Finding a trainer

user55

Being mightily unsuccessful myself at this dog training malarky, I want to go along to a class, but I want someone who is more about positive rewards rather than the Ceaser Milan method!

Is there anyway of knowing what sort of trainer a class has, ie regulatory body or anything? Or is it just down to going along and seeing how they do things?

moomin5

There is the Association of Pet Dog Trainers http://www.apdt.co.uk/ which is how i found my last dog trainer. We did the Kennel Club bronze award with our trainer and had an seperate assessor to do the test at the end. It was all treat based reward training.

I would also recommend going along minus the dog and watching a class before you sign up so that you are happy with the methods used and teaching style, before handing over your cash.

The first dog training session we went to was advertised in the paper, i rang up and asked a few questions about what training methods they used etc and they said to pop along as 1st session was starting the following week.
Well within the first 5 minutes the guy was recommending choke chains and i knew it wasn't for us, but thought we'd sneak out when they were registering later. Well there was lots of lead yanking to walk to heel and no treats involved at all, then when he manhandled a cocker pup into a down and told the owner to hold it there and say "down", we just walked out.

Mrs_pbradley936

What kind of dog do you have? What are you trying to acheive? Some breeds are very trainable, others are almost impossible to train. If you have something like an Afghan Hound or a Beagle you are unlikely to train it to even come back when you call it!

user55

Greyhounds, and I'm not expecting recall to be very reliable LOL!

I have actually managed to get them to run to me 100% of the time in controlled situations using treats and a whistle, they picked that up quickly. But it's more basic stuff I'm after - lie down and leave being the 2 most useful things I could do with!

tylersbabe

Ohh greyhounds.....well you are doing better than me, after two months of training Evies (greyhound) recall is zilch anywhere but at home, flat/down is a confusing concept, but we can wait and leave, if we feel like it lol.

Good Luck from us dog training rebels, we kind of use it as a met and greet other doggies night out now but we continue to try

Mrs_pbradley936

Do you ever wonder why all the obedience dogs are Border Collies or Working Sheep dogs? They cannot wait do do what you ask of them - just watch them they appear stuck to your leg when doing heel work and they are looking at you awaiting your next command. Next in line comes the German Shepherd but they are better at Working Trials than pure obedience. WT involves jumping, scaling and tracking. You often see Weimaraners or Labradors and I have even seen a Pomeranian. But you don't see Greyhounds, Beagles or Afghan Hounds or Setters or .....well you only see Collies and GSDs for a reason.

user55

LOL I don't suppose I'll ever be able to enter them in obedience competitons, but at least one of them is young enough to learn. She's proved she can learn, she knows to get in her crate when I ask her because I reward her (very food orientated, my !!!!!!) She knows if she comes back when I blow the whistle I will reward her. However she is easily enough distracted in the big wide world that this is a rarely used skill. She's learned that I won't put her lead on until she is standing quietly instead of jumping around. And whole host of other stuff! Surely, surely, I can direct this intelligence in the direction of some basic, basic obedience. I think she would love agility classes, but until she listens and obeys there's no hope of doing that!

tylersbabe

user55 wrote: »

LOL I don't suppose I'll ever be able to enter them in obedience competitons, but at least one of them is young enough to learn. She's proved she can learn, she knows to get in her crate when I ask her because I reward her (very food orientated, my !!!!!!) She knows if she comes back when I blow the whistle I will reward her. However she is easily enough distracted in the big wide world that this is a rarely used skill. She's learned that I won't put her lead on until she is standing quietly instead of jumping around. And whole host of other stuff! Surely, surely, I can direct this intelligence in the direction of some basic, basic obedience. I think she would love agility classes, but until she listens and obeys there's no hope of doing that!

Actually I agree check out this ladies site for inspiration, now she and her greyhounds are amazing!

http://neversaynevergreyhounds.net/index.html

Kerriebaby

where do you live?

FWIW Afghans can and do "do" things, as indeed any dog can. Some may need a little more help of different training methods

I happen to know the owner of the Affie that was in 102 dalmatians

moomin5

My greyhounds passed the KC Bronze which is basic training stuff. We covered sit, down, stay, wait, heelwork and indoor re-call from what i can remember. There was a greyhound who was in the gold class so that gave us inspiration when we started.

I think the classes were more for our benefit to get confidence in training dogs, as the dogs behaved pretty well before classes. I have no ambitions to do any serious obedience stuff, if i did i wouldn't of got a hound bred for centuries to be an independent hunter.