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SaraPea603

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  • Gender
    Female
  • Location
    NH, USA

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  1. I just wanted to say thank you to everyone for the great advice! I didn't disappear, and I swear I read it all and I am working at it. You have all been so helpful and given such great and thoughtful advice! In general so far I have been giving him time to mature more mentally and emotionally, and in the meantime we are working on the basics, foundations, and some low key fun projects. All positive and fun. None of that foolishness from the instructor before. He loves it! Thank you again! I will definitely continue to follow posts on these boards!
  2. MarTau - Thank you for your input! All helpful info, thank you! I won't give up. I know he will be really go at this if I can work out the kinks. He's super brave about the obstacles. I'm currently reading Control Unleashed puppy program, and looking into private lessons. GentleLake - I live in central NH, work close to seacoast NH. I'm willing to travel a fair bit depending on how it would fit into schedule and cost. Thank you for offering your assistance!
  3. Hi alligande, All Dogs is near me. The issue I was having with them is their class schedule doesn't fit my work schedule so I couldn't fit into their classes. That's a great suggestion to check out the trials at All Dogs though! I will definitely do that. Thank you for the suggestions!
  4. Thanks everyone! My plan is to get the Control Unleashed book and Foundation Fundamentals DVD set as soon as I can and work from there. Maybe an online course with something like FDSA if I can't find anything local (which is turning out to be a challenge). In the meantime, I e-mailed the trainer to discuss my issues with the class and preference for fundamental training. She seems willing to work with me, and agreed with the issues I was having (even though I'm the one who had to bring it up). I'm guessing she doesn't often hear "please don't do obstacles with us, lets just do fundamental ground work". Hopefully that holds true. I wouldn't have bothered contact or go back at all if I hadn't already paid for it (series of 6). I will give it a second chance given her response. If it's still a mess of chaos I won't bother again - and will likely just walk out. I don't want to set us up for major issues going forward. Ugh. At least I know now.
  5. I will absolutely check out those resources! Thank you so much for your help! I really appreciate it!
  6. Thank you for your response. That was actually my reason for asking the question - I was suspicious that was the case with the instructor/class design. It just didn't feel right. I actually had that same thought about looking back on all this nonsense someday. Being a newbie is never fun. I know that what he is doing is overexcitement/etc not drive. I can tell you with certainty that he has incredibly ball/toy drive. But I'm aware his response to our agility attempt was a result of not being properly prepared. Unfortunately, I wouldn't have known beforehand and the trainer said nothing about it so I'm of course disappointed. I was so excited to start and now I'm just bummed. I'm hoping to find a way to get him proper foundations. Could you tell me what sort of "foundation" type training I should be looking for from a trainer? I've been looking into it since our poor intro session. Thank you for your help!
  7. I'm working with a trainer and we did do small exercises at a time. I'm not running courses or anything. Neither he nor I know anything about agility yet. He started the foolishness our first go through with jumps. He is just so easily excited. That being said, do you mean too much physically or mentally? I am guessing you mean mentally. I talked to a couple trainers and vets before I signed up to try it and they all seemed to think he was fine to start learning the basics at his age and knowing him. I wanted to give him something new other than basic obedience. As I said, I've only done one beginner class with him so far. Just introduced those few obstacles. Maybe he needs more time to mature mentally?? He's my first dog of this level of drive so it's been a lot to learn. Do you think playing fetch or going for a long walk beforehand would help settle him enough to focus? The class was first thing in the morning. Maybe he wasn't mentally in a place for it? I don't mind the barking so much if he will focus and not jump and bite. I accept it as his aussie side. Haha Thank you for your input!!
  8. Hey everyone! First timer here! I have a Border-Aussie who is almost 11 months old who I have just started with agility. We've done the jumps, tire, table, and tunnel. He gets way too over-stimulated when we do it though, and will bark non-stop and jump and bite at my arms. He gets too crazy to listen to my commands. (This all based on a single class we've done so far, but I'm a big believer in nipping problems in the bud.) I am walking calmly through the course, and keeping my voice business like, but it wasn't enough to calm him once he got going. The trainer told me when he does it to gently take him by the scruff on either side of his neck and sternly say "enough". It took a couple of times doing it during a run but he finally focused enough to run down the tunnel when I asked, and kept quiet. Phew! My question is, what do all of you typically do in these scenarios? This seemed to work for my dog, but I'm curious what everyone does. I don't want him to eventually stop enjoying it, but he needs to chill out! lol! He didn't seem terribly bothered by the correction, but I want to be sure I'm not potentially setting us up for future problems. Thank you for any advice!
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