k9krazee
03-03-2006, 01:22 PM
Well, last night was Jack's first agility class....and I was very disappointed, for several reasons :(
First of all, Jack was a complete nutcase. He was way overstimulated and excited. He wouldn't pay attention to me at all for the first 10-15 minutes or so. After a while he became a little better, until the instructor came over and thought if Jack got to play a minute then he would pay more attention, Jack and her Border Collie Chase wrestled for a little bit. When we made them stop playing Jack was worse than ever and wouldn't stop crying :rolleyes: So this went on for a little, and finally he stopped and started actually watching me and leaving the other dogs alone. You could tell he was extremely stressed and anxious though :( Why is he so obsessed with other dogs? Nobody else in the class was like this :( He is THE most perfect dog in any other situation...but seems to go deaf around other dogs. And it was the exact same way when we took basic obedience. The first class he was completely awful, it was so embarrassing, but after that he became SO much better, and ended up doing really great...And I don't know what to do!! He does know "watch me" and does it 100% of the time in the house, yard or on walks if no other dogs (well besides mine) are present....and when I asked him to watch me during the class, he looked at me maybe 80% of the time...
I think it was partly my fault though, I was definatly not myself, I was extremely frustrated with him and felt like I was always correcting him. :( I wanted to take agility because I thought we would both enjoy it but last night was NOT fun :(
And I don't like the way the classes were run...I was looking for a place to take him and my Aunt reccemended I take him to this place because the instructor actually takes classes from my Aunt. It was the very first class, and I really don't feel like I learned anything at all...the very first thing we did was learn the tunnel. We just walked up and sent the dog through and ran along side the tunnel and met the dog at the other end. And by the time they went through it 3 times it was full length and then they put a curve in it! I thought it was waaay too fast!! And I think they could've done a better job explaining things, when I took classes from my Aunt with Micki we spent the first day learning what all of the obstacles were and what commands you can use, etc. And they did nothing of the sort, just went right to the tunnel, didn't give us any instruction on how to do it just said, "Okay, lets practice the tunnel"...with no instruction at all!
I am the youngest in the class and I felt like I was constantly ignored. Most of the people have already taken this particular class and are redoing it so most of the time was spent on them :( Also there was a LOT of down time, time where we just stood around and this was the worst for Jack. I just think he gets way too bored.
I don't know what to do...I feel I should give this place a chance but I honestly think I could better spend my $80 somewhere else...(like gas money to go to my Aunt's house maybe) And I know this has been asked before but how do I get Jack to pay more attention to what I'm doing and not the other dogs? I'm at a complete loss and don't know what to do anymore :(
First of all, Jack was a complete nutcase. He was way overstimulated and excited. He wouldn't pay attention to me at all for the first 10-15 minutes or so. After a while he became a little better, until the instructor came over and thought if Jack got to play a minute then he would pay more attention, Jack and her Border Collie Chase wrestled for a little bit. When we made them stop playing Jack was worse than ever and wouldn't stop crying :rolleyes: So this went on for a little, and finally he stopped and started actually watching me and leaving the other dogs alone. You could tell he was extremely stressed and anxious though :( Why is he so obsessed with other dogs? Nobody else in the class was like this :( He is THE most perfect dog in any other situation...but seems to go deaf around other dogs. And it was the exact same way when we took basic obedience. The first class he was completely awful, it was so embarrassing, but after that he became SO much better, and ended up doing really great...And I don't know what to do!! He does know "watch me" and does it 100% of the time in the house, yard or on walks if no other dogs (well besides mine) are present....and when I asked him to watch me during the class, he looked at me maybe 80% of the time...
I think it was partly my fault though, I was definatly not myself, I was extremely frustrated with him and felt like I was always correcting him. :( I wanted to take agility because I thought we would both enjoy it but last night was NOT fun :(
And I don't like the way the classes were run...I was looking for a place to take him and my Aunt reccemended I take him to this place because the instructor actually takes classes from my Aunt. It was the very first class, and I really don't feel like I learned anything at all...the very first thing we did was learn the tunnel. We just walked up and sent the dog through and ran along side the tunnel and met the dog at the other end. And by the time they went through it 3 times it was full length and then they put a curve in it! I thought it was waaay too fast!! And I think they could've done a better job explaining things, when I took classes from my Aunt with Micki we spent the first day learning what all of the obstacles were and what commands you can use, etc. And they did nothing of the sort, just went right to the tunnel, didn't give us any instruction on how to do it just said, "Okay, lets practice the tunnel"...with no instruction at all!
I am the youngest in the class and I felt like I was constantly ignored. Most of the people have already taken this particular class and are redoing it so most of the time was spent on them :( Also there was a LOT of down time, time where we just stood around and this was the worst for Jack. I just think he gets way too bored.
I don't know what to do...I feel I should give this place a chance but I honestly think I could better spend my $80 somewhere else...(like gas money to go to my Aunt's house maybe) And I know this has been asked before but how do I get Jack to pay more attention to what I'm doing and not the other dogs? I'm at a complete loss and don't know what to do anymore :(