Dog Not Wanting To Work In Class Some Days

[Mas1981]

Today was our last day in pet classes and we are moving up to pre-trial classes starting the weekend after next. I have a 11 month old labrador and he tends to not always want to work in class, he stares at all the other dogs and I battle to get his focus. Also at home and at the park he normally loves toys and in class he couldnt be less interested when we get given time to play with our dogs. I have tried varying his treats. At home and across the road at the park he works well but in class he seems to be bored and unresponsive. Any ideas?? How can I make myself more interesting to him?

[huski]

How long are the classes?

Personally I find an hour long class too long for my dog. I like to rev her up to work, do a quick training session then have a break.

What treats are you using? What does a normal class involve, is there a lot of heel work etc?

[Mas1981]

How long are the classes?

Personally I find an hour long class too long for my dog. I like to rev her up to work, do a quick training session then have a break.

What treats are you using? What does a normal class involve, is there a lot of heel work etc?

I vary my treats, I use cheese, different meats and BBQ sausages. Classes was all basic stuff like heel position, drop and sit stays, stands etc. He will now be going to pre-trialling classes which is why i am a bit concerned. He was having a really off day today and I cannot figure out why.

Class is for an hour and about 30 minutes into it he is no longer interested, trouble is assessments are at the end of the class so I have to get his focus back during this time. I really want to try trial with him when he is older but I am fast losing hope as the more we go to class the "more bored" he becomes.

[The Spotted Devil]

Most of us who trial only train our dogs for a few minutes at a time - a whole hour gets dreadfully boring for everyone and is not the best way to foster enthusiasm! My Dally at your Lab's age could barely concentrate for 5 seconds - literally!!!

You can still go to class, but word up your instructor what you are going to do. For example, you can ask for a few minutes of 110% focus and then quietly leave the class and have a fun game of tug with your lab.

[huski]

Class is for an hour and about 30 minutes into it he is no longer interested, trouble is assessments are at the end of the class so I have to get his focus back during this time. I really want to try trial with him when he is older but I am fast losing hope as the more we go to class the "more bored" he becomes.

Half an hour is a long time to ask a dog to focus!

Can you do a few minutes of the class, then have a break, and come back for assessments? Do you play any training games with him to make you exciting?

I use classes as an opportunity to do distraction work, not so much for learning/training. I do most of my training outside of class, at home, at the park etc. Personally I prefer to have a few minutes of 110% focus and attention and energy, as opposed to an hour or half an hour of average work. I also always try to end training with my dog wanting more - so when they are still interested and keen to work - as opposed to waiting until she loses interest.

All dogs can have off days so I wouldn't worry too much if he has an off day here and there.

Edited March 7, 2010 by huski

[Mas1981]

Class is for an hour and about 30 minutes into it he is no longer interested, trouble is assessments are at the end of the class so I have to get his focus back during this time. I really want to try trial with him when he is older but I am fast losing hope as the more we go to class the "more bored" he becomes.

Half an hour is a long time to ask a dog to focus!

Can you do a few minutes of the class, then have a break, and come back for assessments? Do you play any training games with him to make you exciting?

I use classes as an opportunity to do distraction work, not so much for learning/training. I do most of my training outside of class, at home, at the park etc. Personally I prefer to have a few minutes of 110% focus and attention and energy, as opposed to an hour or half an hour of average work. I also always try to end training with my dog wanting more - so when they are still interested and keen to work - as opposed to waiting until she loses interest.

All dogs can have off days so I wouldn't worry too much if he has an off day here and there.

We are allowed to take a break and play and then only work when the instructor comes around but for the last 2 months he wont play in class, toys that he loves at home become boring in class, I have even bought him some toys he only gets for the first time in class - not keen . He loves his squeak ball same thing, not interested in class, stares at the other dogs playing.... its not like he NEVER gets to play with other dogs, he plays around 2x a week off lead with others.

[luvsablue]

Hi Masons mom,

I totally agree with what has been said so far in reply to your question.

Classes at club are too long, and so the dogs aren't able to produce top work, which is what you want to train.

As other people have suggested, do a few minutes then leave the class if your dog looks less than focussed.

