Terra and her first Puppy Class

missiek said:

Thank for the advice ladies! Terra is my show girl but she has a lot of timidity issues. So I have been taking her out as often as possible and enrolled her in this class because the instructor is really good and has had success with timid personalities before.

Terra also suffers from submissive pee-ing so the instructor is going to help me work on that. Now as far as the 'sit' command. I have heard never teach a show dog to sit. Is that true? The instructor is wanting us to eventually use hand signals more than verbal directions as dogs are body language oriented. Do you think it would be alright to teach her to sit that way as she would not be getting the hand signal in the ring?

Brit, I am actually researching to try to switch all my malts to home made meals so that suggestion is spot on!

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How old is Terra now? Cadeau had a few issues as a puppy. Most of the time I never would have called him shy, but clearly the very large setting of a bunch of much bigger dogs at PuppyK intimidated him. Then a huge dog launched at him (over a babygate at that class). I figure those signs led to him being reactive. for sure, it was a challenge for his show career and continues to be a challenge for his obedience career. I had him out to classes a lot, and it wasn't enough. Of course, I know now that I made some mistakes with him and should have done more back when he was a puppy.

As for sit, I taught it with my show dogs. BUT for most dogs it becomes a default behavior, the first one they offer when they are trying to figure out what you want. So that is not what you want. What I do with my show dogs is try to teach stand 70%-80% of the time instead of sit. You can do that in class, too. When the instructor asks you to work on sit, ask her if she can work with some stands instead given your particular needs. When you move on in class to stays, you can work on stand stays instead of sit stays.

CloudClan said:

How old is Terra now? Cadeau had a few issues as a puppy. Most of the time I never would have called him shy, but clearly the very large setting of a bunch of much bigger dogs at PuppyK intimidated him. Then a huge dog launched at him (over a babygate at that class). I figure those signs led to him being reactive. for sure, it was a challenge for his show career and continues to be a challenge for his obedience career. I had him out to classes a lot, and it wasn't enough. Of course, I know now that I made some mistakes with him and should have done more back when he was a puppy.

As for sit, I taught it with my show dogs. BUT for most dogs it becomes a default behavior, the first one they offer when they are trying to figure out what you want. So that is not what you want. What I do with my show dogs is try to teach stand 70%-80% of the time instead of sit. You can do that in class, too. When the instructor asks you to work on sit, ask her if she can work with some stands instead given your particular needs. When you move on in class to stays, you can work on stand stays instead of sit stays.

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Terra is 7 1/2 months old now. She has always had the really submissive personality...ie rolling over as soon as you reach to pet her (and even peeing a bit). I have been trying to not excite her and let her come to me. She used to never walk on the lead but we finally made a break through and she walks a lot better now. I try to get her to walk more than I carry her.

As far as big dogs, the class has 4 other puppies in there: a beagle mix, a boxer mix, a blood hound, and a black lab. I am a bit concerned with her being so timid. This first class was free-play and she did not want any part of it. She hid behind me the whole time. The instructor told me to put her on the floor and ignore her. The big dogs sniffed and tried to engage her twice but she didn't want any part of it. They ignored her after that. The rest of the classes will have a bit of free play in the beginning and then formal instruction and practice.

Obviously I don't want to make her "worse" or give her additional issues. I trust her as the professional but of course am not going to just sit back and allow my dog to come to any mental harm. The instructor says she will relax by the end of the 8 weeks...maybe not play but relax a bit. What do you all think?

Thanks again ladies. JMM i have tried to work my schedule to come to the Training Club but with kids activities it seems impossible at the moment.

Honestly? I wouldn't trust the "professional" too much. A lot of obedience folks are not familiar with small dogs. And a lot of trainers do not have to do a lot of study to be certified for this kind of work.

I am not saying it was bad advice what she said to put her down and ignore her, bc there is a good reason for it. You don't want to coddle her and make her think she has a reason to be afraid. Picking her up and comforting her when she is nervous will make her think she has reason to be nervous.

7.5 months is around the time when I first noticed truly reactive behavior with Cadeau and you want to do all you can at this point to make her feel secure in the presence of the other dogs. It is a balance though, you don't want to push her too far too fast. So if she didn't react too much to the other dogs coming over, that is good. If on the other hand she was running behind you in terror? not so good. That would mean it was too much for her and not a positive experience. I am working with a trainer now who is much more familiar with the kind of issues that Cadeau has and she is having us put them kind of right up to the edge of their comfort zone. Giving them treats, but helping us to read signals so we don't put them beyond their comfort zone and end up with a bad experience which just solidifies bad habits. Does that make sense?