#puppy class

[catsofchaos]

baby puppy did so good at class this morning!! last time she screamed and refused treats, this time she actually worked!! she got to meet some other puppies (a larger shepherd and a microscopic spicy maltese) and she did FANTASTIC!! so proud of her

[kirisaki-daichi-scenarios]

kiridai + haizaki if they were dog owners attending a puppy class

Hanamiya Makoto

Bought a breed that needs good socialisation (I’m thinking a serious police lines Dutch Shepherd cause he’d want something with brains and drive but also something not “normie” as a Malinois) so puppy class it is to get the dog amiable around others.

The dog acts like it’s perfectly trained half the time: just a couple months old and already has perfect focus, and obviously Hanamiya goes above and beyond with training in his spare time, so the dog responds to cues perfectly, and Hanamiya has perfect timing with marking and rewarding behaviours because he’s just that sort of person

The other half of the time, the dog is kicking off because another puppy looked at them. 

And the trainer’s telling Hanamiya just to relax, shorten up his leash a bit, take a deep breath, but they can see his eyes just glazing over with fury every time the barking starts up again.

It hurts having to alternate between “Hanamiya, can you and [dog] demonstrate this behaviour because [dog] does it perfectly” and “right, someone will go get a barrier to calm [dog] down a bit” but Hanamiya’s going to have to get used to it, because that’s what you buy with an police lines import. 

The dog is always going to be a bit nuts, just like his owner ;) 

(Don’t choose a serious dog breed for clout as a first time owner, how about that Makoto?)

Seto Kentaro 

For Seto, I’m thinking he buys a small lapdog type terrier, maybe an English toy terrier, or maybe an English bulldog (although obviously I don’t recommend buying a breed with as many health issues as the English bulldog, and I’m pretty sure Seto would at least do the research on that sort of thing) 

Anyway, Seto’s the biggest guy with the smallest dog

Like when the puppy takes its mid-class snooze, he curls up on Seto’s shoe and he’s half the size of his owner’s foot. 

The main issue that they need to work on is separation anxiety; because Seto never really goes anywhere, the poor dog’s expects his owner to be with him all the time. So if Seto needs to go to the toilet and hands someone the leash, the poor puppy is just stood there whining sadly Seto’s back. He’s just too used to having his 6ft4 guardian with him at all times. 

Anyhow, Seto’s a weird one to teach because he’s not the world’s best dog trainer - he tends to be quite casual about everything, and he’s not hugely strict so in turn the dog’s quite 50/50 about actually following commands. (Think Seto saying “down”, puppy just staring at him while wagging his tail like mad and not making any move to lie down, until Seto’s like, “fuck it, you’re too cute for your own good” and gives him the treat anyway)

But the thing is, despite this half-hearted attitude to training, Seto knows the theory like it’s no one’s business. The trainer will offer him some advice and  Seto’s like “oh, so just using the Premack Principle?” or “so just conditioning more cut-off signals while they’re still sub-threshold?” 

Like, yes but how do you know those words? Spend less time reading and more time working your dog please

(And please join me in imagining the trainer telling Seto to call his dog away with kissy sounds or a high-pitched voice, rather than pulling on the leash, and the sheer awkwardness on Seto’s face as he attempts his best baby voice.)

Yamazaki Hiroshi

Thought he wanted a proper working lines dog (some sort of spaniel breed probably) because he read on the internet that they’re healthier and “perfect for [his] active lifestyle” but he didn’t realise how much work a working line dog needs and now he’s come to the puppy class in desperate need of help. 

Dark circles under his eyes and his hands are permanently covered in cuts and scars from those sharp little puppy teeth

But despite the wounds, he adores his little dog and his little dog adores him 

(Shame they express it by trying to chomp on his poor skin) 

Yamazaki’s the guy who’s always absent-mindedly petting his dog even when the trainer tells him not to while working on a certain behaviour

Yamazaki’s also that guy who’s always taking notes after class, always asking questions (comes back every week like “about the biting...”), and he always does his homework, so his dog shows the most improvement by the end of the course

He gets the little graduation certificate and he’s trying to bite back the happy/proud tears (meanwhile the dog’s trying its damnedest to get a hold of the certificate and rip it to shreds)

Furuhashi Kojiro

He’s just a good conscientious owner who did all the research before he bought his puppy, and has been training them from the beginning and figured a puppy class was the right thing to do just in case

(N.B. I have absolutely no idea what kind of dog Furu would want cause, in my mind, he’s normally a cat person. But I’m assuming that a rare and quiet breed that’s not the most clingy would be right up Furu’s alley, so Kishu Ken it is.)  

