She cracks me up! I know, easy for me to day. I'm sure you'll see a big improvement once class starts, I did with Uschi and Abby sounds like her little sister. I took her early and let her run around and wrestle with the other dogs since the training park is completely fenced. The trainer switched her to a prong collar and got instant results! She might do well on one later on, see how it goes. Good luck!
Getting Abby ready for training class
I got a call from the local trainer yesterday morning and
they have a spot for us in their next class. We missed
out on the previous class because of poor timing and
the need for vaccinations. We are set to start the 28th.
So with that in mind I decided to give Abby a little
head start on my own. Ive already been teaching her
basic commands and doing fairly well but havnt done
any real leash work. Ive just been letting her pull me
around.
Yesterday I put the tags on her collar. ID tag and rabies
vac tag. She did not like this at all. She spent the next
ten minutes trying to figure a way to get this annoying
jangling thing off. It was pretty funny watching her
rolling around on the ground trying unsuccessfully to
bite those tags.
To take her mind off the tags I put a chain type
training (choke) collar on her. All **** broke loose!
She went really nuts trying to get all this "stuff"
off her. In between fits of hysteria she gave me some
pretty evil looks. Like it was all my fault or something...
After about 5 minutes of that she got herself pretty
worn out so we went for a walk. She calmed down pretty
quick once she realized it wasnt nearly as easy to drag
me down the road now.
By the end of the day we had 4 or 5 walks in and she
was doing pretty good. Not walking at heel or anything
like that but pretty good nonetheless.
That evening I let her loose to play with one of the
neighborhood dogs. "Buddy", a big yellow lab. 3 years
old and 95 pounds of dog. Abby beat him into submission.
I think she let loose all her frustrations on him.
He finally went to his owner for protection and started with
some "Get me out of here!" barking.
I have no sympathy for Buddy. When he was a pup he used
to aggravate the heck out of my old Shepherd Mikey.
Turnabout is fair play...
they have a spot for us in their next class. We missed
out on the previous class because of poor timing and
the need for vaccinations. We are set to start the 28th.
So with that in mind I decided to give Abby a little
head start on my own. Ive already been teaching her
basic commands and doing fairly well but havnt done
any real leash work. Ive just been letting her pull me
around.
Yesterday I put the tags on her collar. ID tag and rabies
vac tag. She did not like this at all. She spent the next
ten minutes trying to figure a way to get this annoying
jangling thing off. It was pretty funny watching her
rolling around on the ground trying unsuccessfully to
bite those tags.
To take her mind off the tags I put a chain type
training (choke) collar on her. All **** broke loose!
She went really nuts trying to get all this "stuff"
off her. In between fits of hysteria she gave me some
pretty evil looks. Like it was all my fault or something...
After about 5 minutes of that she got herself pretty
worn out so we went for a walk. She calmed down pretty
quick once she realized it wasnt nearly as easy to drag
me down the road now.
By the end of the day we had 4 or 5 walks in and she
was doing pretty good. Not walking at heel or anything
like that but pretty good nonetheless.
That evening I let her loose to play with one of the
neighborhood dogs. "Buddy", a big yellow lab. 3 years
old and 95 pounds of dog. Abby beat him into submission.
I think she let loose all her frustrations on him.
He finally went to his owner for protection and started with
some "Get me out of here!" barking.
I have no sympathy for Buddy. When he was a pup he used
to aggravate the heck out of my old Shepherd Mikey.
Turnabout is fair play...
1 - 8 of 8 Posts
Im beginning to think that way to. Some of her anticsShe cracks me up!
while annoying are also pretty funny.
I wish I would of had my camera while she was rolling
around trying to get that collar off her. Didnt think of it
until afterwards.
And again when she was wearing down old Buddy.
Buddy has a reputation for playing pretty rough but
he was no match for Abby at full tilt. Even though he
is twice her size and more than twice her weight.
I should of got pictures. Even Buddy's owner thought
it was pretty funny.
After she resigned herself to the choker things went
pretty well. I think she will do well in the class. She
is smart. Just need to get her to use those smarts
for something other than aggravating me.
