

It gets a bit better as they get older, but once they are at that level it is nearly impossible to bring them down in that environment.  

With the idea that starting off calmly is the key to remaining calm.......we've had to stop bringing Link to some places because there are treats and "bad influence " employees who rile him up and then he would start to default to that excitement level when approaching those places.  I can't tolerate that in public so we stopped going to those places.  

This is one of the more annoying aspects of their stubbornness, for sure.

seattlesibe wrote:

It gets a bit better as they get older, but once they are at that level it is nearly impossible to bring them down in that environment.  

With the idea that starting off calmly is the key to remaining calm.......we've had to stop bringing Link to some places because there are treats and "bad influence " employees who rile him up and then he would start to default to that excitement level when approaching those places.  I can't tolerate that in public so we stopped going to those places.  

This is one of the more annoying aspects of their stubbornness, for sure.

So I would imagine then if I put a "Working: Do not pet" badge on her eventual service dog vest, that might help? The goal is eventually to have her be able to ignore outside stimulus for the most part, and just focus on getting in and out of the grocery store etc when my husband is not around. Work shouldn't be an issue as I have an office job and she can curl up behind my desk out of sight. I'm mainly just wanting her to eventually be trained to help me when hubby is not around to "ground" me. (He grabs my hand to bring me back down when I'm panicking from sensory overload.)

Kenzi is like this when she first gets some place but is settling with age. I can only hope that Keno will eventually settle as well. If they decide to train her there will be a lot of desensitizing to this stuff. When I was taking kenzi to a trainer every week we did a lot of outside work to settle her down in those situations and it did help. The temperament test isn't necessarily going to look at her excitement and write her off. There are many things that they will be looking for. Trainability and eagerness are very important. They will want her to be confident and friendly. Have confidence in her and she will surprise you. They don't expect her to be a perfectly trained dog already. If she was then you wouldn't need them. Good luck on the test!

Karu4Link wrote:

seattlesibe wrote:

It gets a bit better as they get older, but once they are at that level it is nearly impossible to bring them down in that environment.  

With the idea that starting off calmly is the key to remaining calm.......we've had to stop bringing Link to some places because there are treats and "bad influence " employees who rile him up and then he would start to default to that excitement level when approaching those places.  I can't tolerate that in public so we stopped going to those places.  

This is one of the more annoying aspects of their stubbornness, for sure.

So I would imagine then if I put a "Working: Do not pet" badge on her eventual service dog vest, that might help? The goal is eventually to have her be able to ignore outside stimulus for the most part, and just focus on getting in and out of the grocery store etc when my husband is not around. Work shouldn't be an issue as I have an office job and she can curl up behind my desk out of sight. I'm mainly just wanting her to eventually be trained to help me when hubby is not around to "ground" me. (He grabs my hand to bring me back down when I'm panicking from sensory overload.)

Sure. I would hope most people know better not to interact with a clearly marked service dog, but you never know.

A huge part of service dog training is getting them to be oblivious to outside stimulus, and this would include someplace like Petsmart.

I guess my point above was that now, if she gets excited approaching Petsmart and is at a high level of excitement while going inside, once she's inside then that excitement was rewarded and reincforced and the chances of getting her to calm down...especially as a young dog...is extremely slim.

A good, properly trained service dog wouldn't get to that level of excitement. So that would be a focus of her training.

Yeah. We won't be starting service dog training until January since all the trainers are booked, but I guess for now we will just work on distractions at Petsmart. She's so pretty that people tend to swarm her at Petsmart though, which just makes her focus worse. From the second we step out of the car, to the second we get back in the car, she acts like a little turd and seems to get lots of attention from people whether we want it or not lol.

I'd say it's just a maturity issue. You just have to let them grow out of stuff like this. I think instead of planning when certain training landmarks/classes will happen, you need to be more open to accepting where she is developmentally and shape the training around that. Some huskies can pass their cgc at 5 months, some, well, just can't. It doesn't mean they are impossible to train or will never pass, it just means they aren't mature enough to handle it. Yet. Remember all this attention will serve you well down the road, if you're goal is a service dog. At this point the more stimulus she gets to experience in a positive way is a good thing. I know it's really, really annoying, but I think you're looking at it from a different angle.

You don't need her to ignore outside stimulus, you need her to be able to take it in and not react with excitement, bun in order to do that, she needs a different option. By trying to get her to appear calm on the outside, all that energy is going to build up on the inside and it needs to go somewhere. Right now, as a puppy, she has a very low threshold of what she can handle in terms of energy input from other people, which is actually a good thing, she's not building up reactivity, she's letting it out. It is annoying when people swarm and squeal and maw her mouth and then say, 'oh its okay, i don't mind' when she goes nuts and starts biting them. Solution? Patience. When she gets crazy, I'd take her out of the situation with others, ask for basic stuff like 'sit' and then give her an outlet to act crazy with you. Play, run, tug, chase, let her jump on you, have fun being silly... Whatever helps get that charge out, but in a way that directs it toward you, so you become the source of the best feeling for her, release. Eventually, she will start to look to you when things become overstimulating instead of reacting with excitement. That excitement/anxiety will seek a release through you.