Ask for an individual assessment if necessary, where you can get him nicely focussed beforehand.

I spent months in classes wondering why my dog wouldn't do the work; easy, she was bored stiff.

The classes are more to teach the handlers than to train the dogs, but the dogs have to repeat stuff while their

handlers are learning. Far better to train at home, in the park etc and just go in the class to be assessed, or for

distraction. I mean, if you want to eg, improve your footwork, you don't practice it with the dog in tow, you

do it by yourself. Better a 5 minute session of top quality work than 50 minutes of sh-t work!

Correct practice is successful practice!

luvsablue & Beckie the Bluey

[Mas1981]

Hi Masons mom,

I totally agree with what has been said so far in reply to your question.

Classes at club are too long, and so the dogs aren't able to produce top work, which is what you want to train.

As other people have suggested, do a few minutes then leave the class if your dog looks less than focussed.

Ask for an individual assessment if necessary, where you can get him nicely focussed beforehand.

I spent months in classes wondering why my dog wouldn't do the work; easy, she was bored stiff.

The classes are more to teach the handlers than to train the dogs, but the dogs have to repeat stuff while their

handlers are learning. Far better to train at home, in the park etc and just go in the class to be assessed, or for

distraction. I mean, if you want to eg, improve your footwork, you don't practice it with the dog in tow, you

do it by yourself. Better a 5 minute session of top quality work than 50 minutes of sh-t work!

Correct practice is successful practice!

luvsablue & Beckie the Bluey

I totally agree as well,the main reason I go to class is because I myself need to learn as I know I do a lot of things incorrectly and that is why Mason gets some things wrong. He is the first dog I am training properly for obedience and I just want to try get everything correct

Edited March 7, 2010 by Masons_mom

[luvsablue]

[quote name=I totally agree as well,the main reason I go to class is because I myself need to learn as I know I do a lot of things incorrectly and that is why Mason gets some things wrong. He is the first dog I am training properly for obedience and I just want to try get everything correct

Hi Masons mom,

Beckie was my first dog also, and I was anxious to train her properly. I know what you're saying. It's just that we try too hard, and staying in class too long,

and making the dog do stuff over and over can have a bad effect on your training. Short and sweet is the way to go, and little and often is better. Even try breaking the

exercises down into components and only practice them in parts, eg the sit in front of a recall, or the sit and wait while you leave the dog in a sit.

luvsablue & Beckie the Bluey,

"less is more"

(the less I make her do the more she likes it)

[Mas1981]

That is a good idea about breaking the exercises up I think in the new class things will be a lot better as it will be a much much smaller group so we will get more individual attention.

Love your less is more philosophy, Mason would love that one too!

I find my boy does his best work when he knows his breakfast or dinner is dished and on the table outside, this is the time I can get him to do just about anything for me so I work with him for about 5 minutes 2x a day and I usually get good results at this time.

[Serket]

Can't help, but can sympathise. We've just moved into the 'proper' obedience classes and now it's totally got to be 100% focus and attention for a full hour. When we're not doing an exercise we're supposed to have our dogs watching us ALL the time, not looking at anything else and ignoring other distractions. No playing with other dogs is allowed.

Gypsy has been doing really well, but no way do I normally train for a full hour and demand 100% attention the entire time. In our previous classes, we'd do an exercise, practice some focus work, and then I'd let her play with a friend quietly just wrestling on the ground or something, and then get her attention back and repeat. I found that worked really well for keeping her interested in the entire class. At only 7 months I don't think she can really be expected to work for an hour surrounded by strange dogs she wasn't even allowed to meet and greet

I don't see why it's considered so wrong to let them play for a minute or two to break the monotony of sit/drop/stay/heel/look at me/sit/stand/stay

I actually think it's good to let them play and then ask them to focus again - it shows you can get their attention away from something "fun" and they also know there's fun in the class for them, not just food and boring exercises they already know how to do (just not with the complete precision required for trialling)

[Tiggy]

Can't help, but can sympathise. We've just moved into the 'proper' obedience classes and now it's totally got to be 100% focus and attention for a full hour. When we're not doing an exercise we're supposed to have our dogs watching us ALL the time, not looking at anything else and ignoring other distractions. No playing with other dogs is allowed.

