Much better

[Cleo2014]

Cleo did much better in class tonight. I did not feed her before hand so she would be more food motivated. She was very interested in the cut up turkey dog and string cheese and that made things so much easier. She did everything she was told and only broke from position two times. There were only 5 dogs tonight so that may have made things much easier with less of a distraction.

However there was much improvement. I also didn't try to make her sit and stay while the instructor was talking like everyone else was. I noticed a lot of dogs were getting burnt out from just doing that. So I just let Cleo do her thing until he was finished instructing and wanted us to work on the commands. No reason to have her constantly being told to do something when she doesn't have to.

Even though it was another two hours, she was no where near burnt out while some of the other dogs were done way before class was over. So very proud of her tonight!

 

[tesslynn]

yikes two hrs????

High fives to Cleo for her improvement. But I don't get why the class is so long, seems to set the group up for failure. Ratio/size is SO important in a learning situation, less distraction, etc.

 

[ghggp]

My goodness... two hours does seem like a long time!

For the past 20 years in all the obedience classes I have attended, I have ever done more than an hour.

Glad it went better today too...
Trainers always told us not to feed dinner the day of class for the better focus on the treats we have.

You are correct... do not make Cleo focus when she does not have to!

CONGRATS!

 

[Cleo2014]

The first 30 minutes the instructor talked about grooming and brought his dog in to show us what we needed to be using and what to look for that may be alarming. (Stuff I already knew and had) So the dogs were not worked the entire two hours, maybe an hour and half. He also takes a lot of time demonstrating each thing we are working on. Class starts at 7:00 EST and ended at 9:00. A few of the other pet parents were like, "I thought class was supposed to be getting shorter..." So not sure why it is running as long as it is. When I signed up, they said it would be a little over an hour. But then thinking about it we do have some pet parents that ask a lot of questions and that may be making class a lot longer than it should be. Oh well. Cleo is finally working for her food and that’s all I care about at the moment. String cheese and hot dogs for the win!

 

[Cara Sandler]

I'm glad that she's working for her food You can also just give her a break during class if she needs it. A few times, when Spirit was having trouble focusing, I took her aside for a short walk or played with her for a couple of minutes. Seemed to help a lot.