So true @Boogie and I think it's what drives us to be the best (positive reward) trainer we can be with our dogs - even if we do beat ourselves up in the process.
Thank you all for your replies. The trainer is very careful about releasing the dogs and does assess them all and any sign of them going over the top is quickly quelled, so I'm happy with that, and it isn't compulsory, it's certainly easily avoided in the beginning and I could just take her home at the end. The club has good secure grounds so they can't escape. When we joined it was puppy improvers and so it might be a sort of carry on from the puppy classes, we've been split now as there were too many for one session. Not sure what we are in now -- remedials probably It's just that one week there was a lot of barking, and Cassie started to do it too which I really don't like, she did a bit when she saw other dogs from the car etc which was new, but I think she's stopped now. I was concerned that it might be giving her the idea that all dogs are there for fun, but I'm probably over thinking things again. As some have said only I know really. We won't be there until Sept now for various reasons, so I'll see how it goes. The thing I really don't like though is other owners letting their dogs interact when they are on leads/harnesses. @Boogie , the fear of failure, justifies a thread of it's own
Same here. At Primary School I was made to stand up infront of the class to answer maths questions my teacher knew I couldn't answer. Many times he would throw a wooden blackboard rubber cross the classroom at me for failing to give the correct answer. All my life I have been completely terrified of numbers, am alwful at all maths due to this awful teacher. It really is a deep seated fear of failure which carries on into other areas of my life xx
Awful hearing about these sadistic 'teachers'. Just illustrates how damaging it is to use aversives in your training....for dogs and humans.
I think this is a huge difference in where we live as (as I've whinged about it a million times before) in Melbourne there are very few places that a dog is allowed off lead so I think they just get used to saying hello to other dogs on lead. At our dog club we can only let our dogs off lead in class, for training. When we get to class we allow our dogs to say a quick, controlled hello (on lead) before we get working. I used to have Ella just sit and watch the 'hellos' as she was too loopy to join in but, in time, we've been able to join in. Perhaps, if you don't mind her having a run after class, you could let her do it occasionally and just leave straight after class all of the other times. That way she won't start expecting it each time?
Ours also interact on leads/harnesses when we first arrive, hoping for some free play. If a dog joins the class later so that Coco hasn't had a chance to greet, either on or off lead, he can be a bit of a nightmare. There were 4 who arrived later last night, he was fine with them - I think he is maturing. NB Ours is a very basic training class. Coco is already quite good at most of the things asked of him. We primarily use it for exposure to dogs in a controlled environment and for the free play.
We have a 'sniffy corner' at our GD puppy classes. Each of us puts our dog's blanket there and, before class, we take each of them for a sniff of all the blankets. This happens after all have arrived and as the class is about to start. They get all the information they need from this. Our trainer says they can even tell what each dog has had for breakfast lol. But no dog-dog interaction is allowed at all.
In our puppy classes, the trainer did something similar to the structure at @Boogie's GD classes. Each puppy had their mats/beds, and we played musical chairs with them . The puppies were not allowed to sniff each other, but were led on a loose lead to another puppies mat for a sniff. When they looked at us they were rewarded, then off to explore the next mat and another adventure! They loved this game, win win all round
