Training classes problem

[shonajoy]

Last night, we went to Indie's third puppy class. The first week it was very busy, and we could hardly hear the trainer speak, and she taught us sit (Indie knew that) down (he didn't but learned it) and walking to heel, which we were to go away and master. I worked all week with him, and he was coming along nicely, but when we went back last week, it was as busy, with more new people joining, so we learned the same things again. Last night, yet more people (maybe 40 people and 30 dogs) and yet again we went over the same things. People were also arriving late, and that added to the chaos.

I WANT to continue, and we are doing exactly what she says, but to be honest, Indie comes home wild, as we are constantly trying to stop him jumping all over the bigger dogs - he's by far the smallest and totally winds the bigger ones up! The problem is, he's so distracted when he's there, because there are so many dogs, and people, and we have to sit right next to other pups, as there's no space.


I am a bit disappointed as she keeps letting new people start - it seems we have to go over and over things every time, is this a good idea? - it just seems we are going over the same thing, and would be better if there were less people too.


I know it's not expensive at £2 a class, but to be honest I'd happliy pay 5x that if I felt it was progressing.


The trainer is fabulous, and a member of the ADPT, but is there any point with classes as big as this? I'm becoming disillusioned.

Shona                    

[Anita]

Shona

Don't dispair! Phoebe used to totally ignore me at training classes and I'd come away really hot and bothered thinking she wouldn't learn anything. I went for about 7 weeks and I think it helped me more than her! I picked up lots of tips and things to do with her.

I just carried on at home and didn't go back to classes. We have been lucky and this worked for us. It is hard at some classes if there are loads of people, but it will halp with socialisation!

I've just booked Phoebe into a flyball class and the trainer thinks she'll do fine and her obiediance is good enough.

See how you get on.                    

[*Jay*]

Does sound like an awful lot of people Shona :shock:  I hope there are plenty of trainers or I'd be very surprised if Indie gets the best out of his training. I must admit, in the beginning, you do tend to go over the same things quite a bit and its really good for socialisation but if you have too many, the dogs will be so overwhelmed and by the time everyone has had their turn at sit stays for example, it will be time to go home again :wink:  When our beginners class was really busy, we were split up(into noisy and not so noisy :wink: ) and one class went upstairs. I think it worked better that way rather than everyone crammed into one hall with all the dogs winding one another up. Hope next week is a bit quieter for you :wink:                    

[PennyB]

In basic puppy classes its important for socializing and its possible it may be boring for you, but young puppies have a short concentration span so its often necessary to keep going over the same things as long as there are also fun bits in between. My dog trainer tells me the intermediate classes are where the dogs really learn stuff (possibly as they are older and wiser then anyway).

Its important also to learn things among all that excitement as pups will have many distractions out in the real world. Our puppy class made a big thing of getting all the dogs together in the class playing with each other and then getting us to recall our own dog at the edge of the class into a sit!                    

[shonajoy]

Thanks Gilly,

The trainer does have an *assistant* but she seems to just watch and supervise a lot. The trainer herself is fabulous, you know those people that just have that affinity with dogs? She's just like that, and uses kind methods too. I'm going to ask if the classes further up are busier, I think she's surprised by the amount of people too, but letting people in halfway during a class seems disruptive to me.

Indie is enjoying the socialisation angle, but he's great at that anyway - always says hi with tail wagging, and he meets about 10 dogs a day on his walks.

I'll keep at it and see how it goes. Thankyou

Shona                    

[shonajoy]

Thanks Anita,

I'm going to stick it out and see how he gets on - I'm over the moon with him at the moment, we went for our morning walk, and he was off his lead, and walked nearly to heel all the way home (no roads)! I'm so proud of him. He seems to do better one on one, he didn't do anything he could have done at the classes, he was too wound up.

Thankyou

Shona                    

[shonajoy]

Thanks Penny.

 I'm not bored in the slightest, I know how important it is to repeat everything again and again, I just question the merits of quite such a large class. Honestly, at times you literally could not hear the trainer speak, for minutes at a time, it was so loud.

He's great with other dogs, they get annoyed as he's so enthusiastic, but he meets loads of dogs every day in the park.

I'm going to stick it out and hope it gets better the further we go on - hopefully like you said it will in intermediate classes,

thankyou

Shona