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So I took my 18 week old puppy Hugo to his first puppy class tonight and the trainer was horrible!! I live in a very small town and this is the only class around for at least 45 min.
When we first sat in the circle we went around and said what we expected out of the class. The whole time Hugo was acting like an 18 week old puppy would act. (barking because he wanted to play and mouthing me ) The "trainer" stops talking with the other lady (only 3 ppl in the class) and told me I need to correct this behavior right away because this is him being aggressive. She then directed me on how to do an alpha roll!? When I told her that the alpha roll is not something I am interested in doing, she told me that since I have 2 young children I needed to do my research and that maybe a GSD was not the dog for me! I have been working soooooo hard with Hugo and his mouthing is 95% better than what it used to be! He is getting in his adult teeth and I'm sure he is in some pain. We are very successful with redirecting and turning our backs to him. When I told her that, she said that method is just a temporary fix and he will be very aggressive when he gets older if I don't show him that I'm the dominant one by doing the alpha roll. She even went as far to say that my son should stand over him as I do it! That is when I told her I would no longer be attending the class and I told the other ladies that her methods are only going to make things worse and I don't believe in dominating my dog!
Sorry for the book
but I am just sooo upset right now. I came home crying to my husband because I felt like I am doing everything wrong! Ugh... That lady was NUTS!
When we first sat in the circle we went around and said what we expected out of the class. The whole time Hugo was acting like an 18 week old puppy would act. (barking because he wanted to play and mouthing me ) The "trainer" stops talking with the other lady (only 3 ppl in the class) and told me I need to correct this behavior right away because this is him being aggressive. She then directed me on how to do an alpha roll!? When I told her that the alpha roll is not something I am interested in doing, she told me that since I have 2 young children I needed to do my research and that maybe a GSD was not the dog for me! I have been working soooooo hard with Hugo and his mouthing is 95% better than what it used to be! He is getting in his adult teeth and I'm sure he is in some pain. We are very successful with redirecting and turning our backs to him. When I told her that, she said that method is just a temporary fix and he will be very aggressive when he gets older if I don't show him that I'm the dominant one by doing the alpha roll. She even went as far to say that my son should stand over him as I do it! That is when I told her I would no longer be attending the class and I told the other ladies that her methods are only going to make things worse and I don't believe in dominating my dog!
Sorry for the book