[Eblana]

Archie and Kyia are starting obedience classes today.  Hopefully we will soon be able to walk them on leads without them chocking themselves and we will be able to do something about Kyia being over protective of Archie.  There is the potential for them to be expelled after ten minutes so keep your fingers crossed for me.

[New shoot]

Good luck Eblana   I'm sure they won't get expelled once a dog trainer gets hold of them and they realise this is serious    Dogs play up their owners, way more than anyone else 

[Eblana]

Well they made it through their first day.  It was a very very quiet class with only one other dog there today thank god.  We are going back on Friday night to the bigger class.  By the end of the hour I could see a difference in the way they were walking.  The trainer has boxers himself and is in the process of getting a Belgian Shephard so he knew both breeds really well and was able to tailor the training to meet both their needs.

[joyfull]

How are they doing now?

[Eblana]

They are doing very well.  it is only when I see some of the other dogs that I actually realised that my two aren't actually too bad, they are just boisterous.  There is one dog who has to be muzzled because it keeps biting and another who keeps attacking all the other dogs!  The trainer is very good at helping me to understand the breeds.  Kiya needs mental stimulation and Archie needs lots of play.  The pair of them are here panned out on the sofa at the moment.

[compostqueen]

We had to muzzle our JR but it made him worse so we took it off and I'm so glad we did

We took him to training classes and he was good but terrible again once he got home.  Firm but kind, always kind, is the way forward. I did find that you have to have tons of patience as the dogs can't understand what we want them to do.  Some dogs are more attentive than others. If you have a non-attentive one it will always be more difficult. It's rewarding though 

[Eblana]

The dog in the class that is muzzled bit his owner, the Teacher and our Archie.  The owner and Archie were ok but the teacher had to have stitches.  I have absolutely no fear of dogs and I love them all to pieces but I am afraid that if I owned this particular dog I would have had him put to sleep, I couldn't trust him or cope with the worry that he would bite a child or something like that.

[joyfull]

I wonder what has made him like that, if the change has been fairly sudden then it could be something like a tumour - I have known dogs to suddenly change like that from happy dogs to biting everyone. Once the problem has been removed they have gone back to how they were.

[Eblana]

He is a Staffie that they rescued from the local pound and apparently has been showing aggressive behaviour since they got him.  God only knows what way he has been trained etc.

[joyfull]

unusual for a staffy, they normally get very excited when meeting people and usually lick you to death. I haven't yet met a nasty one.