[~Karla~]

About changing puppy preschools.

First session at the new one last night, and it was an hour of sitting down listening to someone read out of a folder while the puppies were expected to sit on their mats calmly. There was one aggressive pup who the instructor told the owner to pick up and hold, because she was growling and snarling and barking and trying to attack the other dogs. Not quite the doggie manners I was expecting to be taught...

Oh well, I just need to wait for the last vx to kick in and we can start taking her out to meet other dogs next week.

[~*Twilight~Zone*...]

That doesn't sound any good at all.

What a waste of time

[steppy]

OMG how boring. People really do that at puppy schools? What a waste of time.

[~Karla~]

I know. The girl who took the last one was a bit of a nutter but at least she was a good dog trainer. There was lots of interacting between every person there and every puppy, lots of play between puppies and basic commands, good ideas for TT'ing and to stop furniture chewing, what good doggie manners are and how to teach/enforce them etc.

Last night, the pups got about 10 minutes off lead to play and the rest was really basic "only feed your dogs premimum dry food" and similar generic, bland advice. What a waste of money seeing as I've paid in advance.

[*Ker*]

I'd try to get my money back. She's an idiot and doesn't know what she's talking about. You DON'T pick up and hold an aggressive dog because you're raising her level above the others AND rewarding her. She should be teaching distraction techniques.

Idiot.

[~Karla~]

I know ker! It's crazy!

[*Spikey*]

Sounds decidedly odd. The infotainment is supposed to happen while your puppies are playing. They're puppies - they have no idea how to remain still, and they have the attention spans of gnats.

Try for your money back if you can. Good luck.

[caninestorm]

Ok, I'm here to put a positive spin on the situation

One of the most important things for a dog to learn is to be able to settle with distractions... being able to sit/lie calmly while you are talking to someone or are busy doing something. So you can get off to a good start with that... reward your pup when they are calm and on their mat. You can start to associate a word with the mat... so that you can send him there when you need to. Pups are never too young to learn how to settle, although you obviously shouldn't expect too much at the start

When the puppy that is carrying on makes noise, ask for your pup's attention (using his name usually) and reward that. It's a great lesson for him that even when someone else is misbehaving, he should pay attention to you!

I want my dogs to be able to be in a group of other dogs without constantly wanting to play or investigate, so this is a positive as well. I'm not a fan of puppy preschools that are nearly all play. My dogs do learn appropriate play but generally with either one other compatible puppy at a time, or with a small group of older dogs who have predictable temperaments and reactions. As a result, they're able to interact in a group of dogs without being completely silly about it

So... glass half full, not half empty

[Red Cabbage]

I get what caninestorm is saying, but then I think... she's (the puppy preschool trainer) giving advice of picking up an aggressive dominant dog, surely she has no idea of what she is talking about.

[caninestorm]

There's more than one way to train dogs. Personally I don't think that picking up a young puppy who is acting aggressively (ie. scared or overstimulated) the worst thing in the world. It's a way of removing it from the situation which is ok, I think as the behaviour is an emotional one it's more difficult to reinforce than most people think... I do think that the puppy obviously needs further training and socialisation, so I hope the trainer did recommend that.

Anyway, I didn't really listen to a word my trainer said in puppy preschool, but I went for the reasons I mentioned in my previous post

Edit: A baby puppy isn't "dominant" and "aggressive". It is most likely fearful.

This post has been edited by caninestorm: 11/01/2013, 07:11 PM