Gypsy has been doing really well, but no way do I normally train for a full hour and demand 100% attention the entire time. In our previous classes, we'd do an exercise, practice some focus work, and then I'd let her play with a friend quietly just wrestling on the ground or something, and then get her attention back and repeat. I found that worked really well for keeping her interested in the entire class. At only 7 months I don't think she can really be expected to work for an hour surrounded by strange dogs she wasn't even allowed to meet and greet

I don't see why it's considered so wrong to let them play for a minute or two to break the monotony of sit/drop/stay/heel/look at me/sit/stand/stay

I actually think it's good to let them play and then ask them to focus again - it shows you can get their attention away from something "fun" and they also know there's fun in the class for them, not just food and boring exercises they already know how to do (just not with the complete precision required for trialling)

Way too long to ask for focus. What you'll end up with is a dog that totally turns off when training.

Edited March 7, 2010 by Tiggy

[Tiggy]

I've been in the same situation of the dog and myself getting bored in class which is way too long at 1 hour. I haven't trained at a club for two years, only now that we're nearly ready for CCD am I looking at going back mainly for distraction training. I've asked my clubs if it's okay for me to do my own thing and they were fine with it and I'll just do bits and pieces in class then swap dogs, play, take a break etc.

[TerraNik]

At only 7 months I don't think she can really be expected to work for an hour

At ANY age, they shouldn't be expected to work for an hour, let alone a puppy!

I don't put my dogs in classes anymore. Jedi went through classes and I had to do a fair bit of work to motivate him once I decided classes weren't doing us any good. Now if I enter a class with Soaks or Jedi, it is for a specific exercise only - usually stays.

My club applauds handlers who say their dog has had enough and leave early or those that take their dog aside and do some play or give it a rest while the handler still watches the class to still get the information. You shouldn't feel 'forced' to try and keep your dog's focus for an hour - it's your dog, you do what you think suits it best.

Edited March 7, 2010 by TerraNik

[Erny]

My club applauds handlers who say their dog has had enough and leave early or those that take their dog aside and do some play or give it a rest while the handler still watches the class to still get the information. You shouldn't feel 'forced' to try and keep your dog's focus for an hour - it's your dog, you do what you think suits it best.

What class drills the dogs for a full hour? In my classes and indeed other classes I have seen or worked with, it has been about explanation, sending the class out for practice, pulling back in if necessary to reiterate or add extra information, sending back out, pulling back in to move on to the next skill, sending out etc. etc. with much motivational exercise in between. If one actually collated how much "do", how much "motivational exercise" and how much "handler coaching/explanation" was involved at class time during that one hour, are there many schools where the "do" factor (ie the actual obedience exercises) outweighed even the "motivational exercise" and "handler coaching/explanation"? How could a school insist on handlers having the dogs' focus 100% of the whole hour if the instructors are going to be speaking, explaining, demonstrating?

If someone was coming with their dog and already had the class level skills, but just wanted to maintain training in the presence of other dogs, then yes, the amount of time spent on the actual obedience exercises would be more concentrated and I would have no problems with them coming for a short time and leaving early. I've done the same with my boy when I took him to doggy school.

Edited March 7, 2010 by Erny

[RallyValley]

I pulled Toby out of classes a few weeks after I started and then just went for the social aspect. I let him be a dog until he was 12 months, then I started him in agility, which required focus but is a big game for him so he is playing (plus of course playing with your dog is required).

I took him back to obidience at the start of the year at 1 and a half and he now has the ability to maintain concentration for the 5x 10 min blocks of training.

[Serket]

My club applauds handlers who say their dog has had enough and leave early or those that take their dog aside and do some play or give it a rest while the handler still watches the class to still get the information. You shouldn't feel 'forced' to try and keep your dog's focus for an hour - it's your dog, you do what you think suits it best.

I've done that in the past, it seems that it depends on the luck of the draw with the instructor what's 'allowed' or not - in the past it's never been a problem, all the other classes I usually take her off to the side and work on a variety of things rather than 10 sits in a row or whatever. But last time I gave her a rest, or e.g. did a series of short drop-stays instead of one big one (since they were supposed to look at you the entire duration of the stay, I figured I'd set her up to win not lose), I got asked rather sharply why we weren't doing what everyone else was.

