Dog training whinge

blackcob

blackcob

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Still haven't been able to find a suitable weekly training class. This is getting very, very dull now. :rolleyes:

- One trainer wanted me to pay £55 for a six week course, the first two weeks of which took place without the dogs. I can kind of see the point for very novice dog owners, maybe, but I resent paying that amount of money to spend two weeks being told some rubbish about dominance and pack leadership. :o

- One trainer turned out to be not a dog trainer at all, despite advertising as one, but a hardcore agility club with no beginner's sessions or obedience training at all. All collies. :p

- I think I've already whinged about crazy clicker lady. Clickers are not the only dog training tool, crazy clicker lady!

- The one promising club, nearly an hour's drive away, told me all the right things and said he'd call me back to book the first one-to-one session. I've rung and emailed several times since with no answer. :confused:

In desperation today I booked us in for a recall workshop being held locally by a Victoria Stillwell accredited trainer - two hour group session in a secure field, teaching 'watch', 'leave' and 'come' with distractions, perfick! Only, it's just a one-off session - no regular obedience class, just monthly workshops for various things or £50 p/h home visits. Oh, and "flat collars are to be used; no choke chains, check chains or slip leads allowed."

Taking bets on how quickly I put my back out introducing 27kg of teenage sibe to a group of young excitable dogs on a flat collar and lead... :p

Don't mind me, I'm bored again this evening and looking for a whinge. :o
 
NeverSayNever said:
have you asked the KC for a list of KC accredited clubs in your area?
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Yep, have gone through those as well. There's three in my area - one of which I missed off my whinge list - it's a purely residential course (you stay in one of their holiday cottages) and it's £250 per dog. :eek:

ETA: I'm lying, I've just looked it up on the KC website and there's one I haven't tried, fingers crossed!
 
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MurphysMinder said:
There used to be one or two reasonable clubs in Shrewsbury, is that too far?
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The workshop we're going to is in Shrewsbury. :) There's one other in Shrewsbury which asks you to sign up for an 8 week course but it's on a Thursday evening which is one of my work nights, sadly. That one is also purely geared towards the KC good citizen tests which I'm not too convinced about?
 
Well Evie went through the good citizen scheme, it is good for general pet level training but I think sometimes the problem is that the trainers are so focussed on getting you through the specific things in the test they ignore other things. I think it is quite normal to have to sign up and pay up front for a course, you have to remember that often the trainers have to pay for hire of hall etc so do need to be sure people will turn up. Did you want a class or just a one to one trainer, cos Mort Smith is supposed to be pretty good but he just does one to one I think. I used to know him when he ws a police dog handler, and I know tayloredequestrian on here found him very helpful with Bear.
I know how frustrating it is when a class clashes with something else, I have been unable to continue with Evies training cos its on a Monday when I have to taxi son to percussion group in Shrewsbury. :(
 
MurphysMinder said:
I think sometimes the problem is that the trainers are so focussed on getting you through the specific things in the test they ignore other things.
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That's my main concern with it, I think, she'd breeze through Bronze easily but I know for a fact she still has big ishoos and I don't want to just gloss over the problems to pass the examinations, if you see what I mean?

As above I've just seen one in Telford that I'd missed previously so will give them a call tomorrow. :)

I think she'd benefit most from a group class because on her own and on home turf she's pretty good, we've kind of reached a plateau with the long line work now, it just all goes to pieces in new exciting situations and especially with other exciting dogs around. Being able to work through what we already do at home but in a group scenario would be a huge step forwards.
 
Have you looked at specifically working dog trainers?

We took ours to a gun dog trainer and although the sessions were more expensive than "normal" classes, we didn't need many sessions, so it probably ended up cheaper :).

If I remember correctly, we only had 4 sessions to train both our dogs. We probably could have done with a couple more to perfect our 1/2 mile plus recall but we get by.
We travelled over an hour to him, which is why we only did a few. He was happy to let us go off though, iyswim.

I can't remember how much we paid and it was 9 years ago, so probably not relevant anyway :o.
 
There's several gundog trainers nearby but I can't help but think it would be a lost cause, very few people 'get' huskies and I suspect gundog people would understand them even less! It would amuse me to watch someone trying to persuade her to retrieve, though, probably worth paying for just to see that. :D

I would absolutely love a working dog trainer in the sense of dryland mushing but there's none anywhere near us, except for the odd kind person who has offered me the use of their scooter or rig, and even they are a couple of hours away. :(
 
We didn't do any retrieval.

We went completely raw, so they were taught to walk on the lead, to walk to heel off the lead, to come back when called (obviously :p) and to do long recall, 1/2 mile or so.

We didn't have to teach them to retrieve, that comes naturally to them :eek:.

Quite what more he would have done with us, I don't know.
We had done enough for what we wanted though :).
 
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