I took my GSD puppy to classes?
Question by flower: I took my GSD puppy to classes?
well the classes didnt start till he was already 18 weeks old (we are rural and bad weather cancelled classes for a long time), when he went, he was pretty scared, and barked alot.
Anyway, the trainor basically told us to stand in the corner with him on his leash, and she put chairs up so he couldnt see the other dogs, and told us to keep feeding him treats when he was quiet.
So, we spent a whole hour feeding him treats. Then when we arrive again the next week its exactly the same. I felt terrible because he didnt get to meet or socialise with any dogs, just sit in the corner getting fed. His behaviour is much worse since this as he barks all the time at other dogs now and gets stressed on the lead when other dogs are around. Is this normal for puppy classes?
Best answer:
Answer by itsmetrea
Find a better trainer!
What do you think? Answer below!
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What the hell is wrong with your trainer? I hope you didn’t pay money for those sessions.
Find somewhere else to go and demand your money back. That’s not the appropriate way to deal with an excited, under-socialized dog.
Best of luck.
actually yes it is. there are plenty of dogs who have trouble in classes! mine did. and i know it can be frustrating and seem like you are wasting your time but stay strong!! eventually your dog will calm down and get used to other dogs, new people and new situations. just be patient.
if over time though nothing changes and he just gets worse, i recommend getting an in home personal dog trainer. that is what i had to do and now my dog is great! i had an over aggressive GSD puppy who hated other dogs out of fear. and with training now he is fine.
I agree with the positive treat reinforcement when your dog is not barking, but the chair barrier is rather odd. Not being at the class, I could not judge the trainers intentions with that, but I would think it would help cause barrier aggression.
I know that it probably is not a possibility, but perhaps private training sessions would be better to start with so you have a bit more control in group situations. If you have a friend who has a well behaved dog that you could socialize your puppy with before he takes on the big group again. Best of luck!
Separating the dog from other dogs is NOT solving the problem.
What your puppy needs is de-sensitivity training. It does not need to be brought into a clearly uncomfortable situation then blocked into a corner to be fed treats – feeding treats at the wrong time could EASILY enforce the wrong behaviors.
De-Sensitivity training is where you work alone at first on building up trust: the puppy learns some basic commands and acts them out perfectly. THEN a single dog that is already well behaved and trained is brought into the other side of the room.
You work on keeping your puppies attention and going through the commands that are already well known. Repeat this several times. Then when the pup doesn’t even LOOK at the other dog when it comes in, bring the dog closer. Repeat, then bring even closer.
Get the idea? When your puppy no longer responds to you, you know you’ve brought the dog too close and end the session for now (begin again later with the dog farther away.) Eventually the goal is to have the puppy feel comfortable enough to be within a few feet of the other dog yet still be able to take or learn a command.
Greeting isn’t so much a goal in this as it is a perk. The proper trainer would start out slow and would stop and back up when the pup felt uncomfortable. They would not close the pup off from other dogs. The fact that this trainer not only had you STAY when the pup was clearly not comfortable and WORK on training… well… it was clearly too much for the puppy and made everything worse.