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3rd night at puppy school

Ciren

Well-known member
some good some bad, we did some heel work and i got some advice to help her stay.

one upsetting thing for me, we were sat next to quite a bouncy puppy, she kept trying to get peaches to play, she just kept turning her head away. the pup got more boistrous, to my horror peaches turned and snarled at the pup, (i will say after i calmed down the look on the pups face was priceless). i got a bit upset and Matt said she was picking it up. anyway i had a chat with the trainer and she said chances are Peaches will never want to play (which is a shame) and to avoid overly bouncy pups and that i shouldnt worry as it was just Peaches reaching the end of her teather.

on the way back to the car after she was back to her happy bouncy self so i decided if she never learns to play as long as she is happy thats enough for me.

will write more in a bit i just having food
 
we had to examine our dogs tonight so they could get used to it, (looking in ears etc) then we had to swop dogs to see how they got used to it, Peaches got jelous when she saw me with the other dog (nice to know i am wanted).

and for once ever i saw envy, the lady who took Peaches thought she was lovely and one of the kids who was sat next to her was giving her attention to.

no one has ever been envious of me before :D
 
Maddie doesn't play much with other dogs except Pippin, and she regards him as a sometimes irritating younger brother. :D She has also been known to tell other dogs off, especially bouncy puppies. I wouldn't worry too much, but avoid standing too close to that puppy next time you go to class. Peaches obviously is setting her own boundaries with other dogs, and she'll be very secure and less likely to aggressive outbursts if you don't put her in situations where she feels that another dog has overstepped the mark, especially while she is young herself.(y)

I would be more likely to want the trainer to speak to the other puppy owner as well. He/she (the owner) should have been working with their dog so it didn't hassle poor Peaches to that point! :bang:
 
Daisy WAS the other, bouncy puppy in our class. I noticed all the other dogs and owners looked like they were getting farther and farther away as the weeks progressed. Maybe it was just my imagination! ;) (Seriously, I don't blame them a bit. She was very disruptive and yes she did get growled at a couple of times -- didn't phase her in the slightest.)

And now Daisy doesn't want to play with other dogs at all, so it's hard to tell whether Peaches' current behavior means that she won't ever want to play (with the right dog, of course.)

This brought back a memory of our puppy class that still cracks my husband up. My husband and our kids came to Daisy's graduation class from puppy school. One of the tasks was "Leave it" when passing by a treat. We were on the sidelines while another dog was being tested, and when Daisy saw the trainer put down the target treat for the other dog's test, she starts lunging, jumping, straining, etc. to get it from the sidelines when she wasn't even on the course! Fat chance we had of her leaving it when she was the one being tested and having to walk by it! She's a pill, but I love her to death!
 
I have to admit that Pippin was the disruptive one as well. He thought class was about meeting all his friends, and he was so vocal in expressing his disappointment that he had to stay with me and not bounce all over the other dogs! He was so loud one week, no-one could hear the trainer properly! :eek: And one week I basically stood to one side working only on getting him focussed while all the other dogs and owners were progressing with new things.
Still, he's a good boy now (most of the time :D )
 
Well if you read my other thread you'd know that Max is also the disruptive one. Actually there are other dogs who would enjoy playing with him too so he isn't the only one. We have a Mastiff pup who refuses to move at all when her person is trying to walk her. It does make me feel a bit better! I don't think there is a hope in Hades that Max will be able to leave a treat. Especially since he is supposed to leave it when it's in my hand and only ever eat from his bowl. Since I feed him treats and kibble by hand as a training tool when we aren't in class I know that won't happen. As much as he is a pill at class he is learning to do the behaviours with the distraction of other dogs around and that is important to me.
 
