Inky and I have been going to the same training classes since he was a puppy (now14 months old) and last week I decided to change trainers. I've been looking for a positive trainer and found one who also uses clickers. We're going for the first time tomorrow and I'm feeling slightly nervous so thought if I posted it, I won't be able to back out!
I bet you’ll enjoy it. Molly is the first of my dogs that I’ve used a clicker with and she gets really excited when she sees it. I’ve found it great for teaching positions and selecting particular objects.
Lucky I'd posted about the new class, as I was driving I nearly turned round! Anyway it was a great class and both of us enjoyed it. There were only 4 dogs, usually more I think. Started with a brief warm up, simple commands to string together , then we did an exercise where we were given a toy, we had a tug roap and we played then stopped, gradually increasing the stop time. Then we did what the trainer called project time. She has increasingly different things for you to do, we started at the basic A, it goes to S. she gave individual attention and help. Finally we did heel work, Inky did start his usual scan of the ground but the trainer wasn't fazed when we just moved away. He came back and we did walking towards other dogs which he's not too bad at. She suggested when would be good to use the clicker which Inky loves anyway. All in all, a good experience. I think it's reading other people's experience of training and changing classes that gave me the confidence to do this too. It's only too easy to think the "experts" know best and you are doing something wrong.
Yes exactly this! Sounds like you've made a good move and I hope it continues to be enjoyable for you both.
Just an update on our training. Although we've only been to 3 classes because of kennel cough, Christmas etc they have given a boost to our training and reading on this website has given me ideas of what I should be doing. I'm certainly not a natural dog trainer but by paying more attention to Inky and rewarding behavior that I want he now walks much better on the lead. He likes to stay quite close so recall is pretty good and he enjoys the games suggested on sites like Absolute Dogs. I think we have a much more fun relationship which is a win win situation. Yesterday we did our scent workshop i mentioned somewhere. As usual, I was very nervous but shouldn't have worried. We started with some background information about scenting then she assessed whether the dogs were toy or food motivated. Interestingly when she saw Inky playing tug she thought toy motivated. Increasing the value of games like tug is something we have been working on. We used toy mice which you keep in a tin which contains a sachet of catnip so they are scented with that. The game progressed from throwing the mouse with the dog watching to the trainer hiding it inside a box within another box. Neither the handler or dog knew where it was and every time the dogs found it. Some needed a bit of help to open the boxes but the aim was for the dog to actually get it out and then you have both have a game with the mouse to increase it's value. There was quite a lot of waiting around, although Inky wasn't very settled, he was manageable and it was very interesting to watch the other dogs. Some other people had those soft crates but I feel that's something else to train! All in all an interesting enjoyable day, we had another go at home today and I'll definitely be going to further workshops when they are available. Don't know if I'm allowed to name the company?
Absolutely I’m going to hazard a guess that it’s Scentworks as you mentioned the mice They have books and videos you can buy or rent through Vimeo if you can’t get to the workshops.
