Monday, March 8, 2010

Obedience Classes?

Haven't been updating much lately; I've been busy with my job and with school, and with Jake.

So I've been thinking. I want to start taking Jake to obedience classes at our local club. My only inhibition has been him and dogs.

I don't think he's DA. Every dog I've intentionally introduced him to he has done fine with; he pulls on the leash to get over to a dog, but once he meets them he pretty much ignores him. The one incident was with an off leash dog running over to us and trying to introduce himself without warning. I believe in that situation it was my mistake; I tensed up, Jake sensed that, and snapped at the dog whose owner called him back as I started to quickly walk away(Jake lost interest when we started walking again). I also believe that Jake has some barrier frustration/aggression issues due to Charlie running the fence with him.

My neighborhood has an un-contained dog problem.

The fact is, he needs to be worked around dogs, which isn't something I can just set up in my yard. I introduced him to Chelsey's dog Keeva(unspayed female) for the first time the other day and they had no problems. He displays excessive interest in running dogs, but again, I can't work on this without exposing him to it to an extent.

I would love to do agility with him someday, for fun. Or Rally. I don't think he's the right dog for competition level Obedience, but who knows? I just know he's smart as whip and loves to run. So keeping him away from situations that stress ME out is unfair. It's worth a try.

Thoughts? Advice?

1 comment:

  1. I always so go for classes. They are structured, and generally, instructors won't take any crap from people like letting their dogs run up to another uninvited, etc.

    Based on that one incident, I highly doubt Jake is DA. Marge snaps at other dogs if the situation isn't right, but she's not DA, she's fearful. I bet he will do fine in class. He might have to go through a little bit of an adjustment period so he figured out what's going on, but over all I think it will be good for him.

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