I took Charlie to a new class a couple of weeks ago. I thought he was awful. He pulled me through the gate - he's nearly 4 for goodness sakes! - and then dragged me across to the water bowl. It took me ages to get him to settle down and stop whining. And so on. Another student - who I hadn't noticed but knew from another class I had done when Charlie was much younger - later told me I must be so proud of Charlie, he was now so sensible and grown up. I looked at her hard in case she was being sarcastic, but she wasn't. She just hadn't been watching him all that closely, and had just glanced up when he happened to be doing ok. People are a lot less interested and observant than you think, you know.
Thank you for this post, @Emily_BabbelHund .... you've just made me feel really good! (although I'm not sure that Pongo and I could ever claim to have "advanced through the higher levels of training"... )
I double checked the date this was first posted, it sounds so much like a thread I've read before on here, where the trainer's only suggestion was to neuter. I didn't read all the responses but I bet they are the same: 9 months is hard, neuter might not cut it , the trainer should have better ideas and maybe isn't the best trainer, neutered dogs can be just as bad. Persevere. Think of it this way too, that kind of activity is best to deal with IN training class where you can learn how to deal with it, except, sorry, it seems the trainer let you down badly.
I met an owner of a black lab at the dog park the other day. She said, "He was definitely the worst at the start of every class, but he was always the best at the end of training." It is so true. Our first set of puppy class and Sparky was pulling every which way and not paying attention to us. The trainer recommended that we buy her brand of treats since they work very well, but they were so hard to find. I figured I'll cheat and now I use boiled chicken or chicken dogs and he is 95% locked to me. He did excellent at the last day of class. Second set of classes started last week and he was so overactive that he was pulling every way. The trainer said that now that we have adolescent pups, she expects good manners whenever we are at the school. So need to work on jumping on people, pulling, and waiting at the door. He's already picking up at stopping at the door and waiting, still needs work with jumping. I do admit I have been slacking with training and I been spending more time lately training now. Brought him to big puppy play yesterday and he was so well behaved compared to the other pups who are much older than him. He just sat with us at the corner sitting settled down, maybe a couple of times of sudden pulling, but he stayed calm until we let him loose. All the other pups were bounding and pulling their leashes. My trainer has not once mentioned yet anything about neutering. Initially I was planning on getting him neutered at 9 months, but I guess I'll wait until 12 months.
Sounds so familiar. I made the mistake of sticking at the wrong dog school for 1 year! If you can, I would strongly recommend finding a dog school where you feel comfortable and where you feel you're making progress. The dog school that didn't work for us had about 50-60 dogs on the field in various classes, a lot of noise and shouting, and just too many distractions for a young Lab. We were also told to neuter Snowie -- by someone who called herself a behaviourist. We found a new school that only had 4-6 dogs present (no other classes were taking place), the trainer was a positive-only trainer, she was gentle and insisted we spoke in gentle tones only, it was very quiet, and it was an ideal place to learn new skills for both me and my dog. Snowie improved in leaps and bounds, although of course there is no denying that his age counted towards this -- he was now older (1.5 years old) and more mature. He is now 5 years old and still intact. No intention of neutering him. He's calm and easy around other dogs. I never thought we'd get to this point given that one trainer at the old school said to me with disdain: All the other dogs have progressed except Snowie. That was the final straw -- and who would've thought it was a good thing, but I finally came to my senses and left that school. Another thing you can do is get a 1-on-1 trainer and ditch school altogether. From what I could see from our local park, the people who had 1-on-1 trainers had far more control over their dogs. Sometimes you just need an experienced person to focus only on you and help you and your dog, and teach you skills that you can practice in your own time. Dog school is a very slow way of going about training because there are so many of you and the trainer has very little time to help you fix your mistakes. A few 1-on-1 sessions might be all that you need to set you on the right track so that you can continue the good stuff when you're out and about outside of the school framework. And... as many people will tell you, training isn't a once-a-week thing at school; it needs to happen all the time!!
