Novice Obedience Class!?!?

Bailey had his first obedience class this morning. He did pretty well, but was a bit distracted with the other dogs (he wanted to play). It was just basic down, heel, sit, and stay. All of which we've already taught him.

He was barking at a couple other dogs in the class, and one of the instructors came over and mentioned that he looked a bit nervous and suggested I take him out more... Not sure what she meant, as we take Bailey out quite a bit, and he gets to meet a lot of other dogs. I was going to tell her that he's only 6months old, and he wants to play, but decided not to.

I saw our vet tech (her dogs are in an agility class), and Bailey got to meet her 2 shelties. I was surprised to see how big Bailey is compared to her shelties! I knew Bailey was on the big side (~16.5" to the shoulders), but I didn't know how much bigger (I think her dogs were ~14" or so).
 
cisobe55 said:
Bailey had his first obedience class this morning. He did pretty well, but was a bit distracted with the other dogs (he wanted to play). It was just basic down, heel, sit, and stay. All of which we've already taught him.

He was barking at a couple other dogs in the class, and one of the instructors came over and mentioned that he looked a bit nervous and suggested I take him out more... Not sure what she meant, as we take Bailey out quite a bit, and he gets to meet a lot of other dogs. I was going to tell her that he's only 6months old, and he wants to play, but decided not to.

I saw our vet tech (her dogs are in an agility class), and Bailey got to meet her 2 shelties. I was surprised to see how big Bailey is compared to her shelties! I knew Bailey was on the big side (~16.5" to the shoulders), but I didn't know how much bigger (I think her dogs were ~14" or so).
Click to expand...

two inches makes a difference- you wouldn't think so but when you put dogs next to each other :winkgrin:
Dixie is 14 something and Callie is 15 something and even that is noticeable :yes:
Cran is over a year old and when he sees another dog- all he wants to do is play. It's nice when the other people get it- but so many don't :(
 
hehe, ya I was surprised by the size difference. I always thing Bailey is "the small guy" because we're used to the size of our Golden. Bailey is our lapdog :)

Bailey was play bowing too, so i'm not sure why she said he looked nervous...
 
Hi cisobe55,

First off, I think it's fantastic that you are investing time and money into your dogs by bringing them to obedience class. I wanted to give you a bit of information to "chew over" regarding the class you are in.

"I went to sign up Bailey at our local obedience & training club this past Sunday, and they told me he was too old for Puppy Class. The cut off is 5 Months old!"

There usually isn't a formal "cut off" for puppy classes, because dogs mature at different rates. A 5 month old puppy usually still has the attention span of a gnat.

Our Golden failed all the off leash work...

I don't know of any training studio that does off leash healing in a beginner class. Proper healing is an extremely advanced behaviour that requires a strong connection between a dog and a handler. Don't feel badly that your Golden failed the test because of off leash work - it never should have been included as part of a "beginner" class (for liability reasons, if nothing else). Also, the recalls - Goldens are infamous for their friendly nature. Our studio offers a four week course focusing entirely on recalls - it is one of our most popular courses, because by the end the dog will fly past food, people, dogs and toys just to get to you. We teach the basics in our beginner obedience, and continue with our Novice, Advanced Novice, and Trial Ready, and Open classes - but again, don't feel bad - Goldens often have a rough time with recalls.

I don't want to push Bailey too much and have both of us get frustrated.


Follow your gut instinct. Training should be about games, especially for a young dog. You know your dog better than anyone else does, and if your gut is telling you that your dog isn't having fun anymore, it's okay to excuse yourself.

"Our last instructor pushed for training without treats"
This blew my mind. Think of treats as payment. A dog doesn't understand you saying "I need you to learn this for your safety" - s/he can't reason. However, they do understand the work = pay system. When a dog is learning a behaviour, mark the behaviour (click/yes/etc.), and then "pay" the dog with a small treat. Gradually you will phase out these rewards for behaviours that the dog knows and is completely confident in. You shouldn't have to hide your reward system from your trainer. By the way, the reward could also be a pat, play time with a toy, etc. - let the dog choose the reward. What we value isn't always what the dog values. We might prefer to give a pat as the reward, but if a pat doesn't hold as much value for the dog as a treat does, the treat should be used.

The last class started with about 35 people and we broke up into smaller 4-5 person groups...

35 PEOPLE???? How does the instructor give personal time to each student? The maximum number of dogs allowed in our classes is 8. I'm a teacher, so I'm used to dividing my time up, but I still find every single moment of my time is taken up making adjustments, reviewing concepts with people who missed a class, giving feedback...