This thread is so funny! Tonight is our first night at adult dog obedience with our new rescue and our crazy Ollie. I just know Ollie is going to disrupt everyone and generally be a terror. I think he was a jack russel in a former life! :eek:
 
I think it is really important not to attach significance to whether a dog plays or not and not to make this a benchmark of thinking the dog is well adjusted or meets certain goals the owner may have for that dog. Every dog is different, many do not play (including some of mine), and a dog can sense many of your emotions including disappointment or expectation and this isn't fair on the dog to have those expectations for something that probably is never going to be part of its own individual personality. Just let her be what she is and if you really desire a dog that plays, consider adding a puppy or a second dog that you know is going to play into your home in the future. I cannot stress enough how important it is to just accept a dog if you value the dog over your own expectations of what a dog should be. Some simply will NEVER play -- it has absolutely nothing necessarily to do with her background, or the fact that she's a rescue; it may simply be (as it is with some of mine) that that is her *preference* -- and I know you would respect allowing her to be what she is rather than keep waiting for her to start playing. So please do not attach any major meaning or significance to this and try to put it from your mind permanently. (y)

It is normal for adult dogs to discipline annoying puppies in this way. It isn't a big deal and is actually good for the puppy, who is probably isolated from other adult dogs and gets few such pointers towards proper polite dog behaviour. That is one of the great advantages of getting young dog into training classes -- the adult dogs quickly can help shape behaviour in ways that owners cannot. I have two dogs that do not care much for puppies either and my trainer friends find this quite useful for shaping puppy behaviour when they have puppies in classes. Puppies need that kind of guidance from adults.
 
Well, we're back from school and Ollie was the angel and it was Winston who was the terror! Poor guy, he has had little socialization in his 3 1/2 yrs so far and was so over-excited he couldn't concentrate on what was going on.

Next week, I'm going to take them on a really long walk before class so he's maybe a little more relaxed. Do you think that would help? PS/ He's a rescue.
 
I will try and take your advice Karlin, we occasionally have a play bow session and i get down on the floor with her (altho i will never admit this in public) and she bows to me and kinda of plays with lots of slurpy licks and wriggling.

maks me laugh when she does it and she is obviously happy.
 
I wouldn't take a dog on a really long walk before a class -- then you just end up with a tired dog who is going to do poorly in class because they cannot concentrate and the class will be a chore for them.

It is totally normal for some dogs to be overexcited in class. One point of doing a class in the first place to my mind, is to put them into exactly such a situation to learn self control. Talk to the trainer about management if this is a concern but a good look command is the start of a good approach. Also after a few classes a crowd of dogs are going to get to be the norm for attending dogs and not nearly as exciting. :) I am sure the trainer will say this and note she expects overexcited dogs at the start of the class and some will take a few actual courses to learn to relax, too!

It really makes no difference whether a dog is a rescue or not. The degree of socialisation is what matters. I would say the *majority* of rescue dogs come from homes or situations where they were happy and comfortable and are just up for rehoming -- there's a common misconception that a rescue means coming from a background of abuse or poor care but truly this is only rarely the case. I think sometimes people focus a lot on the idea that their rescue dog must have come from a poor background and therefore needs extra nurturing -- but what then tends to happen is the dog learns to be manipulative for attention, it gets separation anxiety it may never have had before, and is generally overindulged as the new home tries to 'make up' for a background the dog never had. Even a dog from a poor background does not need anyone overcompensating in these ways as it actually causes problems or worsens problems -- it never helps them.

Sometimes I think a better term than dog 'rescue' would be dog 'rehoming' and to call such dogs rehomed dogs, not rescue dogs -- because the term 'rescue' implies drama and trauma that usually are not really part of the background of many of these dogs.
 
Good points, Karlin. I was told by the rescue coordinator that he was well loved, but in the 3 1/2 years he was with his first family, he was never taken out of the house. Not even to the vet in 3 years! So, no he has not been socialized well at all although he was very well loved. My other main area of retraining is in the car. Since he was never taken anywhere, he is overexcited and doesn't easily calm down. I'm taking him on 5 min car trips a couple times a day to work on it.
 
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