What class drills the dogs for a full hour? In my classes and indeed other classes I have seen or worked with, it has been about explanation, sending the class out for practice, pulling back in if necessary to reiterate or add extra information, sending back out, pulling back in to move on to the next skill, sending out etc. etc. with much motivational exercise in between. If one actually collated how much "do", how much "motivational exercise" and how much "handler coaching/explanation" was involved at class time during that one hour, are there many schools where the "do" factor (ie the actual obedience exercises) outweighed even the "motivational exercise" and "handler coaching/explanation"? How could a school insist on handlers having the dogs' focus 100% of the whole hour if the instructors are going to be speaking, explaining, demonstrating?

If someone was coming with their dog and already had the class level skills, but just wanted to maintain training in the presence of other dogs, then yes, the amount of time spent on the actual obedience exercises would be more concentrated and I would have no problems with them coming for a short time and leaving early. I've done the same with my boy when I took him to doggy school.

They're supposed to look at you apparently, even while the instructor is explaining the handling explanation part, i.e. when you're not looking at them at all or really asking them to do anything for any purpose. There's no real "down time" for the dogs, they're supposed to working pretty much the entire time, or you're slack for letting them slack off. I was told off for having an "out of control" dog even though I was letting her play with the dog next to us (with the other owner's permission) and was told quite clearly that the only thing she should be doing while we were waiting our turn/listening to explanations was sitting looking at me ignoring the world around her.

Oh, and (genuine question) what do "motivational exercises" involve during a class? We just sit and wait our turn, and then can use food (or a toy in theory) to reward when doing exercises

(Sorry for the hijack )

Edited March 7, 2010 by Serket

[RubyStar]

Serket, doesn't sound like a club I'd be wanting to attend

[RubyStar]

Candice, if you want to trial someday, I'd suggest getting along to some more obedience trials and sitting ringside watching others and learning. Once you know what you want to work on, I'd be working on them on your own and not with the class, maybe to the side of the class and join them for the group stays or anything else you still want to learn more about. Being close by you've always got your instructor to ask questions of should you need it. Work Mason in short sessions, of only a few minutes each and put him away for a rest in between. When you ask your dog to trial, they start out only being in the ring for a couple of minutes so you don't need to ever be aiming for an hours focus from any dog at one time! So short sharp sessions and more of them are better than an hour of work in bored or distracted mode

[Erny]

Oh, and (genuine question) what do "motivational exercises" involve during a class? We just sit and wait our turn, and then can use food (or a toy in theory) to reward when doing exercises

We use motivational play a lot in class. Well, putting it another way, we encourage motivational play a lot in class ..... sometimes it is a matter of generating some energy from some handlers to get them activated with their dogs, LOL. But most end up doing well. Anyway, we use tug, running around, and stuff like that - depending on what the individual dog actually sees as enjoyable interaction with their respective owners. We run it as though it was an exercise in itself and of course the purpose is to get people and their dogs into the swing of it as it is an exercise that we use in between and to celebrate with the dog after an obedience skill is executed. We have people working as a group, not waiting for a turn each. There is 'down' time for the dogs in those parts where we've called the group in because we need to demonstrate or explain something, or as part of the 'coaching' (reminding) them on how to do something.

In our classes, there is a lot of explanation and demonstration on the first lesson, a bit less on the second. After that, it is a matter of the handlers mainly doing the "doing" and us reminding them of things we've explained to them and adding in tips to help overcome difficulties. Much of the time, we are singing out these reminders whilst they are doing their practice with their dogs. But for things we feel they haven't really grasped or need a bit more concentration on, we call them back in to explain again, then send them back out to put into practice whatever was explained.

When people are in class, it is the people that are doing the learning, as someone else said. IMO, it's not good training for the dogs if the people are busy concentrating on what's being said and shown and therefore can't continue concentrating on their dog's training - inconsistencies slip in when people aren't focused on their dogs and what the dogs are doing. During that time, we have the handlers' dogs in 'release' mode, as do the other places that I've worked with and been to.

Edited March 7, 2010 by Erny