Viewing Single Post From: Sally's first 'serious' obedience class

Viewing Single Post From: Sally's first 'serious' obedience class
Laura	Aug 29 2009, 12:24 PM
One of the regulars Posts: 190 Group: Full Members Member #730 Joined: October 14, 2008	I took Sally to her first obedience class in 2 years this week! She never went to puppy classes because I worked evenings when they're all held :rolleyes: she went to two classes a couple of years ago when her aggression towards other dogs was peaking and I was trying everything I could but it didn't work out. For the last 18 months she has been going to agility classes in a nice big indoor riding arena and she has LOVED it! She stays focused on me and ignores the other dogs. We have worked sooo hard the last year on getting her to focus on me rather than other dogs and on getting a really solid 'leave' command. I have to make sure I'm paying attention and always put myself between Sal and other dogs but I know we can pass other dogs and Sally will take the option to avoid them, if they do get in her face she listens to the leave command. So I decided to give obedience another go. Sally loves training and learning new things and is getting rather good at the obedience excersises we've been trying. A lady at agility gave me her trainers number and warned me how strict she was, she sounded lovely on the phone but did make it clear that this was a class for people who wanted to compete or get a high level of obedience, not a social gathering. Fair enough, I can appreciate that. I have very mixed feelings about how it went, which is why I'm going to give it one more try before I make a definite decision: Good points - She is obviously very successful at training, she competes in obedience as do many in her class. She was harsh, but she also gave praise where it was needed. She sat with me during some of the class and answered all my questions and explained the rules in obedience. Some of the dogs seemed to really adore her, so I guess at some point she must make an effort to get to know them. She said she saw potential in Sally, she had observed throughout the session how much attention Sal pays to me even when we are sitting and waiting and recognised how sensitive Sally is to my body language and hand signals (a big relief as I do need help with this, I tend to talk with my hands and wave my hands around a lot and Sally ends up doing a string of tricks instead of just one!!) And the biggest one - despite the small(ish) hall, Sally never even looked at another dog! yey! But... She never asked me anything about Sally, how much training we had done, what methods we used, her temperament. She saw Sally's 'terrierness' as plain bad behaviour (mainly play growling when anything remotely exciting happened, sendaway, retrieve, fast heelwork) I know for a fact that when Sally gets used to the new environment she will calm down and the growling will stop, she doesn't make a noise when we train at home any more. She said that every time Sally growled I should turn my back on her untill she shuts up. I did the first time and it ended up with frenzied barking. As far as I'm concerned, ignoring the growling is carying on with the training as normal, turning my back on her is ignoring the dog not the behaviour isn't it? Ignoring Sally has never had a place in our training, especially not turning my back on her when there are other dogs around. I was really upset and angry at myself for doing that to her after all our training has been based on trust and paying attention to each other. I spoke to the friend who gave me her number and she said to give it a few more weeks as the trainer is always harsh in the beginning to make sure you are serious. She also pointed out that the trainer is a collie person (Sally and this friends dog were the only terriers and non-collies) and that she had to work extra hard in the beginning just to get the trainer to take her seriously but it has been worth it (her little terrier is amazing now, they just won their first obedience competition) I will go next week and stand up for my training methods, hopefully the trainer will see that I'm serious and that Sally can work well and she'll allow a bit more room for different training methods :crossedfingers: wish us luck!


Sally's first 'serious' obedience class · Obedience