Honestly Furu rocks up to the puppy class and both his and the puppy’s minds are a bit blown: Furuhashi’s because he didn’t realise how little everyone else had trained their puppies, and the puppy’s because it’s gone from being used to life with its quiet owner in a quiet house going on quiet walks to a classroom surrounded by lots of other very excited dogs

But the puppy soon settles, as does Furuhashi, and for the most part, their time at the puppy classes goes quite smoothly 

(As it often does if people just do their homework between classes)

The only time they have any issues is in any exercise where Furuhashi has to be a bit more animate

Like an exercise where you make your voice and body language all excited to get the dog riled up so they can learn to calm down as soon as you calm down: Furuhashi’s idea of “getting excited” is one small awkward and a monotone “good puppy”

Meanwhile the puppy’s staring at him like “he’s a bit boring, but he’s my bit boring”

(And on a separate note, Furuhashi definitely ends up bringing his sister to some of classes. She’s still staying with their parents, who won’t let her get a dog, so she’s living vicariously through Furu’s dog ownership. And, Furu being the good big brother that he is, only encourages her interests. So if she wants to be around puppies more, he takes her to the classes. And if she’s getting bored, he hands her his puppy’s leash so that she can do the exercises and get the trainer’s guidance instead of him.)

Hara Kazuya

The dog is Hara’s partner’s/friend’s, but Hara comes along for moral support and to play with the other puppies before the class starts

Actually, you know what, we’ll say this is an older characters AU where Yamazaki and Hara are roommates and he’s come with Zaki and his lunatic spaniel

Hara takes the “class” in “puppy class” seriously, and by that I mean he acts like a class clown as if he’s still in school - he views a successful class as a class where he makes the trainer laugh at least once, and flirts with one of the assistants at least once

Zaki’s probably wondering why he asked Hara to come because now, every time a puppy starts barking, Hara’s whispering in their ear “Hanamiya when someone tells him to be nice”; or a puppy pees all over the floor and then it’s “you after a night out”

Having said that, Hara’s also a great training tool cause puppies love him and he always gets them very over-excited 

So, when the homework was working on your puppies not jumping up on people, the trainer gets Hara to be the guinea pig, cause he’s the ultimate test

Haizaki Shougo 

Probably only attending the classes because he was court ordered to be there or something after his dog’s already showing dangerous behaviour - Haizaki’s the kind of owner who could screw up a puppy, but he’s also the kind who buys a puppy who’s probably genetically screwed up

He falls for those horrid guard breed puppy ads online (you know the ones - with the pictures of barking dogs Photoshopped into flames or whatever and with the caption like “UNREAL DRIVE!! CRAZY STRUCTURE!! SUPER PROTECTIVE!! buy your bundle of joy from us today, perfect for a first time owner <3)

(In case you don’t know what I mean, think something like this)

Anyway so Haizaki gets a Presa Canario, maybe a bully, or maybe a Tosa Inu cause he’s in Japan and, if anyone in KNB is interested in dog fighting, it’s Haizaki because he’s just not a great person

Haizaki rocks up to classes very reluctantly and could not care less about them

He keeps letting the leash get too long so his puppy keeps getting in the other dog’s faces and upsetting them; he’s on his phone half the time; and he just doesn’t take on board any advice

For example the trainer talks to him about loose leash walking and Haizaki just zones out - cause in his mind, there’s no point putting the effort in to train them when he’s a big guy who can easily hold back even a 40kg dog

So the trainer thinks Haizaki’s pretty much a lost cause, poor dog, etc

But then, one fateful day, when the dog’s barking their head off for the thousandth time, the trainer gives Haizaki a tip and it works! 

And something clicks in Haizaki’s brain and he realises he doesn’t have to put up with his dog being a ‘nuisance’ - he can just put some effort in and train them and make life happier for the both of them

After that things are much smoother sailing and Haizaki actually starts engaging with the class and asking the trainer for advice on the (many) other issues the dog has

It takes a while for Haizaki and the puppy to graduate out of the class, just because of all the damage that needs undoing, but the fact that Haizaki sticks around, even after his court-ordered time is up, is already good news 

The dog will never be 100% in certain environments but at least they walk nicely for the most part and knows some commands

And it’s safe to say that, when Haizaki spots the dog trainer a few months later, they’re the first teacher that Haizaki’s ever stopped to say hello to

[dogtiber]

Tiber has a girlfriend at school 😘

[grison-in-space]

Have just returned from Matilda's first puppy class, with an outfit I've previously had excellent experiences with, and I am furious and sufficiently baffled that I want to know if there is any way I'm missing something remotely reasonable, possibly as mediated through an inappropriately confident and poorly trained instructor. Or possibly just something new and incredibly dumb, IDEK. Baseline assumption is that this guy is puffed up on his own credentials*, insecure and inappropriately prescriptive about it, and that the broader company has fucked up on placing him with a class and/or that he's gone rogue in some way. If not, I want to know before I go lose my shit tomorrow morning when I call the school.

