Dog Community

Squeezing water from a stone

Posted : 5/15/2008 1:44:11 PM

AKA Eko and I attend obedience class. Stick out tongue

I had intended to start group classes when he was 5 months old, but he ended up with almost a month of crate rest instead. He's 6 months now, and I'm finished with school for the semester, so we went to a beginning obedience class last night.

*shakes head*

The dogs were all pretty goofy, so his badness didn't stand out, but he was stubborn and not at all helpful! He knows "sit" and "down," but you'd never have known it last night. He thought class was boring, which it kind of was, and by 30 minutes in he was done and starting to tune me out as opposed to calmly ignoring my commands. So I deviated from the group a little to regain his cooperation, and that helped.

I have to say, he had a point. One hour of heeling in a circle, pausing for sits and then downs, and heeling again does get old. I'd have more sympathy for him if he'd cooperated in the beginning. Snort.

samshine

Posted : 5/15/2008 2:10:03 PM

Oh, my dogs can never work for an hour! That is crazy if you think about it. Mine don't like a lot of repetition either. So I use my own judgement. We do the exercise a few times, and then take a break. I let my dog look around, rest, or we play a little game, do a different exercise, etc. I don't think I ever ask them to focus for more than five minutes at a time, maybe less for a puppy.

Too much work is counter productive, as you began to see. Do shorter sessions within the class and you will have a happy worker!

FourIsCompany

Posted : 5/15/2008 2:11:23 PM

Dog_ma
One hour of heeling in a circle, pausing for sits and then downs, and heeling again does get old.

You must be in our class! LOL It's great you're taking him to class.

You might try not feeding him his regular meal until after class and playing with them about an hour before class so he's not fidgety. That way, you'll have good treats, he'll be a bit hungry and also not as likely to get bored and want to do something else. It will be easier for him to focus on you.

mudpuppy

Posted : 5/15/2008 2:38:15 PM

I wouldn't bother going back to such a poorly taught class. Good way to permanently turn your dog off from heeling for one thing.

Dog_ma

Posted : 5/15/2008 3:50:56 PM

It's a beginning class, so it isn't as though we're demanding the dogs to heel properly. We walk in a circle and praise for being in the heel position. He likes that just fine, and we've done similar work on walks - rewarding the position rather than requiring it.

The class was well taught, just long and largely devoid of things to chase.

After class we went to the dog park and he happily frolicked hunger drove me home.