Hi,
I have started taking my staff pup to puppy classes.
He is doing very well, but not as well as the other dogs there. Although, there are no other staffs there to compare his work with.

We are doing the very basic training.

>Sit & then into a down, then back up to a stand
>Leaving him at one end of the hall and shouting for him to come back
>walking with me and if pulls ahead into a sit

He will walk with me ok, but when it comes to the 'down' position he just won't do it in front of everyone. (as we take it in turns).
However, when I am in the house or no one is watching he does it.

Has anyone taken their puppy to a class like this (staff or any other)

Veiws/opinions/tips please

Thank you

Ashleigh

<<<he just won't do it in front of everyone>>>

I have to laugh as I read your post Ashleigh as yes, Gus was the same. :)
We would practice before hand and be really pleased with his progress and then sods law - he wouldnt do it at all in the class ;)

Hi lel,

I know I shouldn't feel embarresed or dissapointed but when I see all the others do it, i can feel my self go red!!

They say that it takes that little bit longer for staffs to learn or pick up things.

I am going to just have to practice really hard this week ready for next week. He is a very gentle dog.

Ashleigh

omg!!we are taking our two at the start of july.They will be in the same class together, i can just imagine the chaos, hubby will curl up and die but i will brazen it out, having had kids and taught im immune now to humiliation,Are you going to take libby too lesley??

My dog was always reluctant to go into a down too, as it is a very vulnerable position for a dog, and some do not feel safe in a new/ threatening environment. Mind you it could also be stubbornness too! Once he gets used to the new environment he will probably be more confident. A dog often cannot generalise between situations to so he may have learnt down at home but does not connect this with the class. Are you luring the down with a treat?

lucyandmeg,

thank you for your reply,
I hadn't thought of that at all. That could be the reason he isn't doing it in front of other people. I think though he should be doing it by next week or the week after as he should be getting used to it by then.

Thanks again,

Ashleigh

hi candie,

There are two pups which go to the class with the same owners. They were together for the 1st 2 weeks and then I think they have been told to split up and mingle so to speak. I think it will be because if they have to be separated at any time, they will cope better?

Ashleigh

I've been going to puppy classes with my 5mo Stafford for 5 weeks now, and he loves the classes to bits. I'd been doing a lot of clicker training with him since we first got him at 9 weeks, so he was quite a bit ahead of the other puppies in the class. He's the only Stafford in the class (in ANY of the classes, actually, as they do lots of classes right up to advanced obedience and agility).

I did find that he had a big problem with doing a 'down,' so we really had to work on that. The *only* way I could initially get him to go down was to lure him under my bent knee with a treat (sit on the floor with one leg bent, and coax him under the arch of your leg with a treat - he'll have to go down to get under your knee to get the treat). I spent a few mini sessions each day working on it (just a few minutes), and he seemed to get it. He still won't go down for a voice command, but he'll do it 90% of the time for a hand signal. I'm still working on phasing out the treat-lure, though. Practice in lots of different places - in the garden, in all the rooms of the house, outside on walks, in the park - so that he learns to generalise enough to know that 'down' means down anywhere.

Some tips would be to bring some really nice smelly treats with you (Bam will do anything for chicken or hot-dogs) and/or a toy to keep his attention on you. Just try to make yourself more exciting and interesting than all the other puppies - it's hard work!

Hi Katie,
I think you are really knowledgable with this!! thank you for the info.

I tried the 'down' at home after the session, and he did it after a few attempts, and kept doing it after that. Then I tried him without the treat, and he did it.

I will try everywhere we go, so he will do it anywhere.

Thanks again for the info,

Ashleigh

Candie
<<<Are you going to take libby too lesley>>>
Yes :) - although i want to do the KC Good citizen scheme if i can find one near enough . Gus did the foundation but then the trainer stopped classes for a while ( unless it was just an excuse to get rid of us ) ;) :D

I'm not knowledgable at all, honest! :D I've just been going mad with dog training books, videos and mailing lists. This is my first time training a puppy from scratch, so I'm a complete newbie! It's just that these things seem to work for me, and from my research, they seem to work for others too.

