CoffeeKath

If you are in a beginners or other early class, this is a pretty difficult "stay" on "target" exercises for novice owners. Did the instructor suggest very low distractions? I'm so very new to all this, I must seem so ignorant I'm sorry. I am assuming it's a beginners class as our dog has not had any other training and they are all being taught to sit, stay etc which I assume are basic commands. No...very low distractions weren't suggested. Am I perhaps making the distractions too high for him in the early days then? At class a couple of people walked around the mats squeaking toys and throwing balls past them in an attempt to distract them.

We have a 7 month old rescue dog, he is a shepherd x mastiff we were told. He is a great dog but has terrible problems with other dogs and he just goes a bit mental. Anyway, the AWL recommended a trainer to us for Obedience Classes. My husband took him to the first one and he was barking and pulling on his lead and all his hackles were up as soon as he was out of the car. The trainer said all his hackles being up was a bad sign and we would have to see how it went. She went and got a collar out of her box, something called a Sporn. Once that was on my husband said the dog soon calmed down but he was shown how to use it and when he needed to. I was and if I'm honest still am quite unsure about this but it does work there's no denying that. There were about 10 to 15 dogs in that class, varying sizes and breeds of dogs. One particularly aggressive Rottweiler, probably as aggressive as our Eddie. The trainer put our Eddie in the middle of the circle of dogs and my husband says by the end of the session he was lying on his back rolling around on his mat not taking a blind bit of notice of the other dogs. The next session I went as well. I was quite stressed from the start as yet again his hackles were completely up, right down his back. He was barking and pulling a little. We found ourselves a space and then the Rotti came from a direction behind us and spooked the dog so there was a lot of barking and pulling on both sides. The trainer moved Eddie again into the middle but the wind was blowing in his face and it was getting the poor Rotti wound up too so we moved to a corner. It took him some time to calm down and he remained spooked every time he was in the circle, out on the field doing the exercises with the other dogs around him he was absolutely fine though. I have to say, from when I first saw my dog react to another dog I wondered if he would ever be able to be within eyesight of another dog - I do have hope that we will get there with him now. It's going to take a lot of effort.

I will come back and reply to this a bit later when I have time. I do have a dog with aggression problems when it comes to other dogs and we have been taking him to obedience classes to help with this - it's been stressful! I'll be back later to tell you what's happened so far, he's only been to two classes though so I don't have much experience on it.

Praise is a reward. Tell him he's being good (quietly and not in wildly stimulating way) at random intervals. :D Oh great, thank you, will keep doing that then Although perhaps I wasn't doing it quietly...I'll do it calmer next time The reason I suggest you do it in a soothing tone is because you don't want to stimulate them to break what they're doing. Yes that makes perfect sense thank you

Praise is a reward. Tell him he's being good (quietly and not in wildly stimulating way) at random intervals. :D Oh great, thank you, will keep doing that then Although perhaps I wasn't doing it quietly...I'll do it calmer next time

Thank you Yes I'm being persistent with him, he is definitely pushing boundaries though. It's to be expected as he's reached this age with no training at all poor soul. I wonder if wherever he lived before he was hit because if he is naughty and I sound angry at him he will sometimes cower as if he is expecting to be hit ;) Although at other times he is so dominant - or rather he tries to be.

He is 7 months old, I've only had him a couple of months ;) I did him for 10 minutes on Sunday and he sat beautifully, today was more of a challenge. Ahh..I was wondering about the release. At the moment I am holding him there on a lead and then I call him to heel as I walk away. Thank you :D Thank you He is not really treat driven, I am working on lots of praise when he is good at the moment, which I'm also doing on the mat.

Our obedience class homework is to do two 20 minute sessions of mat stationing a day. Yesterday seemed fine but this morning we put a harder test for him with my husband doing stuff in the garden and in and out of his car whilst I tried to get Eddie to stay on his mat. He was very hard to keep in one place, he was dying to run off! My question is, how do I keep him on there? I was told not to keep repeating 'on your mat' just to say it once. So I do that but then when he gets up and tries to walk off I'm kind of pushing him back on to his mat. I don't want to get this wrong so would be grateful for any advice. He keeps on trying to assert his dominance with me. Steps it up every time.