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[wuffles]

From my own experience, I would say a huge part of people giving up on obedience classes would be clashes with individual instructors -- either personality wise or the way they teach. Even within the same "training philosophy" there are so many different styles and ways of dealing with people and dogs. Maybe we even need some more formalised training or courses for instructors with people skills being a big component? At work, if we attend a training course, we always have to fill out a feedback form. Why not when training our dogs? And incentives for good instructors... I am considering becoming a volunteer instructor at our club but with working fulltime, playing sport and training my own two dogs... even one hour a week can be a pretty big commitment.

Lots of people I know just aren't interested in training their dog. Some people don't even understand that there is such a thing as "good manners" in dogs. Some of my aquaintances don't even want to go to puppy preschool as it's just something to take up their time and cost them money. And to be fair, a lot of their dogs somehow end up quite well behaved anyway, so why would they go? They giggle about me spending so much time training my dogs. To a lot of young people, it is definitely not the 'cool' thing to be doing :D

[alpha bet]

I train for a companion class which is run by three shires in conjunction with dogs west, we wish it were more. Rangers can refer dogs to the class, the ad runs in the community section of the paper and also CAWA refers dogs who are out of the ring due to a problem during a show. It can be an interesting mix. At the end of the 10 weeks some people enjoy training so much they join a local dog club for obedience or agility or sledding etc, plus they love to know they are not alone with their problems and forge friendships both canine and human.

Am so jealous - So which shires are you with (what state) - my shire would be the worst on record - we have 5 or 6 rangers (opps sorry they like to be called bi-laws officers) and we have the biggest shire in Vic - but even so they seem to cause so much tension with people over dogs in the shire.

Just one example - We recently had a Pet Expo in our shire - what a joke and waste of money, the shire "bi-law officers" didnt do anything about organising until 1 week before and only after the local paper had made mention of it. I had to make about 8 calls and email just to be able to attend and even then they had done virtually no advertising - so hardly anyone knew it was on...... Oh about 5 Bi-laws officers sat on their backsides in a tent and didnt walk around and introduce themselves or anything - instead they paid the lollypop ladies to walk around in a pet expo t-shirt and answer questions?

Would love to know how to get my shire into gear!

[alpha bet]

.........

I had been to see quite a few of the reseach results thru the DPI and spoken with some of the students conducting the surveys and was disappointed at the limited numbers. One of the studies was for 16 dogs another about 10 dogs and another is about to conduct a study using one dog. It made me feel that I cant take any of the results seriously.

Actually I have a look at the surveys which are sometimes used as studies which have been conducted only on line and see the limited numbers and the high lean toward female respondents and feel the same way.

That is something we can do something about I think

Im about to open offers for people in on the working party for this.

Exactly Steve - the trouble with online surveys you are mainly getting results from people who have made a commitment to their dog (hence why they are on sites like this!) whereas I was seeking results from the "average" joe - this is why I was trying to get them from different locations such as work sites or supermarkets.

One thing I found in conducting surveys is how most of the people found they actually hadn't really thought much about what they did with their dogs and often starting making comments that "perhaps we should do more with our dog" also there was a general concensus that when I ask at the end of the survey "what does your dog mean to your family" most people were definate in saying even tho it is an added cost and sometimes a burden they still believed that the dog was part of their family.

Therefore I felt that even the survey itself is a educational tool for the public. Gives a very positive spin.

[Rusky]

I train for a companion class which is run by three shires in conjunction with dogs west, we wish it were more. Rangers can refer dogs to the class, the ad runs in the community section of the paper and also CAWA refers dogs who are out of the ring due to a problem during a show. It can be an interesting mix. At the end of the 10 weeks some people enjoy training so much they join a local dog club for obedience or agility or sledding etc, plus they love to know they are not alone with their problems and forge friendships both canine and human.

Am so jealous - So which shires are you with (what state) - my shire would be the worst on record - we have 5 or 6 rangers (opps sorry they like to be called bi-laws officers) and we have the biggest shire in Vic - but even so they seem to cause so much tension with people over dogs in the shire.

Just one example - We recently had a Pet Expo in our shire - what a joke and waste of money, the shire "bi-law officers" didnt do anything about organising until 1 week before and only after the local paper had made mention of it. I had to make about 8 calls and email just to be able to attend and even then they had done virtually no advertising - so hardly anyone knew it was on...... Oh about 5 Bi-laws officers sat on their backsides in a tent and didnt walk around and introduce themselves or anything - instead they paid the lollypop ladies to walk around in a pet expo t-shirt and answer questions?

Would love to know how to get my shire into gear!

we are in WA and we do have some good shires regarding dogs, some are not so good The one thing I don't actually like is the rangers talk. I feel that they are preaching the dog act to the converted, some rangers though are very good with their talk and are open to suggestions from the group and advise them how to approach the council to implement stuff in their shire.

I think it helps if rangers actually like animals ...and people. I can understand that they see a lot of stuff whcih will make them angry and that probably doesn't help when you have been in the job a few years. I honestly could not do their job. I think though that WA shires are starting to get the idea of compulsary micro chip but till it is in the dog act they are not required to scan by law...I mean they do as they want to see as many dogs as possible returned to their owners but we need compulsary chipping here.

There will always be tension but this relationship has seen so many good things come out of the training that it can only be a good thing both for dogs and owners.