How Do I Make The Most Out Of Training?

[Chiwogabull*]

How many use obedience clubs or classes to train thier dogs?

I was reading another thread that stated trainers rarely use classes to train their own dogs, they are too repetitive and distracting!

I was thinking the same of my club but......

I thought it was a good for him to learn in a more distracting enviroment, and at least he is interacting with other dogs and people.

We do other training at home or in the park and I teach him Leave for food and other dogs when we are walking and have now learned he is bored and over lead training ....

so I need to play more on the lead to bring the fun back

I guess I have been sooo concerned about fending of any dog aggression issues and the fact our breed are a bit stuborn that I somehow lost some of the fun in training :D

He is food motivated but is easily distracted still when heeling even for a short time

I know I sound stupid ;) but I really want to bring out the best in my lovely man!

How does everyone else get their dog trained to a reliable level? just curious.........

[Vickie]

I am one who will always have my dogs at trialling level before I take train them at a club. Just b/c I like to do things my way and I like to have them totally understanding what I want with a solid reward history before I add distractions. They are well socialised with friends dogs though from the day I get them so I don't need a club for that but will take them periodically to get used to the environment. I also prefer to do lots of very short sessions with a young dog, rather than a full hour ( or even half an hour). I have a few young dogs coming here...we do bits & pieces with the pup, we talk about goals & how to's & the owners work my dogs a bit. We fill in an hour easily but everything the pup does is short & fun...homework is required .

If people are unsure of how to go about getting what they want, I always recommend they take some one on one lessons with a good trainer to make sure they are going about things the right way. These lessons don't have to cost the earth and are often with someone who has experience & a high level acheieved with their own dogs, not necessarily a behaviouralist.

Edited November 11, 2009 by Vickie

[Serket]

Do most clubs allow you to start at a higher level? I know of some clubs which make everyone start from their basic course in order to do agility/higher level obedience.

[TerraNik]

Do most clubs allow you to start at a higher level? I know of some clubs which make everyone start from their basic course in order to do agility/higher level obedience.

Usually you can ask someone to assess your dog and then be put in an appropriate class.

I took my first dog to OB classes but at the time I didn't really know any better... My second dog has only been in 3 OB classes in her life (she's 16 months old). I do a lot of training with her at the club grounds while classes are going on, but just not in a class.

[Seita]

Do most clubs allow you to start at a higher level? I know of some clubs which make everyone start from their basic course in order to do agility/higher level obedience.

From what I know most clubs will give you a test to see what level your dog is at to decide what level class your dog should go into.

I am another one who doesn't train at a club until I'm at the proofing stage of my training. I have joined two different clubs over the last two years, the first club with a dog that was being proofed for trialling so had no titles to her name yet, we went straight to the trialling class after they saw what level she was at. The second club was a year later with the same dog who by that stage had 3 titles to her name, again a short test and straight into trialling class.

In answer to the OP's question:

I start in my backyard or lounge room - low distraction familar environment. Then I progress to the front yard or the street in front of my house - still close to home and familiar but more distractions. Then I head down the road away from home a bit but try and find a quiet area. Then it's the park where there might be low-med level distractions. Then I might search for a park with more distractions. Then I might work outside a dog park with lots of dogs inside it for a while. AND THEN I go to the club and practice. My final test is to work inside a busy dog park, or outside on the fence line if the dogs won't leave my dog alone.

I use this for anything that I'm training. So I might have different behaviours at different levels of proofing. For example - I had a young dog here earlier in the year, I had him at the club a couple of times and did nothing more than work on getting his focus around the other dogs. At home he was learning heel, sit etc but at club all I wanted was focus. If he had of stayed with me it could have been possible that I might be working on heeling in motion at home, finding the stationary heel position down at the park, working on stays near a busy park, and working of focus only at club or near dog park... does that make sense?

The idea behind all this is that the dog learns better in a low distraction environment and gradually introducting bigger and bigger distractions means the dog won't get overwhelmed with too many distractions. Some dogs will progress very quickly and others will take a while, it depends on the individual dog.