I'm an Agility Instructor :)

Congratulations ! Sounds as though this is going to be extremely rewarding for you... and great to have your teaching insight aboard as well.
 
emmygirl said:
You are going to be an insructor huh? Well I have a question for you: I have an 11 month old pup that has taken 7 obedience classes and 1 fundementals of agility. She did no jumping but she loved everything else. HOWEVER!!! She barks and pulls the entire time she is in there. She barks everytime another dog moves, runs, jumps, does the tunnel or anything. I have gone to the agility club 2 weeks in a row to "practice". Just Keely and one other dog in the entire building. She barks and pulls from the second that dog comes in until after he leaves. It really stresses me out. The ofther dog cannot do his work because of my "noisy girl". I have tried "watch", click and treat, tug with a toy and she jsut keeps on barking and pulling. She did it during the fundemental class for 7 weeks too. (FRUSTRATED TO NO END!) I do not even enjoy it anymore and I don't know how to shake it!
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While I was a mentee with some of our current instructors, we had one class, the foundations class I'm going to be teaching actually, held at the same time as a handling class. In the handling class was a Boarder Collie who is INCREDIBLY spazzy. (A spazzy BC... no, say it isn't so. :lol:)

While the BC was under complete control of his handler (ignoring the issues they were having with navigating the course), the dogs in the 100 class I was helping with became INCREDIBLY stressed. One dog was a lab mix, she was the WORST of the bunch. Constantly barking. Lunging toward the side of the room the BC was on whenever she saw him. Heck, all the BC had to do was ENTER THE BUILDING and it would set the lab mix off. I'm sure the fact that the handler wasn't calm didn't help the situation.

She got the Dobie puppy, that the handler could BARELY control, riled up. The Sheltie in that class was well behaved... until week 2 when the chaos got to him as well. There was a fourth dog that, with the riled up dogs around him, became edgy as well.

To say chaos rained in the class is an understatement.

You've already tried all the basic techniques to correct this. As Sharon mentioned, crate her in a covered crate until its her turn. Reward when she's quiet in the crate. Once she is calm and quiet in the crate, bring her out when it isn't her turn. She barks/lunges, etc., back in the crate. If the crate isn't working, take a page from Victoria Stilwell's book and remove her until she's calm. Take her outside until she calms down and bring her back in.

Please keep in mind, I am NOT a certified dog training. The trainers at our club are all volunteers. The crate and removal ideas is what I would try next if it was my dog.
 
Silaria, congratulations! teaching is another aspect of the job I would never do, more kudos to all of you who can!
emmygirl, my guess such pup could be possibly undersocialized with other dogs... we often underestimate power of the pack and unable to give our pups enough doggie socialization to learn from each other... I would suggest either doggie daycare for couple of weeks or pooch park if you have nearby...
specially if the pup is hyper to begin with, he needs to learn proper doggie etiquette
 
Silaria said:
You've already tried all the basic techniques to correct this. As Sharon mentioned, crate her in a covered crate until its her turn. Reward when she's quiet in the crate. Once she is calm and quiet in the crate, bring her out when it isn't her turn. She barks/lunges, etc., back in the crate. If the crate isn't working, take a page from Victoria Stilwell's book and remove her until she's calm. Take her outside until she calms down and bring her back in.

Please keep in mind, I am NOT a certified dog training. The trainers at our club are all volunteers. The crate and removal ideas is what I would try next if it was my dog.
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All good suggestions. When Diva was in puppy class, she responded to a spray bottle correction. I was sneaky with it as she wasn't paying attention to me. 2 sprays with me playing innocent when she settled and then heavily rewarding quiet did it. Then at home, work, work and work on attention in all situations.

However, nothing revs Diva like agility. I had to put her in her crate while the other dogs were working or she is whining at the top of her lungs. In her crate she is so quiet. No her crate means no work so relax, outside of crate mens work.:smile2:
 
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