Today was Baron and I first day at class. I have never been in an Obedience class before and didn't know what to expect but I *think* I'm disappointed :(
What was I thinking it would be? I *don't* know! What I am having a problem with is the fact that the class is more like a train the trainer class. The instructor gives us the "how to" which is fine but we don't get to work with it that much in the class which is what I think I need more of.
I don't need the "how to" , at least not for what we learned today. Rather I need more time to train Baron with the distractions in place.
OR perhaps I'm jumping the gun. Baron knows certain cues and with THOSE I need the advantage of being able to train him with distractions in place. NEW cues I do not.
I'm going to stick it out and see how it goes.
Today went like this however...
When we first got to Zoom Room there was an Agility class just finishing up and several of Baron's classmates waiting around. Baron got a bit excited with a young lab and a white German Shepherd but I kept the c/t high and we did ok. There was one or two moments when Baron tried to pull to get to another dog but it wasn't too bad.
The first thing the instructor does with our class is introduce everyone to the clicker. Baron and I already were using it to keep him calm and next to me but she offered one to us anyways. I'm sure I can always use more clickers.
She teaches everyone to load the clicker by having us all click and then treat the dogs. This confused Baron somewhat because he kept hearing all the clicks.
We move on to being instructed to teach the dogs their names. So when we call their name we were to click when they look at us.
Next was sit and then down. Baron flew by sit with flying colors but down was a way different situation. For whatever reason he just did not want to down. So I went with step one of down and lured him down. We did this two or three times and I can still see we need practice but this tells me I'm not training down enough.
After down was "stay". I made the mistake and told Baron to "stay" and then had him to come. The instructor stated that "stay" means we come to the dog. Ok. I can do that but I seriously do not see much of a difference but I'll start training Stay differently than I do Wait in case I run into a reason why later.
Next was "watch me" which is the same as my "focus" and since I've already started using "focus" I figure I'll stick with it. Baron had a very hard time focusing in class. He paid more attention to the other dogs getting a treat rather than to me. I have been training with the idea of luring the behavior or shaping the behavior , clicking for that behavior and once the dog gets it then start to train the cue.
So this isn't possible here in this environment. If I tried to wait for the behavior I would be waiting forever.
I talked with Donna Hill today about this and she suggested teaching Baron "look at this" rather than "watch me" and by doing so he will ultimately focus more on me since I'm giving the treats.
That's not a bad idea and I'm going to give it a shot to see what happens. Since it's two different cues I don't think it will confuse Baron.
So far I do like the instructor but I don't agree with one thing she said. She told one of the girls in the class who had a problem with her dog barking right when she was about to give the treat to not give the dog the treat if he barks. Well I was always told if you click the click meant treat. Even if it was an accidental click so you don't want to break that association.
To me there should have been a time when the girl trained the dog on how not to bark when she treated him instead. Just my opinion.
Anyways, I think the class has it's purpose in Baron's training so I will continue but I'm not sure how much training he will get in these classes really.
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