Excited Dog - When Getting To Obedience Training

[izzydog]

Hi everyone, I'm new and I've been reading the forums and I'm after some advice.

I have a 15month old Labrador, and I have been taking her to dog training classes since she was about 5 months old.

When we arrive at the training grounds, she gets super excited and once out of the car, pull on the leash, she can't wait to sniff and meet all the other dogs.

I've asked some of our instructors about this when we first started, all of them have laughed it off and said to ignore it and she will grow out of it shes "only a puppy"

Once she gets settled after 5 mins she is fine. Or I have found after I put her on a pole for a few minutes and go to the club house to register, she is okay when I come back. I've also tried to get her to focus on me, or tempt her with treats but it doesn't work.

Any advice?

I'm worried she won't grow out of it, if I just ignore her and let it go?

Thank you

[lilmisssascha83]

OH I know this senario well as I have the same problem with my labrador LOL.

Basically she has to sit and wait in the car before I will open it to let her out. Every time i open and she moves then I slowly close the door and make her wait. She now understands that if she doesn't sit and wait for me to remove her seatbelt calmly then she won't be getting to class any quicker. After I let her out, she NEEDS to have focus on me. Usually treats like a little bit of chicken or cabanossi or something else that has a smell works quite well. We then start to walk to the club house so I can get her card. Every time she pulls, we stop and she has to have focus on me before we walk again. She's aloud to walk provided she's not dragging me. This can be quite a process though as she is SUPER excited seeing all the dogs.

With the focus work try getting her to sit or drop or give her some kind of command. What treats are you using at the moment? For this sort of stuff I need to give my girl a high value treat. Also she is NOT feed before class on training days at school. So on Sunday's we go but she hasn't eaten breakfast so she's more willing for food.

I wouldn't ignore it completely as she will learn to ignore you and just think she can go and play with all the other dogs with no consequences. For my girl teaching her self control has been challenging at the best of times. We have our good and bad days. For dogs, going to school is like a huge party. New smells, lots of other dogs and everything is more interesting than you LOL.

I'm no expert or anything but I have found this has helped my girl. I"m practicing NOthing in life is free with her. So if she wants to go to school ( well get out of the car at least LOL ) she needs to sit nicely and WAIT till I tell her she can come out. Pulling me all the way to the club house doesn't work. The longer she does it, the longer we don't get there.

Also try getting there a bit early so she can calm down a bit.

Hope this helps you a bit. :-). Good luck with it. Labs are GREAT FUN.

[luvsdogs]

Get there early to let her have time to sniff around & use up some of her energy.

Good advice from lilmisssascha83 too.

[izzydog]

Thanks for the advice

I will try getting there earlier and try the suggestion you use to stop walking when she pulls.

At the moment I use liver treats or very small pieces of devon for her rewards, she seems to respond well to devon in normal training, but i've found the treats dont seem to work for the first 10 minutes when shes at her most excited - possibly I'm not using them correctly? As this is the first dog I've trained. I find it difficult to get her to "look" at me, like I have trained her when she's in this high excited state, when she's finally settled down she's very good.

She does wait in the car in the sit position before I let her out, but she is usual has an excited whine, should I be waiting to get her out until she is completely quiet, as I've been getting her out when she is still and sitting but she is still quietly whining with excitement.

I don't feed her the morning of the class, do you suggest to not feed her dinner the night before?

Thanks again!

[Cleo's Corgwyn]

If waiting is helping, then use it! If the food is not creating sufficient interest over all the activity around her, then don't try and shove it her gob, as it's only degrading the value of the food for later.

Does she play well with toys? If she has a favourite type of toy, then get a toy for training only and only bring it out when you need to get her attention. Its even better if its a tug toy, so she's interacting with you

[JulesP]

I love it that my dogs get so excited about getting to dog school. Mine only carry on for about 5 mins too. It would be different if they were silly for the entire time we were down there. Poppy squeals her head off!

They don't pull though as pulling is never allowed.

Rather than just stopping and waiting for focus (which is a good method) try turning and actually walking away from school. Every time she pulls turn and walk away. She can only approach what she wants (school) if she is not pulling. You might not get to class for a while! Depends on how smart she is. I think that is the key though. People just think damn it I have to get to x so they allow the pulling so they get there. I never allow pulling, ever.

But I am happy for mine to squeal and bounce around like twits when we arrive as long as no pulling occurs!

[Mason_Gibbs]

My lab who is nearly 3 still acts like a fool when we first get own to training, if I have food on me and he knows he will sit and offer focus after the first 10 minutes or so - cant say If it will work for the baby as he is a lot more energetic