Should Ellie Go to School?

L

Lahree

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I need opinions. Should Ellie go to rally class on Tuesday or do you think this would be too much for her? The backyard is still in torn apart from the tornado. It will be like that for at least another week. You can imagine how busy the fence and roof repair people are! We go out with Ellie each time she has to go potty. She used to love the backyard, but now she worries and goes as quickly as she can and runs back to the house and wants in. She doesn't ask to play ball or frisbee. She checks to make sure we are with her and are watching her. I am worried about taking her to class and having to deal with working and being around otehr dogs. DH thinks it would be fine, I don't know. Maybe we could take her and if she starts to get too stressed take her home?

Thoughts?
 
We are having a seminar today on transitions in my on line recallers class. If you read clickerexpo posts on Reactive Champion blog that is about what I am learning in the recallers class. Teaching basics are about the same, which is no surprise since it all comes down from Bob Bailey fundamentals of animal training/ anyone wants to go to chicken camp in Sweden?:lol:
Anyway, what are transitions? SG and Linda O-H just returned from World Open in England and described how they were making their transition strategies during the competitions to keep dog just in right state of mind/ arousal to perform well, move from entrance to warm up area, to the stewards to the waiting etc. So transitions are planned and visualized. Transition is moving your dog from point A to point B... door to the car crate to the door of sports facility to the actual room etc...
So what is in your bag of tricks is avail that will keep miss Ellie busy, entertained and engaged with you? Criteria is JOY, can you keep it up? Hand touches, sits and downs, tugging, look at me, sit up pretty, push back and run, spins etc
 
Will this be a new class with new dogs? If it is part of her normal routine then I would keep going. If not, talk to the instructor. For dogs that find a class overwhelming we set them up a distance from the other dogs and recommend the owner spend the first half of the class just watching and doing commands they already know rather than trying to teach them new things. Watching can be a couple of metres away or they can sit in front of the clubhouse or at the fenceline at a big distance - wherever the dog feels safest. Alternatively you could attend for only half the class and leave when/if she starts to look stressed.

It would be a shame not to go at all, even if you are there for only 10min.
 
*Caro said:
Will this be a new class with new dogs? If it is part of her normal routine then I would keep going. If not, talk to the instructor. For dogs that find a class overwhelming we set them up a distance from the other dogs and recommend the owner spend the first half of the class just watching and doing commands they already know rather than trying to teach them new things. Watching can be a couple of metres away or they can sit in front of the clubhouse or at the fenceline at a big distance - wherever the dog feels safest. Alternatively you could attend for only half the class and leave when/if she starts to look stressed.

It would be a shame not to go at all, even if you are there for only 10min.
Click to expand...

This will be her third class with these dogs. Everyone else knows each other in the class and the dogs interact with each other all the time, so some of the dogs are allowed to "rough-house" during breaks (some are even littermates). This upsets Ellie to a degree, but we keep a distance from everyone and most of the class is very good about allowing Ellie room (there are some who are clueless as in most classes, but I just handle it calmly and move Ellie away).

The first class she was much better than the second class. The second class she had a HUGE Rott next to her and Ellie was leary of that dog the whole time. She was antsy and unfocused and stressed. She growled and snapped air at another smaller Rott who got too close (in Ellie's opinion) to her last class. I just moved her away.

The thing is, I am still such a novice at reading subtle dog body language that sometimes I have trouble figuring out until it's too late that Ellie is stressed. I don't know if she actually has any fun at these classes or that she is just stressed the whole time. I know I want her to get used to it and build up her confidence.
 
Since this isn't a new class and you've developed some level of experience with the other dogs and Ellie's responses, I would go. As long as you monitor both Ellie and yourself, I think you'll be fine. If you sense that either of you is approaching a distracted stress level, then you can leave quickly and positively while Ellie still has come control over her responses.
 
Go. If she starts acting crazy at some point, leave and remove her from the situation. But it's good for everyone to get a distraction.

Take every precaution before you go. Maybe have her wear a muzzle if you are really worried. I would recommend talking to your teacher so s/he is aware of the issue. In my opinion, there's no better person to have around than a good doggie teacher in this type of situation.
 
I am worried if your instructors let other dogs come too close to Ms Ellie, tho.
They really need to respect her space, I know with Mister Toffee who is reactive what to do.. So you moving away calmly is awesome, also if the others are rough housing... with one another... take her further away and engage her with you, put your body in front to block her having to look at these out of control dogs (in her opinion, lol) and give her a job to do... other than sit, hahaha. I do a lot of nose touches and he gets cheese galore or tug and play with Mister Toffee and take him outside when people with non reactive dogs and not a care in the world let their dogs run into mine...
Normally my instructor doesn't let this happen, only after class with dogs that I trust is Toffee allowed to play and then he does and it is awesome to watch him happily playing with other dogs, which I thought was never gonna happen :D
 
The class isn't until tonight at 7:30 CST. I will be sure to let y'all know how it went. The most important thing for ME to remember is that I have to be calm and confident!
 
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