I'm not surprised he gets on well with a Lab pup! Labs can be so wonderful that way. They tend to be very social. Of course, I'm biased. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" />

It could be your pup is picking up signals from the Lab that make him feel safe.

 Quote:

Originally posted by Lee Reicheld:
As far as his temperament goes, I just think he needs a bit more exposure. He's amazing in every other situation so far. For example, the neighbors across the street just started building an addition onto their house (would have to be right when I get a new pup... grrr.) and for the first two days Apollo would jump at every loud noise and nail gun that went off. After the first two days, we were back out in thte front yard playing with his tug and doing ob commands, even during the loudest saws and crashes... <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" /> So I'm pretty content with his ability to acclimate to new stimuli. Hopefully this will appear in his reaction to all the pups during the next few sessions.

Lee, this description fits my oldest dog to a "t" and I consider him to be a loveable dog with a dash of spook -- not high in confidence, but liveable. One of the mistakes I made with him was not ensuring his puppy experiences with other dogs was all good and am paying a lifelong price. Needless to say, Ed has some good articles on that and

I would add do EVERYTHING you can with him to build confidence by exposing him to a WIDE variety of different experiences and things to conquer (e.g. big cities, trains, unstable surfaces, etc.) I may be entierely wrong but doing all that would be good for any dog if each encounter comes out positive.

Lee R.,
Be aware that puppy get into their FEAR period on weeks 18-21 (more or less). So any bad experience your pup get during this period, it will affect his behavior and overall development.

Update: Well, after another puppy class (last night) he's actually doing much better. I led him to parts of the room where there were only one or two pups playing, and he decided to sniff some butts! <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" />

I kept all of the uncontrolled 'mentally challenged' pups away from him, and went off to play with a couple pups myself in the corner. He would jump right in and give a few good sniffs and sometimes a bark or three. Jealous maybe? <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

He played great with the black lab pup there, and he even played with the biggest dog in the class, (one on one) a beautiful reddish doberman, and 'played' him into submission.

When we broke into exercise groups last night, they put us into groups of three. We then took the pup from the person on the left to pet and coddle to get them used to other people, staying very close to the owner. Apollo, however, had eyes only for me... hopefully he'll improve there.

He's showing great signs at home to... today on his morning walk we ran into the neighbor's golden coming the other way. (The one that barks all the time, and even when they are out with her they never tell her to shut up... caused Apollo a bit of apprehension here and there since he was very young.) Her owner can't control the dog on it's leash, and it ran right at Apollo. He stood his ground, barked once, and pawed the golden's head when it got into range. The golden promptly laid down in submission, tail between it's legs, ears flat, looking up at my lil' pup. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" />

Thanks for the advice!

-Lee Reicheld

Go see that Golden every day! That's the kind of uncle every puppy needs - makes 'em feel like a king.

Update again: He's doing much better with the pups off leash now. I kept him away from them for the last couple sessions, only allowing those that he showed interest in to come near him. This last session, he started showing interest in many of the pups that run around like crazy... I held him back on his lead to build up some drive, then let him go, closely supervising. He ran around chasing a couple of them, and if they stopped he'd unleash with a few slow, but very loud, barks. Once they started running again, he took off after them. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" />

His last class is this week. He will be 5 months old. My goal with him is to do agility training, and maybe some flyball... I just think those particular activities look like the most fun for the both of us. Does anyone have any suggestions on the next class I should enroll him in, as well as any recommendations of a good school/organization here in Michigan? (Detroit area...).

We are currently using "Sportsman's Training Club", but they are keeping all of their classes at around 18 dogs, which is just too many, so I am looking to find a good school for us.

Thanks!

-Lee

Lee: Sounds like "Trainers Accademy" was your puppy school? I'm also in the Det. area and used them. I didn't go past intermediate with them. What I found is that they LEARNED very well with their methods, but didn't UNLEARN or MODIFY any existing behaviors. We had aggression issues from the very start that were never addressed even when I begged them. I have a Dobe, she's 3 now, and she acted much as yours did with the puppy play thing. And she was the largest dog there. She didn't ever really get over it. I'm glad to hear yours is doing better.

Actually the school is called "Sportsman's Dog Training Club". I'm pretty happy with the method of their training except for a couple of things, which when I tell them about they have no problem whatsoever with me doing my version with my pup in class (e.g. they use compulsion correction on young pups, I don't). It's just that their class sizes are so huge, usually 18+.

I have seen a couple of the dogs that went all the way through Sportsman's and received their UDX and CDX titles, and they were just amazing. I just know my pup, and he does much better learning when we are just working in smaller groups.

Beth - have you found a good trainer in the Detroit area?

Thanks...

-Lee