First off, I take full responsibility for Fara actions.

Fara is doing really well with marker training, but she needs proofing with other dogs around. She can be aggressive to any dog that is aggressive to her. In an effort to socialize her I went to a conformation handling class Thursday night.

My biggest mistake was not bringing any toys or treats with me to distract her. I was hurrying and forgot. I spoke with the instructor beforehand to let her know that Fara was coming for socialization. The instructor is very nice and was on board with me.

We got there early and as dogs came into the building I would walk her around the room to keep her from focusing on them. She had a couple little outbursts which were corrected and we kept waling around till the class started.

We lined up, first in line an 18 month old GSD that was breed by the instructor (show), then me and Fara, a med sized dog on my left, followed by a boxer which the owner had engaged the entire class, followed by a Pug puppy and a Dauchsand.

Immediately I regretted not having high value treats and did my best to keep Fara from looking behind her. After about 15 minutes she had settled down well. We all had individually run around the room with our dogs and Fara seemed calm at this pint.

The instructor then asked the group to run around the room at the same time. As we came to the first left turn, the GSD in front of us turned and came towards Fara. Fara reacted and I gave her an involuntariy correction as I pulled her back to step in between them. The handler of the other GSD was on top of it and maintained control of her dog. Both dogs settled down immediately and we finished our circle.

The instructor nicely let me know that I should have corrected Fara harder, mentioning if it was her dog that the dog would have been on the floor.

Huh? Please feel free to comment.

I took Fara outside to potty, returned and we were at the end of the line next to the Pug. The handler of the Pug picked her dog up off the floor into her arms.

Few minutes later the Dchsand for no apparent reason tried a mini charge tat Fara (handler was on top of it. Fara reacted agin, I corrected her and she immediately settled down. The instructor very nicely gets a bottle of lemeon juice and reccomends to me that I squirt it in Fara's mouth when she goes to bark. Huh?

Afterwards Fara was very focused on the Dachsand and the boxer handler was nice enough to give me some steak and Fara was easily distracted for the rest of the class. No more focusing on other dogs.

I just don't understand how, if or why to correct Fara when another dog starts something. The only thing I can think of is that without being able to distract her, maybe she gave off a vibe to the other dogs, even though she appeared to be relatively calm.

I am going back to the class next week. It was worth the $5 for the op to work with her with other dogs. I will be better prepared though.

Although everyone was VERY nice I felt Fara was unfairly judged for her actions. Or maybe I was being judged for Fara's reactions.

Next week I will do my best to keep Fara engaged the entire class with toys and treats.

I welcome any comments about the situation, good or bad. thx!

jg

One more thought.... I admit I was miffed at Fara getting the blame for her outbursts, but that doesn't mean I don't feel it is my fault. Engagement, engagement, engagement!

Personally Jim, I think a conformation class isnt the best place to work on these things. You don't really have any options other then corrections and I learned the hard way you can create more problems with some dogs.

There's no real thought to fairness with the corrections, your dog is expected to show no aggression, period. You'd be better off working with someone where you can control whats going on with the other dogs, use space and distance, and find what's best for Fara.

That had to be very frustrating! If you know your dog is reactive toward other dogs, and you forgot your toys and treats and otherwise struggled to engage her when the going got tough... don't punish her for your inability to give her a better option. Yes, you had to do what you had to do, but the idea of putting her 'on the floor' or squirting her with nasty stuff is just over the top, in my opinion. With reactive dogs it's better to give them options rather than just resort to punishment, since it can often escalate the issue instead of fix it. One day you'll think she's trust worthy and what she's really been doing is burying the frustration all this time and then she might explode and seriously injure another dog.

In defense of the instructor, she was aware of Fara's reactivity towards dogs before hand and may have only singled her out in an effort to help.

Yes Samantha it was frustrating and I still can't believe I forgot my stuff. Most of the time I have my treats hanging over my shoulder even when she is not with me! LOL You're right that she had little options other than checking out her surroundings. She responded to my downs, sits and waits but she always had an eye out at the class instead of me 100% of the time.

" You'd be better off working with someone where you can control whats going on with the other dogs, use space and distance, and find what's best for Fara."

Steve, one of my problems is I have no friends. LOL Seriously no one to work with me, with her. I can't even find someone to hold her to practice restrained recalls. Space and distance I can practice on my own if I find an oppurtunity (fenced in dogs who happen to be out as I drive down the road. I have done that, but it isn't planned, just an op.

This is the main reason I chose this class, lack of other options. In addition I am hoping to "network" a little, maybe meet someone who is looking for a training partner. OB class starts in a month and I had planned on signing her up hoping to meet others who are interested in training.

I appreciate everyone's input.

JG

Is she aggressive to other dogs Jim or does she stand her ground when another dog challenges her?

A little more background, Fara just turned a year old and has lived in a couple of multi dog households.

I've had dogs that would bark their fool head off when they saw another dog but were not aggressive to them at all. I learned the hard way that the best way to handle this was to give them another command, look at me, heel, and correct if they broke that. I learned to do a lot of focus on my face work with dogs and that seems to have worked well.

In class situations instructors sometimes miss the beginning of the event or even see what they want to see.

I once was doing a practice trial routine and we were reporting into the judge. The person next to me allowed his dog to cross over and get into Annabelle's face. The dog just wanted to play I think but Annabelle is not amused when someone invades her space and growled as I was moving us backwards away from the dog.

Somehow it was her fault.......I want to mention she had never even broken her sit until I moved us back.

Betty, Fara is mostly hold her ground type of gal. When she was in FL living with her litter mate, they would often wrestle and Fara would thump her sister, I can provide pics (LOL). Only once did they ever get "into" it and neither one was physically injured. Another time Fara got thumped by another male GSD over a toy. She was only playing with the toy the other dog wanted. LOL, you know who! I LOVE Ammo!!! But was scared to death when he thumped her. But to be honest they lived together and Ammo was the leader. Fara gave him space after that. They had crates (inches apart) next to each other and never had a problem.

Fara does have barrier frustration (IE a fence between her and another dog), that is why any chance I see a fenced dog, I stop and walk her across the street from it and try to gain all her attention. But I am still learning... and I make mistakes.

Jim

If you feel that the instructor is not the type to insist on a correction but will let you make the judgement call and if you feel Fara will be able to focus more with a reward when she does well I would consider another class or two.

You always have the option of suddenly getting a sick stomach and having to step out if you feel things are not going well.

Oh God Jim, I've told you some of the mistakes I've made! Trust me the ones I haven't confessed too would turn your hair white! ROFL Sometimes our dogs are a lot more forgiving of our mistakes then we are......

We do a lot of multi dog work here like you describe but it is basically a group of people with working dogs or ones that are at least dog savy.

Anyone know some working dog people in Jim's area?

" LOL, you know who! I LOVE Ammo!!! But was scared to death when he thumped her. But to be honest they lived together and Ammo was the leader. Fara gave him space after that. They had crates (inches apart) next to each other and never had a problem".

In all fairness to Ammo he outed on command from his owner (Ann), he was a little late outing only because the old swamp cat that hung out ther, starting beating up Ammo for beating on Fara!