Category: Training People to Train Their Dogs ¤
  Author: Shirley Chong ¤
   Title: Teaching Attention to Owners ¤

Sionag Black is going to start teaching the basic beginner's class
with owners whose dogs are already borderline or outright out of
control.
   I have the dogs present the first class and we just jump right in
with it. The first exercise we work on is getting the dogs to settle
while the owners listen, which means the dogs are sitting or lying down.
I hand them a clicker, make sure that there aren't any sound-sensitive
dogs present that are bothered by the clicker, and then we arrange the
class. The facility where I teach is quite large and has a bunch of
metal folding chairs and then some benches along the wall (which dogs
are allowed to be on).
   Arranging the dogs and owners is a big part of the success the first
night. One particular class had a tiny 12 week old Mini Dachs puppy--she
went up onto the carpeted pause box, because she was going to get too
chilled on the concrete floor. Bella, the Newf with neck problems who is
crazed about cats, went into the four foot high chainlink kennel run
with her owner so she could stop obsessing about the building cat and
relax enough to eat. The Boxer boy went up on one bench with his
owner--partially so he wouldn't get chilled and partially because he was
VERY tense and very fearful and being snuggled against Mom helped him
relax enough to eat. Jasper, the Westie puppy who specializes in
constant motion, hung out on the floor with the other two class
participants. So we ended up spread out over an area about 30 feet by 20
feet to begin with.
   The reason I had people stationed all over was so that the dogs could
relax and settle and actually do some learning. Yes, eventually Bella
moved out of the chainlink kennel run! But before she could learn to pay
attention to her owner, she had to be helped into a frame of mind where
she could learn.
   First I had the owners click and treat the dogs for sitting. Then I
told them to stop clicking for sits and wait for the dog to try lying
down. The Boxer's owner exclaimed "oh, he'll never do that!" In the
Boxer's case, "never" turned out to be less than thirty seconds. Within
three minutes, ALL the dogs were lying down. By the time I was done
talking and ready for them to do some controlled walking, the dogs were
pretty comfy and not interested in moving.
   Rather than have everyone get up at once and start walking in
circles, I had people get up one at a time. That way, the dogs were able
to concentrate on their owners and weren't so distracted by the other
dogs that they couldn't learn. It's not that they will NEVER be able to
work around other dogs, but why throw them in at the deep end the first
night?
   I did have a little jar of peanut butter with me, just in case we had
a constant barker--turned out not to be needed.

M. Shirley Chong
The Well Mannered Dog