Good luck with Max! Staffies are so intelligent and quick to learn, aren't they? (Um, okay, and occasionally very stubborn! ;))

I never found my Staffs were slow to pick anything up, quite the opposite in fact!  Too quick sometimes :)  But they are very stubborn!  He's probably enjoying showing you up ;) 
All it takes is perserverance, and it sounds like you're doing everything right by practising at home, and giving him treats when he does what you want him to.  Keep it up, he'll be star pupil in no time! :D

I think sometimes its just excitement too - they arrive at class and see all their little doggy friends and immediately forget boring old mum and dad ;)
Gus adored his trainer and would sit there making puppy dog eyes at her - i dont know why becasue she never showed him any special treatment.

You may find it is the flooring.  Quite alot of dogs won't do downs on the wooden floors and yet will do it at home on the carpet.  Wooden flooring can just be uncomfortable for them.  I have wooden flooring at home so my dogs are used to it.  If this is the case, you could try taking a blanket or such and try it on that.

My pup will sit and stay but wont lie down for anything.  Its the only thing she refuses to do for me.

I dont take her to puppy classes but we have been to our vets puppy parties.  She is great with all animals, we even have a house rabbit.

My Anton won't do a straight down now.  This is all my fault though.  He lies down,roles onto his side then puts his front legs out.  This is because we lie down together and he puts his front paws around my neck and then gives me a kiss.  Makes people laugh but it's really hard now to get him to do a proper down :d

Awwww bless him!! :D

Good point! I found that I had to retrain from scratch on concrete/tiling as my little one didn't want to do a down on hard surfaces (but he has no problem sprawling on said hard surfaces on hot days. ;))

Ashleigh - I've been through one set of puppy classes with my older boy and have just started again with my new little girl (both GSDs).  Down is a funny one and as people have said the dogs can feel a little threatened.

At home / in class have you tried sitting on the floor with you knees bent and putting the dog on one side / treat under your legs from the other side so that Pup has to kind of get under your legs (and lie down) to get the treat?  This is a good one for dogs who wont down and eventually you just remove you from the equation.  Also, if Pup is feeling a little 'self-conscious' then this should make them relax as your legs act as a bit of security.

Just a thought!!

I found getting Millie to lie down was hardest - which I suspected was because of the vulnerability - it took about a week or so to convince her to do it all the way down to the ground (she would hover before) and then a few more weeks to go right down every time she was asked.

Now she does it whenever she sees something she wants!  You only have to pick up a bag of dog treats or something, and bang, she's down flat on the floor, just in case that's what I'm going to ask her to do ;-)

Never seen better results as I have with a clicker!  My pup did a six week clicker course and was doing sits and downs on the second week (earlier at home) - at this point there was no command whatsoever as saying down means nothing to the dog at that stage.  When the down was being offered the command was attached.  Once I did the clicker course (which we still do now at ten months) I attended a different class so that I could get our good citizen puppy foundation qualification, there were pup's older than us there, yet Lana was by far the most advanced - I was using the clicker on this course to the point that people were asking me at the end how to get into it!  She learnt to give me a paw in a ten minute session and I now use it to get her into certain toy's...In fact I have used it for everything from toilet training to target touches - I cant recommend it enough :)
Try it - pup will be the brightest of the bunch :D

I think you're perfectly normal to feel embarrassed in class! I feel like that too if my puppy is particularly slow - which with Great Danes, if pretty much all the time. She seems to take 4 times as long as everyone else to do something and she isn't keen on the "down" either. One thing which worked for me (aside from practising a lot) was to tell her "Down" whenever I saw her start to drop into position, at home - it's like taking advantage of her own willingness to do that action at that moment, rather than trying to get her to do it. Soon, she'll associate the action with the word and it makes things easier when you actually ask for it. Of course, as my pup has shown, it doesn't necessarily help with speed or stubborness! Mine understands the "Down" command now but often doesn't want to do it (like on hard concrete floors) and will start pawing me instead, as her way of saying, "Do I have to?" I always enforce the command in those situations, just to show that she can't disobey me. She went through a stage of refusing to Down on concrete altogether and so I responded by not giving her her meals until she did a Down for me on a hard floor every mealtime. Cured that little hiccup very quickly! She will now Down pretty reliably but still very slowly!

I have the opposite problem to you in classes: my puppy is a star in class and then forgets everything the minute we're out of it! Which I think is worse as everyday life is where you need your training and good behaviour. She'll ignore other dogs and follow all commands and be very focused in class but when we're out on walks, she is a real terror when she meets other dogs. Grrrr!

I think your puppy sounds like she is doing brilliantly.