Training Question?! Obedience & Security? - Page 2

bonzo · 06-11-2008, 12:27 PM

I think that another important factor is the envirement, go and visit a few clubs an meet the people, talk to them and tell them what you want from your dog. There are a lot of clubs with competition dogs that only focus on results. And as Rosamburg said Ithink it's better in a club where you have people who are working with their dogs in a nonprofit way. There you have the expierence of different people with different kind of dogs. I'm not saying that all professionals are bad but their main thing is to get your money. After all it's their job.

**doberkim** · 06-11-2008, 05:00 PM

While there may be no dog training opportunities within your own town (very few towns offer those, and those that have them within their own town should consider themselves lulcky), many people drive easily an hour or so to get to good trainers. I am sure Erie, Hamburg, etc have great trainers and training clubs that could offer you regular obedience classes, agility, etc to train Vito.

I do not think "guard dog classes" are the way to go in any way, shape or form.

**doberkim** · 06-11-2008, 05:07 PM

Hamburg All Breed Obedience Club
Mary Moran, S3575 James Ave., Blasdell, NY 14219

Southtowns Dog Training Club

WESTERN LAKES TRAINING CLUB OF BUFFALO

cookie725 · 06-12-2008, 08:57 AM

Thank you guys for all the helpful information. I will look into it a little more -- and make sure to check out the surrounding areas as well. I'm just eager to learn different ways of training for Vito to help excercise his brain as well as give us a bonding experience.
Sometimes, I think he gets bored and needs more to do. I thought guard training may be a wonderful learning experience for the both of us, but like you mentioned, perhaps agility and such is more the way to go.

Thank you again for the input, and doberkim, thank you tons for the Hamburg Obedience info!

zeus and me · 06-13-2008, 08:43 AM

zeus and I are enjoying our new schutzhund club. I like that he is learning many things all in one class.with a reg obedience clas it take an hour. our class is from 9am to 2:30 we start with tracking then he gets to play with a rag....chase and get it! for his protection work. then we do obedience work.

all the dogs look like they LOVE it.my trainer said she turns down 5-7 dogs a week because they do not have the drive for the training . so I would go to a good trainer and first see if you dog has what it takes.

I watched a class before I joined.mostly to see how the dogs worked and if they had fun.I also wanted to know how the results where for the head trainer and found this

Jan Harkner-Abbs has trained in Schutzhund since 1983. She has been a member of clubs in Kansas, Minnesota and Indiana. Since 1983, she has trained 2 dogs to a schutzhund 3, 1 dog to a schutzhund 2 , 2 dogs to a schutzhund 1 and 4 dogs to a BH . All of her dogs have been handler/owner trained. Jan is a search and rescue technician and is a member of the Orange Twp. fire department. Nearly all of her schutzhund dogs have certified in search or accelerant work as she uses then for service work in the areas of search and rescue and accelerant detection.

my new club only has 7 members.I feel very lucky to have been invited to work with them

WorkingInSTL · 06-13-2008, 09:20 AM

I just want to offer a congratulations and a little bit of encouragement to you and Zeus. It's great to hear his start is so promising. We need more dobies out there on trial day. Best of luck to you guys.

cookie725 · 06-13-2008, 09:32 AM

Yes -- Congrats to you both and thank you for the advice!

**errica** · 06-13-2008, 03:37 PM

Hi Cookie, it looks like you got some great advice for you and "sexy man". I just wanted to touch on something early on in this thread, you mentioned that you wondered if there was a command to let Vito know that a visitor is okay. He'll know just by your reaction to the visitor. If you are happy to see them he will be too. If you aren't real sure of them he will go on alert and probably try and position himself between you and the person.

In a different thread a couple weeks ago I mentioned how Athena handled a stranger walking into our front door during a BBQ when we were all out back. My friend invited his brother over to join us on Memorial Day and told him to just walk in. I didn't know he was coming, otherwise I would have told him to come to the back gate. So this poor guy just walked in my front door and Athena heard the door open, she was out back with us, eating watermelon - big surprise, and she ran into the house and just held this guy in the entry way by barking at him. She never lunged towards him, just barked a couple times and then waited for me. As soon as I came in she looked to me for direction. I like the guy, so I ran up and gave him a hug. She wagged her nub, licked his hand and literally escorted him to the backyard. She's never been trained to do this, this is just a Dobe thing.

I will say that we worked VERY HARD to socialize her, since she had been neglected and a bit abused, so she likes people. But if you walk into my house, be prepared to be held at the front door until I clear you!

cookie725 · 06-16-2008, 08:28 AM

That's extremely reassuring, thank you. I guess I do notice that Vito reacts to my emotions, and we've never had a problem with anyone coming over yet -- but he's only 14 weeks too, so I was curious if that would change. I looked into training around here, and there isn't even a security training nearby. After taking everyone's advice, I am getting him some obedience (starting this week), and also I'm thinking about getting into some agility/sport programs in the short future.

Thanks again!

**errica** · 06-16-2008, 09:46 AM

Those are both fantastic ideas! The obedience is just a good idea for everyone and the agility will help give him something to do! Plus it's quality time with your pup!