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Saint Bernards => Saint Bernard General Discussions => : starla February 23, 2006, 12:24:54 PM
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Greetings to all... I have a quick questions for all you veteran St. owners... Starla has started doggie school (not puppy school) and does well for about 30-40 mins of the 1 hour class, but then just go puppy mode on me (she's just over 6 months old)...rolling on her back, chewing on the leash, watching everyone with hopes of playing...
Have any of you have great success with training a Saint?? and what age did you start them in that classes... shes a wacko and I think she needs "ridelin"!!! she has major ADD... ::)(hahaha)
please let me know your take in this ;) ;D ;D ;D
either way we are learning great things, but just wanted to know if its a bit too soon to really hit the school thing hard???
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I don't have Saints but I had the same thing happen with Kaila and Cinder in Obedience and Agility classes. They would just phase out about half way through the class. As they got older their attention span increased and they were fine. My answer was to just stop training and either watch the rest of the session or we would call it a night and then practice the rest of the week in small time increments. I just slowed down and taught them at their own pace.
Kat
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Katie and Tyler are worse they throw themselves to the ground and refuse to move to let you know when they're done. Just keep going with her at her pace. Get as much out of the class as you can and do the shorter practice sessions throughout the week. Good luck but definitely keep going with the training.
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It's not the saint in her that is having trouble, it is the puppy in her... We took Zoey to puppy kindergarten at 5-6 months and she did very well with them. We brought her favorite treats to keep her motivated and gave her something to chew on while she was waiting for her turns... Another thing that was helpful that they had a short play time before and after the class, to help get some energy out.
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I start training all of my dogs at three months of age - nothing hard core at first, but sit, stay, down, come recall for very short periods of time. By six months they can do a down stay for 15 minutes and are 90% good on their recall. So I do not think she is too young, but the motivation needs to be there. Best advice I have is to not feed her before the class and bring her kibble to give as treats- I guarentee she will be hanging on your every movement during the class to get her supper.
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We started training at about 5 months with Max (a couple weeks after we adopted him). First lesson felt like the best money ever spent. One of our problems was Max would like to lie down in the middle of walks, and we couldn't get him up. This happened in parking lots a couple of times.Â
Training also helped us get through the adjustment period the first few months. It helped to get Max to listen to us (better) and feel more comfortable in our home. He came from a foster home with an older dog, and I think when he came to our house he was confused on who was or needed to be the boss.Â
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OH MY! wiss329, Your avatar is so adorable. ;D I just had to mention it. :D
We started training Bubba right away when we got him at 9 weeks. First was bite inhabition.. a must have IMO. Then we started Sit, Down, Wait (I used that word instead of Stay)and Let's Go is the command we used instead of Come due to neighbours kids trying to call him over the fence. GRRR So I didn't want him to respond to 'come' or 'come here'.
Bubba did the same thing.. rolling over, chewing on the leash (you should see his leash.. lol It's falling apart now) ignoring me, ect. I found that if I used yummy treats that I could re-direct his attention back to me. I'd say his name and as soon as he looked at me I'd praise him like crazy and give him a treat. Everytime I lost his focus I'd do that.
Maybe you could give that a try?
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Bell and Hovis were the same, an hour is too long at that age, he's bored with the class and wants to play. I'd just do a half hour stint or until he gets bored. Don't force him to continue as both you and starla will get frustrated and won't enjoy the class.
Andy