Tonight at dog training classes my boy, who usually gets so excited to meet other dogs he completely forgets everything and everybody in his desperation to play, was very calm and unreactive to a new dog in class, who is a rescue dog, very timid but highly reactive to other dogs. The poor love had spent most of the class barking, growling and actually going for one of the other dogs, and when my boy had to walk past her (we were loose lead walking and changing direction at the time), she was barking and straining to get to Bailey, but he looked and me and carried on walking past. My OH was watching and was very impressed and proud of him too - but in a butch manly way you understand However as for walking through the cones later...oh dear....think we collected more than we went round but to be fair to Bailey he does spend part of each week helping the OH collect cones from rugby pitches so he was just clearing up . I kind of knew when I saw the cones that we would be bottom of the class on that one
Fantastic . Well done to you both. It does seem sometimes that they will never calm down, then all of a sudden you get a breakthrough
Cooper used to do the same with cones.....just when you thought you had gone past one and then two, he would grab the third.....everyone knew he would....I think they would have been disappointed if he had not! Of course, that made all the rest of the doggies and owners look really good! And I dont have the excuse you have about collecting cones from rugby pitches!!!
So adorable! Something to hopefully look forward to with our 12 week old. She is so distracted by everything! Last night at her first class, she spent most of it doing an army crawl, whining or barking to try and play with the other dogs! All the others were paying attention to their owners, not Corona!
Ah don't you hate it when they're brilliant for the first half of the class? They lull you into a temporary smug state and then BAM, it all goes tits up. Poor Bailey, how was he to know that not all cones are fun helpingdadtidyup cones
I think sometimes they are like children. If there is someone worse behaved, they kind of just look on, almost like wow! Look at them mum, I'm being a good boy! He he Well done Bailey.....cones are clearly for retrieving, what were they doing!
Thank you all - still smiling this morning about it...yup love it when they behave and lull you into that false sense of security and then BAM...you're the one that everyone is looking at in horror....good job I have a good sense of humour! Must say everyone was laughing at the cone collection routine . @jeanine feel your pain...been there - front paws and legs flat on the ground and bum high in the air (Bailey not me!) and the whining and then the leap.....it does get better honestly. I always have treats in my pocket when we go to class and Bailey has twigged that fact, so his attention pretty much is on me! Next Tuesday is our final class, here's hoping that we don't need to walk between cones to pass!
If collecting cones is something useful to you and he's been taught to help then it will be confusing if he has to leave them. Would you trainer use something else for Bailey for this exercise and let him collect the cones at the end.
Walking calmly past a barking dog is really something to celebrate- well done! (And much more important to achieve than walking between cones.)
That's super work from Bailey. You must be feeling very proud of him. As for the cones...well he was just doing his job wasn't he?
The trainer was very understanding when we explained why he was picking them up....funnily enough it is not something we have specifically trained, he just started following the OH and was picking them up so now as soon as white lining the pitches is finished he goes round with the OH collecting them - and even now bringing them back too! It seems to be something Bailey enjoys so we will be carrying on with it - @snowbunny yes my boy likes those type of cones too!
Love that pic of Willow! Laughing about the best behavior in class because of treats. My puppy class teacher is like, "She's AMAZING!" Me: "Um, she knows I always have treats in here so of course she is on best behavior." She said, "That's FINE!"
