Sunday, February 22, 2009

Build it and they will come . . .

I had one of my group classes today. I really enjoy this class, the dogs are of a wide variety and are doing very well. The owners are just as easy to like. They are doing well too.

One must remember that most dog problems (I said most, not all) are directly the fault of the owner whether intentional or not. There was proof of this in class today. We did recalls (coming when called) and did recall races where the dogs had to run from one side of a line to the other straight to their owners when called. The owners were taught to be extremely exciting and give their dog a very good reason to come to them. When broken up and doing it privately they were doing great but when in the group it came down to one of my clients who was obviously more exciting than the other dog owners. All the dogs went to her! It was quite humorous. It was nice to see the dogs speak for themselves!

It all comes down to being your dog's true best friend. I deal with recall issues all the time with clients. The dog runs out the door and the owner yells for him to come back, all to no avail. After time the dog is now in danger of getting run over not to mention the dog owner is insanely frustrated and once the dog is caught what normally happens? Yep. The dog gets in trouble--"Fido! You bad dog! Never ever run away from me again! . . ." They storm inside and plop the dog in his crate.

While it is understandable that the owner is frustrated the owner just taught the dog to run faster and further next time! Recall has to be a fun thing for Fido. He has to know that coming to you is the best thing in the entire world--everytime! We have a sure-fire way to get your dog to be reliable with his recalls, yes, even in distractions--ask us how!

1 comment:

  1. You have my attention!

    I was looking for some introduction to agility training for my youngest pup and came to your blog.

    If you have a sure-fire way to get our 1 year old Border Collie/Great Pyrenees to be reliable with recalls even in distractions, I am sold.

    We live in Fort Worth. I would be very interested to hear about the training that you offer.

    Thank you very much!
    Staci

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