# Training room woes



## quilter (Sep 12, 2011)

Short version. Training rooms stress Casper to the max. Any advice?

Long version. I keep writing and deleting the long version, so I'll leave it at the short version.


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## MikaTallulah (Jul 19, 2006)

What is a Training Room?


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## Titan1 (Jan 19, 2010)

Just a wild thought.. could it be that training rooms stress you and he is feeling that?


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## Alaska7133 (May 26, 2011)

Yep I think so too. Right down the leash. Can you possibly pick a time and day when you don't have to be at the training center, but there is an event taking place. Can you go there, find a chair and just hang out with your dog. Sit peacefully in the corner observing or maybe reading a book. Just think zen... Be one with the room.


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## quilter (Sep 12, 2011)

At this point, I am certainly stressed by training rooms myself. I will think about that. I do know that being on leash changes his behavior. 

The training room is where we go to dog class. Any dog class. This month, we are taking an agility foundation class held in a horse arena. Casper is wild-eyed, panting, pulling towards dogs, people, crates, toys, you name it. Oddly, the one thing he didn't notice was the pony in the stall. Three instructors, all in different rooms, have told me he's young and will settle down. I worry though that it's no fun for him. He does love our training times at home.


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## Anon-2130948gsoni (Apr 12, 2014)

Maybe just give it up for now? If he's not having a good time and you're not having a good time...do what's good for both of you and maybe circle back to agility later when he's a little older?

It doesn't really matter where he gets his training time, assuming you can continue to get him positive socialization with people and other dogs, right? 

So do what makes you happy. This is supposed to be fun!


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## Megora (Jun 7, 2010)

> The training room is where we go to dog class. Any dog class. This month, we are taking an agility foundation class held in a horse arena. Casper is wild-eyed, panting, pulling towards dogs, people, crates, toys, you name it. Oddly, the one thing he didn't notice was the pony in the stall. Three instructors, all in different rooms, have told me he's young and will settle down. I worry though that it's no fun for him. He does love our training times at home.


 Okay.... I think it may help to change the word. Reading this doesn't sound like he's necessarily stressed. It sounds more like an excitement thing. And this is why I would not just quit and pull out of classes completely. 

Back when I was training my Danny... he went to puppy classes when he was 10 weeks old. And by the end of the 8 week session.... he was dealing with pano and elbow dysplasia and had to be kept out of classes for basically the next 10-15 months. 

I started bringing him back to class just even to SIT there while my sister trained her dog, because I found the lack of exposure to a class setting (which is the dogs, crates, treats, toys, people, sounds, smells, etc) because my dog was both afraid of people and overly excited and geared up being IN A CLASS with all that stuff around him. 

When he finally became sound enough for the instructor to allow me to take classes with him.... It was things like this dog just overly panting and hauling me around the floor and just not being able to see or hear me because he was just overwhelmed by everything around us. 

The only cure for all that was sticking to it and taking continuous classes for the next year or two. It took that long for him to get used to working around that many distractions and THINGS. 

For me personally... it was a challenge that I had totally accepted and was determined to win. And that was overcoming his fear issues (fear of people) and getting him so that I could take him into the obedience ring and not have him hyperventilating because of everything around him. 

Dealing with that whole thing with him is a huge reason why I am so emphatic as far as telling people to keep their dogs in continuous classes through the first two years.


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## quilter (Sep 12, 2011)

I did debate whether to go with excitement or stress. He's definitely excited, but it wears him out. He's not afraid of anything, and he loves people. He wants to visit all of it, and I can't let him. I watched the Control Unleashed videos, where she describes the golden (is there a theme here?) as a "rollercoaster dog". Being on a rollercoaster is exhilarating, but for an hour and not of your own choosing, is asking a lot of a dog.

I'm really mulling over how much my stress contributes. Thanks for the chat, it's making me think and get some new ideas.


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## K9-Design (Jan 18, 2009)

How are you currently managing his behavior? (equipment)
He is almost 3 years old, if I'm reading the ticker correctly. 
No puppy anymore. Time to be responsible for one's own actions.

Can you take private lessons instead of class setting?


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## quilter (Sep 12, 2011)

Followup. 

First, I decided to skip the rest of the agility class. It's just not the right setup and format for us, and we're not having any fun. It was a four-session intro, so we'll end up skipping two. Feeling much better about that. We can try again someday.

Separately, I've found a new rally instructor. We had our third session tonight and it was fantastic! I brought Casper in on his Halti. He hates it, but that way we didn't start off all in a fluster. Then switched him to his wonder walker. There were only two people at class tonight, and the room is huge. 

A lot of what it all came down to was what she called "meeting his energy level." I moved really fast and made sure that Casper was on one cue or another every single second he was in the ring. The second he looked away, cue! When out of the ring, I worked on keeping him in his crate. Our second run through the full course we did completely off leash and Casper was right with me. Even with the instructor making kissy face on the outside of the figure eight. 

We had a great time. Casper was tired, but in a good way.  The high point of the run was when I told him Turning and he started his left turn before I did.

In other news, Casper jumped through my circled arms this week! Been waiting for that for a long time. He would jump through a hoop, but not through my arms.


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## Anon-2130948gsoni (Apr 12, 2014)

Fantastic! Give yourself a lot of credit...you read your dog and figured out a way to give him what he needs to succeed. 

Good for you!!


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## quilter (Sep 12, 2011)

Well, I had to come back to this thread. Interesting that it has been almost exactly a year. Today, Casper passed the assessment test to join the agility class at one of best places in town. The test was given at the end of the Control Unleashed class. The test was entirely off leash. He had to wander around with me and do a 30-second sit stay with another dog playing nearby. Then he had to do a 15-foor stay and a 30-foot recall with the dog sitting nearby. Meanwhile, all the dogs in class were in crates. Casper did a fantastic, amazing job. We were allowed and encouraged to used treats, and Casper got an entire roast chicken breast during the 5-minute test. It was a really hard test for him. 

We've been going to that rally class I mentioned for the last year and taking private lessons. I've learned so much about Casper and training him. He's so quick and I have to be so precise in working with him. Sloppy handling and inattention confuse him and he loses focus. He's also extremely aware of everything going on around him. The Look At Me game really helped us, and also being careful about a tight lead.


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## deedeeb771 (Mar 23, 2015)

Stupid stupid question....what is a wonder walker? And will it make me wonder why I never walked Gus with one?


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## quilter (Sep 12, 2011)

It's a harness, Dog Harnesses, Halters, Training Leashes | Wonder Walker Body Halter

It helps, but it is not a cure-all. The dog can still pull, but not as much as by the collar. I read somewhere that the neck was the strongest part of the dog. Don't know if it's true. Maybe the neck just has the strongest resistance to pulling.


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