She's about to enter a whole new world! One of the best times I had with Uschi was during a class when she actually looked into my eyes and had this expression like 'why didn't you just tell me what to do before now?' Once I was able to get her focused on me and gave her a job to do, she excelled beyond my wildest dreams. I was continually surprised at how well she did every week and she really enjoyed it- finally she had something to do. And I was praising her and giving her treats besides! It helped our relationship immensely.
School is fun! I ask my dogs, Do you want to go to school? And they are ready to go.
I put my dogs' tags on a special collar that only gets used when we drive out of town or go to towns that are known to be anti-dog. I keep them in my car in case I get asked for rabies proof. I hate the jingling! Otherwise, my dogs wear a flat leather collar for strength.
I put my dogs' tags on a special collar that only gets used when we drive out of town or go to towns that are known to be anti-dog. I keep them in my car in case I get asked for rabies proof. I hate the jingling! Otherwise, my dogs wear a flat leather collar for strength.
Wolfie starts school on Tuesday. I hope that Abby and Wolfie enjoy and learn a lot!
Since we will be starting training class soon I wanted
Abby to get used to the equipment and make an attempt
to get her to walk properly on leash.
Up to this point Ive let her pretty much pull me wherever
she wants. Partly because I initially had trouble getting
her to walk with me at all. (lay down strike) So once
she began to show more interest in walking I pretty much let her lead.
After getting used to the training collar she has been
walking pretty well. Not at a proper heel or anything
but actually pretty good considering where we were
just a few weeks ago.
One problem I noticed is she tends to crowd me.
I walk with her on the left and she continually angles
to the right trying to cut in front of me. If I let her lead
and keep moving to the right we will walk around in
circles! We did just that last night. Around and around
3 complete circles. Anybody watching probably was
wondering what the heck was wrong with us.
Ive tried walking into her trying to guide us to the left
but then she will duck behind me and over to my right side.
To keep walking straight I have to continually pull
her left with the leash.
Not a big issue and Im sure we can fix it when we get
started in our class. It just seemed a bit odd.
Abby to get used to the equipment and make an attempt
to get her to walk properly on leash.
Up to this point Ive let her pretty much pull me wherever
she wants. Partly because I initially had trouble getting
her to walk with me at all. (lay down strike) So once
she began to show more interest in walking I pretty much let her lead.
After getting used to the training collar she has been
walking pretty well. Not at a proper heel or anything
but actually pretty good considering where we were
just a few weeks ago.
One problem I noticed is she tends to crowd me.
I walk with her on the left and she continually angles
to the right trying to cut in front of me. If I let her lead
and keep moving to the right we will walk around in
circles! We did just that last night. Around and around
3 complete circles. Anybody watching probably was
wondering what the heck was wrong with us.
Ive tried walking into her trying to guide us to the left
but then she will duck behind me and over to my right side.
To keep walking straight I have to continually pull
her left with the leash.
Not a big issue and Im sure we can fix it when we get
started in our class. It just seemed a bit odd.
Once you're all in a group she'll probably fall in line and imitate the others. Uschi was constantly walking in front of me even off leash, so I was watching a video someone had posted about the 'move' command. It was more about the whole dominance issue but it really worked. The trainer had the dog on a loose leash not really going anywhere in particular and while the dog was meandering around he gently walked toward the side of the dog and quietly said move move move and the dog did. Sometimes he actually had to walk into the dog's side to move it out of the way. He wasn't trying to get the dog to follow but to move away from his path. When I did this with Uschi her ears were going all over the place like 'what the heck?' but she did move and kept an eye on me because she didn't know where I was going next. Instead of me steering her or jerking her along with the leash, she just watched over her shoulder and anticipated where I was going to go. Looked ridiculous I'm sure, but it worked. Geez, I get chills just thinking about what a PITA she was and all the work it took! But she's a fabulous dog today, at 11 months. I've got more grey hairs but I like to call them highlights
1 - 8 of 8 Posts
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