So, trainers of dogblr, can I get thoughts and opinions on:

an exercise involving holding two puppies firmly around the chest, marching them up to one another face to face on handlers' knees, and holding them nose-to-nose for 3sec; then turning one puppy so they're nose to tail for 3sec, then reversing and holding them nose to tail the other way 3sec, then cookie and retreat--this under the auspices of "teaching greeting behavior". Came with ignoring any signals of puppies not wanting to participate in this frankly batshit exercise and not modifying anything for variations in puppy age or range of development; I think the class is for 8weeks thru 14 weeks but we got delayed a week by the Snows. This alone had me ready to nope the fuck out and call next day. This exercise was apparently important enough to do twice.

An exercise holding puppies in a "relaxed puppy hold" (after the "greeting" exercise, mind you) in which the instructor described a few calming signals and then said that you want to actively see those things in the puppies because they are "signs the dog is calming itself down" as opposed to signals of discomfort or stress. Encouraged puppy handlers to hold the puppies firmly until they see calming signals "because that is how puppies learn to calm themselves down." No concept of stress thresholds or how to handle a dog beyond its threshold introduced.

Prescriptive insistence not just that puppies should sleep in the crate (totally fair; Matilda sleeps crated and will at least until six months) but that the crate should be located outside the bedroom to "teach the puppy where it is in the hierarchy". One person raised his hand and asked "if things are going fine, there's no real crying in the crate, and it's in the bedroom--can it stay there?" and was told in no uncertain terms no.

Relatedly, one person asked how to tell the difference between frustration whining and a puppy that actively needs to go out and pee. He informed the person that he expected everyone to "be able to tell the difference in the way they sound" and that real need to go outside had more of a whining quality. I suggested that if you can't tell, you should try taking the puppy outside to pee for ten minutes and taking it back inside afterwards. He "corrected" me that if the puppy DOES pee, it has earned its freedom! and otherwise it goes back in its crate! (My dude, Matilda has not earned her freedom at six in the fucking morning when she warbles to go out and pee. She has earned the right to go out and pee with her tiny baby bladder.)

Like, am I missing something here?! There was exactly one exercise involving practicing not jumping for a cookie that was any use at all, and there was zero free play time at all. Restraining the puppies got about three times as much emphasis as the fucking name game. And there was absolutely zero room for variation in household rules or variation in how puppies were handling various exercises--this in a class with puppies ranging in age from probably 9 to 14 weeks!

Christ on a crutch, I'm pissed off.

*(a degree in psychology and neuroscience, apparently, which are... uh, the depts I work in as a postdoc at the local university, so go the fuck off I guess and if I ever tangle with that motherfucker again I'm going to say so)

[booksandbrainsandsoftthings]

Had a lovely reminder that Calanthe is very much A Puppy ™️

We went out to a local Bass Pro for PA training, had a fabulous day, rode and elevator for the first time, ignored her first drive by pet from a child(with a treat in front of her face, but I will take it), and ignored another dog training outside as we left.

And today I found my phone charger chewed on by vicious little puppy teeth because she was unsupervised for a few minutes.

Still over all a very good girl

[charlie-thepitbull]

Charlie had her second puppy training class Saturday morning, this time with a different trainer. Of course a few things we were taught by one trainer is advised not with another, but we've decided we'll take advice from both and see what works best for Charlie and us! We go back tonight for her 3rd class.

She's also going to the vet for her first checkup this morning. (In about 2 hours), I'm a little nervous, mostly because we believe she may have lost her first deciduous tooth, which is meant to happen but I don't know if it happens this early in age.

I sure wish I knew other pittie owners. :)

[maisietheyellowlab]

GUYSSSS

We had the last session with one group of puppy classes and the puppy owners brought me flowers and a framed photo of their puppies. It was so sweet and pure omg.

Also they said they love my homework emails and that the instructions are so clear they can print them out and give to family members w/o even explaining much. Like... I can’t. I put a lot of effort in those emails and it makes me so happy and proud they’re actually serving their purpose.

[evasartblog]

Sketchbook - Life drawing - Church drawings and puppy class