So my spoo, Tango, is now 9 months old. We have had her for 2 and 1/2 months now. I feel like everyone in the family is bonding well. Tango prefers me and I'm the person doing nearly all of the training. I hired a trainer for guidance on general obedience training and my goal is to one day have a therapy dog. The trainer has been to our home a few times and last night we had our first puppy class. Tango and I left that class in such an upset state. This trainer was addressing a classmates concern about her Newfoundland pup jumping on people. The trainer said, "You need to start taking her down. Grab her by the scruff and take her down to the floor. If you can't get her by the scruff the sweep her legs." I was mortified! Then the trainer tried to elicit jumping from this 100 pound pup to demonstrate. I was dumbfounded. Then there was a sit-stay and down-stay exercise. Tango is not great at lying down on command and I knew she would really resist as we were on cold concrete and she seems to have a sensitive tummy. Anyway, the trainer sees that Tango keeps popping up out of a down-stay so she "demonstrates" how to get her to stay down. I'm sure you can guess what happened....it involved stepping on the leash and forcing Tango down.
That was the end of class...we headed out the door as fast as we could go. I came home and loved on my puppy then started watching Ian Dunbar videos on YouTube.
I have been slowly working my way through the different threads in the General Training and Obedience topic. Can someone tell me what certifications to look for in a trainer? What are the most important questions to ask? Or do I watch videos and read books and tackle things on my own? Tango is a darling pup. Very easy going and a fast learner. She's also very sensitive and if she doesn't understand what the target behavior is she shuts down after just a few tries.
Hopefully this post has made sense. I'm still so upset and feeling horribly guilty about taking Tango to that class.
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That was the end of class...we headed out the door as fast as we could go. I came home and loved on my puppy then started watching Ian Dunbar videos on YouTube.
I have been slowly working my way through the different threads in the General Training and Obedience topic. Can someone tell me what certifications to look for in a trainer? What are the most important questions to ask? Or do I watch videos and read books and tackle things on my own? Tango is a darling pup. Very easy going and a fast learner. She's also very sensitive and if she doesn't understand what the target behavior is she shuts down after just a few tries.
Hopefully this post has made sense. I'm still so upset and feeling horribly guilty about taking Tango to that class.
Sent from my LM-X410(FG) using Tapatalk