Puppy class today
It was so freaking cold! Brrrr...
Anyway, we went all 4 of us (Kimmy, I, my husband, and Ben). There were 4 other puppies of various breeds that Kimmy was very excited to see and play with in between exercises.
Before the class began, we spoke with the trainer about our issues with Kimmy, mainly the nipping and biting. He said the most important thing now was to firmly establish that Ben is above her in the pack hierarchy, as she quite obviously treats him as her equal and soon she will start treating him as her underling, and we can't have that.
She tugs at his clothes because he squeals and she interprets this as an incentive to go on. It will be HELL trying to teach Ben to stand still and be quiet. He is like made of snakes!
He also reiterated that for a dog, even negative attention is better than no attention at all, and when I say "No!", she takes it as a good thing, because I react to her behaviour, so I need to really ignore her mischief and make sure I don't reward her for nipping and biting at all.
He said he thinks she has a typical Doberman character, true to the breed, and with proper training she will be a great and loyal dog. So that put our minds at ease greatly.
After the class, the trainer also remarked, that Kimmy is already very strongly attached to me and Ben, and with time she will probably become so fixated on us, she will not permit anyone to get in between us and her (which will be a good thing if someone tries to harm me, and a bad thing if I get divorced and have a new man, ha ha).
The difference between her relationship to me and to my husband was very clear when we practiced recall. To me, she ran like the wind. When Gerry called her, she kept turning back to me, and went to Gerry only after some major cajoling from both him and the trainer.
So Gerry will really need to make the effort and find the time in his day for fostering a stronger bond between him and Kimmy.
Anyway, we went all 4 of us (Kimmy, I, my husband, and Ben). There were 4 other puppies of various breeds that Kimmy was very excited to see and play with in between exercises.
Before the class began, we spoke with the trainer about our issues with Kimmy, mainly the nipping and biting. He said the most important thing now was to firmly establish that Ben is above her in the pack hierarchy, as she quite obviously treats him as her equal and soon she will start treating him as her underling, and we can't have that.
She tugs at his clothes because he squeals and she interprets this as an incentive to go on. It will be HELL trying to teach Ben to stand still and be quiet. He is like made of snakes!
He also reiterated that for a dog, even negative attention is better than no attention at all, and when I say "No!", she takes it as a good thing, because I react to her behaviour, so I need to really ignore her mischief and make sure I don't reward her for nipping and biting at all.
He said he thinks she has a typical Doberman character, true to the breed, and with proper training she will be a great and loyal dog. So that put our minds at ease greatly.
After the class, the trainer also remarked, that Kimmy is already very strongly attached to me and Ben, and with time she will probably become so fixated on us, she will not permit anyone to get in between us and her (which will be a good thing if someone tries to harm me, and a bad thing if I get divorced and have a new man, ha ha).
The difference between her relationship to me and to my husband was very clear when we practiced recall. To me, she ran like the wind. When Gerry called her, she kept turning back to me, and went to Gerry only after some major cajoling from both him and the trainer.
So Gerry will really need to make the effort and find the time in his day for fostering a stronger bond between him and Kimmy.
posted by Katie @ 5:53 PM
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