Hi
can anyone advise me, my pup will be going to her first obedience class in 2 weeks. and was wondering which type of restraint as in coller and lead would be best to put on her. i normaly walk her with a halti and normal lengh lead and very recently got her a harness also. would either of these be okay or should i get her a collar and longer training lead. also do i need to take treats with me. we use treats to train her at home,sit, down, paw etc and she responds realy well  and will do anything you ask of her as long as she knows you have something in your hand. we have never been to a class before so any advice would be grateful.

Your dog should always wear a collar with an id tag while out, a plain flat collar that is just tight enough not to slip over her head will be fine. I prefer leather leads as they don't hurt hands like nylon/chain leads do and flexi leads are a nightmare! Far too clunky and you'll need your hands as free as possible.

You will need to take treats with you already cut to size, make sure these are as small as possible for your dog and extra tasty, not boring dog biscuits.

You should also take your dogs favourite toy, none squeaky is best or you'll have everyone elses dog after it and give the other owners headaches. And don't forget your poo bags!

If you have two weeks to wait see if the trainers have a current course running and pop along without your pup to watch. You will get chance to see how they are run and check that they use kind methods.

Karen

It's probably best to check with the class about the treats as at some classes (like mine) they are a definite no-no :D

I would also recommend her wearing a collar attached to the halti when walking her out (halti do a small, inexpensive clip specially for this) as it can happen that they pull the halti off if they get overexcited.

Daisy

No treats, does your class not encourage motovational training?

Of course :) We manage just fine without using treats - the dogs are more than happy to have a play with a toy after an exercise :) Not all dogs need to be stuffed with food :D

Daisy

We don't stuff them with food. We use toys too.   Just find it helps to keep them motivated during certain exercises, guess you don't use clicker training either then. ;)

No :D

Daisy