Maggie's first day of school

[tasgrs]

[tasgrs]

…..So we went ahead and enrolled Maggie in obedience class, and today was her first class. It’s been 9 years since George and I were in “official” school with a dog, and neither of us realized just how much we missed the fellowship and structure of school.

This should prove to be a rather interesting class; there are 2 different Old English Sheepdogs–one of which was rather (extremely) vocal. 2 baying Beagles, a rescued Greyhound, a “Labradoodle”, a Poodle/Bichon Frise mix that was a puppymill rescue, a Yorkie, and one great, big and apparently agressive German Shepard that came through the door in “wolf mode”–hackles raised from the backs of his ears to the base of his tail, head down and ears up, glaring at every other dog in the room. (no offense to the wolf fanciers; but he *looked* like a wolf) The 1 OES was “singing counterpoint” with the baying Beagles, the Greyhound was looking at Maggie like he couldn’t make up his mind whether he wanted to play with Maggie or eat her, and the Labradoodle went after one of the Beagles. (couldn’t say that I blamed it; after the first 30 seconds of non-stop baying, *I* wanted to go after the Beagle, too. 😀 ) The poor Bichon spent the entire lecture part of the class cowering behind her owner’s chair. 🙁

Given that Corgis can be a bit vocal, I was pretty surprised that Maggie did not make one sound for that whole class…..okay, I admit it; I was VERY surprised…. She behaved wonderfully, like she’d done this before, although I kind of doubt that from what the breeder told us; she said Maggie has had show ring handling, no obedience. She catches on pretty quickly for a dog with no obedience background! 8)
She was even good for my husband, who is a total pushover sometimes. 😀
So she now has “homework” in the form of doing a sit/stay, down/stay, and stand/stay. I’m glad she’s small enough to work with indoors–it’s freakin’ COLD outside! :nea:

[Tina]

thats awesome!!

I have yet to meet a lab/poodle mix or golden/poodle mix that didnt have some sort of attitude problem. The worst by far was fine with dogs, but had HORRIBLE people aggression, to the point that she had to be muzzled at all times that it stepped out its door.

I wish we had real classes here, but we dont really, they run one maybe 2 a year nothing else 🙁 .

[Adaneth]

Awww, that brings back memories! Dog obedience classes can be so…’interesting’! 😆 My mom’s German Shepherd would do something like that, but simply because she was stressed/scared.

Hope Maggie does well! 😀

[Bob]

She sounds like a beautiful dog.
I wish I had the money and time to show dogs

[tasgrs]

Ironically, the Labradoodle is a Therapy dog looking for recertification with his current owners; I don’t have the full story as yet, but it looks like they are getting their son into handling the dog who was previously trained, but the people weren’t and they’re looking to learn how to get the best with their dog. (Kudos to them! 8) )

The Shepard’s story I haven’t gotten yet, but the owners were careful to sit in a spot where there weren’t other chairs to ensure relative isolation. And I believe they were already using a prong collar on Buddy. He’s a *gorgeous* dog; nice deep coloring, good bone, etc. I just cautioned my husband about paying attention to him when he was handling Maggie because of the way he came in–his posture/attitude suggested he just wasn’t in a friendly state of mind, and since I know my husband doesn’t read the dogs that well, I felt it would be safer and less stress for Maggie and George to just kind of avoid the GSD until we get further into the classes. I love my hubby dearly for being so game to take on another training mission, but he’d be the first to admit cluelessness, so for safety’s sake…. 😉

I don’t know about showing Mags just yet; we’ll see what the training brings. And then if she does well, the cost of showing her towards her obedience title isn’t all that bad–I think it was like $25-$30 per day at a 2 day show. I was lucky with Flurry–she got her title in just 3 shows. And that was 9 years ago. 😮 (Yowza! Where *has* the time gone??)

I did try to persue the title idea with Cocoa, our rescue Aussie, but as intelligent as she was, she was like an ADD child; nearly impossible to keep focused for more than 30 seconds on any one thing. Add to that one rampant canine sense of humor, and well……I guess y’all can see the picture. 😳 She was also very ring-savvy and knew damned well that if she was off leash and in a show ring all b ets were off. She got me twice that way. 😀 I “settled” for her getting her CGC–Canine Good Citizens title. Considering the people she came from couldn’t even get her to “sit” for them on command, I was happy enough with that CGC.

[Kristen]

ruffian wrote:

thats awesome!!

I have yet to meet a lab/poodle mix or golden/poodle mix that didnt have some sort of attitude problem. The worst by far was fine with dogs, but had HORRIBLE people aggression, to the point that she had to be muzzled at all times that it stepped out its door.

I wish we had real classes here, but we dont really, they run one maybe 2 a year nothing else 🙁 .
I have a friend with two lab/poodle mixes that are actually wonderful dogs. Pretty normal dog behavior if you ask me. :scratch:

[Thrippa]

Sigh. I got my Flat-coat with the idea of showing in obedience and agility, but the only class within an hour’s drive (one way!) had an entire 3 dogs in it (including Adam) and we already knew everything that the class did. What I need to learn is how to teach a dog to heel – other than the classic ‘yank the collar like mad’ – and the instructor didn’t know how to teach that. She just teaches how to walk politely. And then I moved to a spot that doesn’t even have anything within an hour and I’m a bit stuck. (Having a job that would pay money sort of ranked higher than staying where I could get some sort of training class but be unemployed.)
He can do all the agility stuff except the dog walk and A-frame, but I don’t dare try to teach those to a 90-pound dog without assistance!

The labradoodles that I saw in my old clinic were all amiable idiots, just like most of the labs we saw. (Actually they weren’t idiots; they knew perfectly well their owners weren’t going to make them behave, so therefore they didn’t. Put a tech on the end of the leash and poof! Instant manner improvement.) Sounds like your trainer’s got her work cut out for her, but it’s good the owners are trying to do something with the dogs. Good luck with Maggie.

[tasgrs]

That sucks about the drive and the class. I guess we take the convenience part for granted… 🙁

When we first learned with Flurry, for the heel it was a real quick pop on the leash/collar to get the dog’s attention and once the dog had the basic idea, we’d walk briskly, and add stops where she would sit, or lots of changes of direction that encourages the dog to pay attention. 😀 Our instructor was never one for constant yanking on the dog. :nea:

The other thing we used with Flurry was to hold something good in my left hand level with my waist, usually a piece of bacon or some other goodie that she really liked so her attention would be on my hand. If you make it seem like you’re eating part of whatever goodie, the dog will then transfer attention to your face. But the goodie in the left hand held at the waist thing should work.

Flurry was about 90 lbs at her biggest, so yeah, I hear you on doing the dog walk and A-frame.

I read something online the other night that was on a website that explained what all those letters in a dog’s title were, like CD is Companion Dog, UD is Utility Dog etc. But the article went on to say that to put a title on your dog was a measurement of how much you treasured your dog, that you cared enough about the dog to make sure the dog was able to contribute to being a good example of a companion and that you cared enough to take the time to spend for training and practice and all. (not saying that an untrained dog isn’t loved; Heaven knows we had dogs for years that were never trained to do much of anything besides eat and bark. 😀 )
I will say this: I never realized just how much I took Flurry’s unwavering obedience for granted until we got Maggie. Since she’s not trained yet, and telling her to down/stay doesn’t quite work yet. 8)

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