Dan Posted December 3, 2014 Report Share Posted December 3, 2014 While sitting around the house today avoiding the nastyness that is the outdoors at the moment, I got to thinking what other activities I could do with my boy. We do all the usual like walks, dog park, playing in the yard etc but it's getting a bit repetitive. I did a bit of googling and there is a group locally that does multi level obedience courses. Figured it'd be a good social event and something for me to do too, maybe find a few playmates for Loki He's done the puppy pre-school they usually run at the vets. He's got a few tricks sorted, sit/drop/up/shake/roll over etc, though his recall and loose lead walking is a bit sketchy. I'm just curious whether anyone else has done courses like these and what they thought of them? They run them every Thurs night, the first course is $80 and runs for 9 weeks, which I think is quite reasonable. Then they offer gradually more "advanced" courses after that. I'm more interested in it for the social aspect, but learning is fun too Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
robke Posted December 3, 2014 Report Share Posted December 3, 2014 yes I have done stage 2 with mine... stopped doing stage 3 as that is mostly offlead and the training site was/is an open field and I am not a start in the 500 meter dash Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dan Posted December 3, 2014 Author Report Share Posted December 3, 2014 Yeah I'm not really sure about offlead unless I'm in a fenced area like the dog park. I sometimes take a risk as long as I know he's worn out, sometimes coming home from the dog park or a walk I'll drop his lead just around the corner from the house and he follows me in, but no way I'd risk it otherwise. I'm more concerned whether there will even be much of a social aspect to it - the puppy preschool I did at the vet, the dogs got very little socialization time which I think was a pretty important part of it as well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
robke Posted December 3, 2014 Report Share Posted December 3, 2014 with a good trainer there should be IMO socializtion at the start of lesson and a wind down at the end... but hey that is me and that is what I look for if that is not there and people just turn up start and leave at the end then it is not the right class for me... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mydiamond Posted December 3, 2014 Report Share Posted December 3, 2014 Mine's never been to obedience classes trainers around my hometown only believes in negative reinforcement (not the kind type either) and I would turn into an angry grizzly if anyone lands a hand on Dime. But I imagine classes like that must be fun Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jay Posted December 3, 2014 Report Share Posted December 3, 2014 I took Nikko to 4 different classes...puppy, intermediate, advanced and a trick class. All worth it, he learned alot (as did I!), and it was a great chance to bond with him Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dan Posted December 4, 2014 Author Report Share Posted December 4, 2014 I read into their courses a bit and they use treat based training, then I think clicker later on. I'm not too fond of clicker training as it's just something extra I have to carry around with me. I make a similar noise with my mouth that he responds to, though I use it more to get his attention rather than pointing out when he's done something right. I guess the principles are the same though. Would mostly like to do it just as a bonding thing, and get me out of the house a bit more Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jase Posted December 4, 2014 Report Share Posted December 4, 2014 Great stuff, this is an excellent thing or you and your dog and a perfect venue to meet likeminded people Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dan Posted December 4, 2014 Author Report Share Posted December 4, 2014 Yeah, if I can get his recall and loose lead under control, and meet some people, I'll be very pleased Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dan Posted December 5, 2014 Author Report Share Posted December 5, 2014 So earlier today I saw on Facebook from the local police that a suspicious device had been found in a garbage bin - in the same park these classes are held! They just did a controlled detonation of it which I even heard 13km away, with my room closed up and aircon on, scary coincidence! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
robke Posted December 5, 2014 Report Share Posted December 5, 2014 That is not good... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dan Posted December 5, 2014 Author Report Share Posted December 5, 2014 Yeah, haven't heard what the device actually is yet, but makes me sick knowing people would do this. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
robke Posted December 5, 2014 Report Share Posted December 5, 2014 that is treu hope they find out how and why... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NotTheDogWhisperer Posted December 5, 2014 Report Share Posted December 5, 2014 My parents haven't had a great time at the puppy training they signed up for. They have this Schnauzer-Jack Russell cross pup called Mindy, approaching 6 months old now. They found this trainer in Lincoln who was advertising on facebook. The training place they went to was run by this reputable trainer (can't remember her name), and my parents were told that they would be seeing said trainer personally. These classes were expensive. Turned out that this trainer never actually did any of the training but instead delegated to who were essentially students. So that was the first problem. But it wasn't as big a issue as the training methods used. Apparently, these 'student-trainers' would dish out treats every couple of seconds, which would only get Mindy excited. Of course this 'training' had no effect at home. In the end, my parents didn't bother going as it was a waste of money. Funny thing is, they had this Husky there...who was about a year old. Apparently this husky was the star pupil and was easily the most obedient dog there..also, interestingly this husky belonged to the head honcho trainer I mentioned. So, this led to my parents wondering why this husky was at puppy training when it was plainly obvious that he/she didn't need the training. My dad thinks the dog was there to make the trainer look good. So yeah, didn't go too well for them. It goes to show that not all of these amazing trainers are who they purport to be. I don't think maybe they should have stopped going really. But, then, I didn't think they were ready for another dog..especially a terrier. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dan Posted December 5, 2014 Author Report Share Posted December 5, 2014 Not a fan of the terriers myself personally, all the ones I've seen have been crazy hyperactive annoying yappy things .. But yeah, I'd be pretty annoyed if I was told I was going to have an experienced trainer doing the course, then find out they don't even turn up. Fair enough the students have to get a bit of hands on experience, but the trainer should still definitely be there with them. Judging by the sheer number of details I had to provide in the pre-evaluation form just about Loki's habits and behaviours already, hopefully it means they do take a bit of pride in their courses. Was a few questions in there I had to even think about for a while. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sarahjng Posted December 5, 2014 Report Share Posted December 5, 2014 Sounds like a great idea, we took bear to puppy classes .... until he was asked to leave .... Apparently he was so big the other puppies were scared and not learning ! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dan Posted December 5, 2014 Author Report Share Posted December 5, 2014 LOL! I didn't take Loki to puppy classes until he was around 9 months, he was the biggest there too. Funnily enough it was the larger dogs that seemed to have a problem with him. I remember there was this tiny dog one of the trainers owned they brought along for a few nights, the whole time they'd just sit staring at each other waiting for an opportunity to play. I was so worried Loki would step on him or something, but he seemed to understand he was a lot smaller. Like I said in a previous post though, there really wasn't much focus on socializing the dogs. I kinda felt like a big socialization session before any training would have helped the dogs learn a bit better, as they wouldn't be so curious about meeting each other and might have paid more attention to the actual learning part Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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