I was going to tell her that he's only 6months old, and he wants to play, but decided not to.

Go for it. The instructors should have realized this. Some people just don't know how to read dog's body language.

Bottom line: Follow your gut instinct (you obviously care deeply about your dogs), and look out for their best interests. Keep the training fun, don't get frustrated (he really is just a baby), and appreciate the fact that your Golden is friendly and your Sheltie is playful, even if the trainers don't. I would have serious concerns about this dog training facility - you may want to consider exploring other options.
 
Took Bailey out for a walk tonight, and did some training along the way. So far he's doing great (although I forgot to bring along some treats, so he wasn't as motivated as usual, but still did very well). His sit stay, down stay, and stand stay are pretty good, he can do them for at least a minute, but typically longer. His heeling is getting better however he does like to walk a bit wide, so I need to keep reminding him. Sometimes he'll get distracted by things going on around, and will look away (so I will stop, and he will usually stop and come back to me).

He was doing such a great job tonight, and we were reaching a pretty open area in our subdivision, so I put him in a sit stay, dropped the leash by his side, and walked away about 10-12 feet. He stayed, and did a perfect recall right up to me. I had him do another quick sit stay, and I walked around him to see if he would move, but he just sat there and watched me. I stepped back into place with him on my left... I paused a second (still with leash on the ground next to him), then decided to see if he'd heel off leash, so I told him heel, and stepped off and he followed! He was a bit distracted by the leash dragging behind him, but he stayed at my side! I did a quick about face, and he turned and followed. Not wanting to push my luck any further, and thoroughly impressed, I came to a stop, praised the living daylight out of him, and picked up the leash.

We continued and finished our walk, all the way home he pranced at my side completely proud of himself. Sometimes, Bailey just amazes me...
 
Bailey just completed his graduation test today... He ended up being #4 in the class with a score of 114 out of 200...

We messed up during the off leash exercise and lost 50 pts there... We started off fine, though he was healing a bit wide, but was following pretty well. During this part of the test, some lady decided to go sit about 8ft away from the edge of the ring with her dog. I didn't see her when we started the test, but when we did an about face, I saw Bailey's focus snap to her and her dog.. worst part is I knew we were going into the normal to fast pace portion, where we do a short run during healing... We started back, and did the fast pace run, and Bailey continued out of the ring straight to the lady and her dog sitting down :rolleyes2: immediate fail... The lady looks around and sees that everyone else is sitting far back away from the ring and she gets up and moves away after...

We also messed up on the long 3 minute down stay. Bailey was doing really well, especially with all the distractions that started to occur during this test. All the dogs around him got up and moved and their owners went up and collected their dogs.. all during the first minute of the exam... But Bailey stayed in place... Then a dog in the next ring (puppy class graduation) just started to go bonkers barking and jumping up and down... But still Bailey just stayed in his down position... In the last 10 seconds, when we were told to return to our dogs from across the ring, Bailey stood up and took a step towards me...

Oh well, 4th place isn't bad... but under different circumstances (i.e. less distractions) he would have score much much better easily another 50pts which would have put him well beyond the team that got #1 (think they got a 134).

But in the end, we had fun, and we both bonded pretty well... Although. I do have to admit we did slack off quite a bit for the 2nd half of the 11 week class, only training maybe once a week... So in the end it was my fault. I still think Bailey did an awesome job for only being 8.5 months old by graduation time.

Next week we start advanced or intermediate obedience class (the training club we go to isn't 100% sure they will have an intermediate class, so we might join the advanced class).
 
Congratulations!!! Your hard work paid off :D

uhm but I agree completely with 3stars... I must say it does sound odd to me..
the instructor not a fan of treats?? I mean really??? Imagine all the distractions and things in that environment, it's REAL hard work for the dogs. I believe you MUST reward/treat a dog to build the very highest value for yourself and to create a bond stronger than those distractions!
BE THE COOKIE as we discussed in other threads, lol. How can one do that if you aren't encouraged to use all the positive enforcement arsenal at your disposal?
Again, I agree, follow your gut instinct, don't let them jeopardize your relationship with your dogs :smile2: You have so much to give, it's great to see people working with their pups, great job!
I let Toffee decide what he wants to be rewarded with in class, lol Sometimes for speed and drive he needs tug toy as reward, but for accuracy we decide on treats!
 
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