- Location
- Herefordshire, UK
Well done Maxx @Lab_adore . He's a lovely boy, and didn't he to well!
Maxx at training
- Thread starter Lab_adore
- Start date
- Location
- The Hague, The Netherlands
Well done Maxx and @Lab_adore!
Good boys, both of them!!! So nice that your OH is getting involved, that's really great.
- Location
- Sydney, Australia
Thankyou everyone. It's all well and good at home but at training he was once again a nightmare. We did as you suggested @Emily and took him to the side but as soon as we joined the group he mostly reverted to being an idiot. The few times he did focus he did really well and he already knows 'down' so did that immediately. OH wasn't feeling well so having a lunging kangaroo on methamphetamine (thanks for that phrase Em it describes him perfectly) didn't help. I tried but I couldn't hold him. The trainer suggested getting one of those over the nose halters but we tried that when he was a puppy and he hated it and we couldn't bring ourselves to use it. We told her that so she said for us to do lots of 'look at me' type training such as ping pong so we will do that. We will get there
- Location
- East Sussex
You will get there @Lab_adore, you ARE getting there. One step forward, a step back sometimes , it’s very normal. Try not to be downhearted.
- Location
- Sydney, Australia
Thanks @Plum's mum, I'm trying very hard! The best thing is OH is completely and utterly dedicated to this now whereas before he was just 'he'll grow out of it'.
- Location
- Herefordshire, UK
That's so good @Lab_adore , that OH is fully on board. Agree with others that steps forward and back are the norm.
Reckon this is key @Lab_adore - it means Maxx gets twice the reinforcement, I’m sure it’ll help massively. And you’re making such progress. Don’t be downhearted, you’re doing brilliantly
Atemas
UK Tour Guide
- Location
- North Cambridgeshire
Oh gosh reminds me of those awful classes I took Red to when Red was six months. She was a handful and I’d come home exhausted. Looking back I realise she was stressed and over aroused a lot of the time. Remember @Lab_adore you are with your dog on his own most of the time so that’s more important than in an artificial situation with a load of other dogs around.
- Location
- East Sussex
If it's possible in your class set-up, I would take Maxx out to the side of the area and stay there, not attempt to rejoin. You can reward him for calm behaviour at a distance and practise some sit, down, heel positions, hand touches etc. Even if you have to do that for several weeks, it's not a waste of time as it's teaching Maxx to be calm and follow your cues with a level of distraction he can handle. It doesn't matter if you're not doing everything that the rest of the class are doing.
And that's the whole point of training, isn't it, to slowly improve? Don't worry about what anyone else thinks, if all the dogs were perfect they wouldn't need to go training classes and the trainer would have no business. When I look back at our classes apart from the perfect lab puppy (I mean, he started off so young he didn't have time to pick up any bad behaviours!) all I can remember is me being a hot sweaty slightly stressed person worrying that Monty was the worst behaved dog in the class.
- Location
- Herefordshire, UK
Only slightly stressed?
- Location
- The Hague, The Netherlands
Hunter was an idiot at classes too! See the classes as just building blocks. The real training and hard work is what you do out of classes with Maxx. Hunter was the remedial of the class and I was sick to death of Max the bloody fantastic labradoodle who was so perfect in the classes! However I learnt a lot in the classes and did my own twist on it in Hunter's normal environment. Also with a combination of the advice from here we are improving. Hang in there!
- Location
- Herefordshire, UK
Oh sorry -- whoops.
- Location
- Herefordshire, UK
No, don't apologise, i found it sooooo stressful. Not so much the first set of classes we went to when Monty was small, (even though I didn't like them cos the trainer was quite patronising-) because in a way when you've got a tiny pup anything goes as they are just babies, and you can excuse anything.And actually @Natalie , I didn't mean to be rude. Just because I got stressed(more than slightly) doesn't mean everyone does.
But when I went back to a different class when Monty was 18 to 24 months, I found this really really stressful. I felt like I had failed because I wanted /needed to go back to basics, and I was embarrassed a 15 week old pup appeared to do this better in the same class as Monty at nearly 2 years. I remember wondering what was the least amount of clothing I could wear within the realms of tastefulness because I used to get so hot and flush so much.
But I didn't apply any of the stepping out stuff and taking a break that we talk about on here now, and I just tried to control Monty's excesses rather than trying to bring them down. We only did 6 or 7 weeks there as the trainer wanted dogs to wear a collar,(I should have said, no, thank you, I'll stick to a harness) and the floor of the community centre was so slippy I feared for his joints.
Just one more thing I would do differently now!
- Location
- Sydney, Australia
@Natalie your description above about having an 18 month old who is out of control and there are two other labs in our class of 6 who are 4 and 5 months old and behaving much much better is exactly how we are feeling. It's awful. I woke up at 3.30 this morning worrying about Maxx's jumping up And couldn't get back to sleep. I keep telling myself that we will get there but it's not always helping
I found putting it into perspective helps.@Natalie your description above about having an 18 month old who is out of control and there are two other labs in our class of 6 who are 4 and 5 months old and behaving much much better is exactly how we are feeling. It's awful. I woke up at 3.30 this morning worrying about Maxx's jumping up And couldn't get back to sleep. I keep telling myself that we will get there but it's not always helping
You have a dog that’s TOO happy. Yeah it can be a bit annoying. Yeah it can be a bit embarrassing. But it’s really not the end of the world.
He’s not aggressive. He’s not anxious. He’s not reactive. He’s not fearful.
He has no real behaviour problems and he’s healthy.
After seeing what some of the people on this forum go through with their dogs I’ll happily take being embarrassed and looking incompetent occasionally because really it’s not that bad and Stanley’s fine. It’s me that gets the brunt of it but I’d much rather that than him.