Obedience classes in northamptonshire

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Tilda

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Hi All

I am new to the dog part of the forum so apologies if this isn't the sort of question I should ask here and if this ends up long!

I have an 18 month GSD who I would like to get out and socialise a bit more but I am restricted by my husband's working hours so am struggling to find a club type environment to take him to that runs after 7.30pm or at weekends.

He is a lovely well mannered dog he does the usual sit, stay, his recall is excellent and he has a lovely nature. He does have one problem hence the want to socialise him in that he feels the need to bark at every dog he meets. His tail does wag but he will bark and bark until he is allowed to sniff the other dog. We have a little old collie cross that he lives with and he obviously doesn't bark at her but we also had a rescue collie (now rehomed to a working home) who he used to scrap with and I think the barking at others stems from this. The GSD would never start the fight and was always the first to stop when we broke it up but I now worry about how he will react if another dog we met was aggressive to him. This worry is obviously transmitting to him and making him nervous hence the barking but I think perhaps if we met more dogs in a more controlled environment this would help our confidence.

I have previously had 2 GSDs (one male, one female) who were lovely dogs and never had these worries so I really want to try and nip this in the bud. Does anyone know of anywhere in northamptonshire or even huntingdon that might be able to help?

Many thanks to anyone who gets through this and who might be able to help :)
 
I'm nowhere near you but this gobbiness seems pretty common in young GSDs these days so don't worry overly.
You're also right to think that we humans can make it a lot worse through worry, fear, body language etc.
Your aim before you find a class should be to get him interested in food or a ball etc so that his focus is on you more than other dogs and you are the source of all good things.
GSDs are a working breed and need a job to do, ideally he will have good drive for a ball or a tug toy, and they thrive on things like obedience, agility, tracking and other dog sports, a dog with an occupied mind I find is less likely to waste their energy by shouting at other dogs.
 
That's really helpful thank you. And thank you for the reassurance about the barking my other two hardly ever barked so not used to it! He is starting to show an interest in toys when out walking and I have a month off work in January so was planning to take him out on his own and teach him fetch (little dog chases the toy so he won't bring it back to me but he does drop and leave). I did take my female GSD to agility so I may take him in the future.

Will contact the people on the link and see if we can get something sorted.

Thanks again
 
I would get a toy or ball he really desires, do NOT allow him free access to it to play with or chew as he pleases, it only comes out when you are playing/training and he really has to work for it, at the start keep the sessions really short, always leave him wanting more. You can keep another toy or ball handy for retrieves, to reward when he comes back with the first one.
 
Barking Mad at Pytchley are extremely good. They do pobedience as well as agility.
If you want to try Flyball google Molten Magnets who train at Moulton.
I've heard very good reports of the GSD at Duston.
 
Is the Barking Mad at Pytchley the one run by Nikki & Den? I used to do agility with them in ringstead and my friend actually still trains with them so don't know why I didn't think of them! The GSD one in Duston does look good I think I will give them a call as it would be good to have some breed experts in on his training :)

Thanks again all
 
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