Puppy Update (4 months)

[marinenck138]

I’ve been off of the site for a while but I thought I would go ahead and post the progress of my little Rotty that is now four months old.

I started taking Jade (pup) to obedience classes about four weeks ago and I have been disappointed. Everything they are teaching she already knows and out of the whole class, she is the most behaved. I also sit in a class with one lady in particular that has this little yapping dog that she can not control. All she does is yell at this dog and tell everyone how it would be in the pound if it were not a birthday gift for her 8 year old son. She complains about what the dog does or does not do and yet admits to not having time to train the pup. Anyway, they get five minutes of socialization which is disappointing because 5 minutes doesn’t do much in my opinion. I’ll keep taking her and hope that the Beginner class is better (she is currently in the “Puppy Class”).

On a good note, Jade goes to work with my girlfriend every day at a nursing home but twice a week we take her to Doggy Daycare. I found one around here in which the owners owned a Rotty and were tiered of being denied Doggy Daycare because of the breed. They created a great indoor place with white fences in which they break up the dogs by weight. The dogs play with each other all day unless an owner specifies “Crate Time” in which they place your dog in the crate every so often as specified. They do leave the crates open so if a dog wants to rest he/she can go in and sleep but the crate door stays open. Crates are used as timeouts for no more then 10 minutes if a dog gets a little to aggressive. Anyway, the first time I left her I was worried but I like the place, it smelled good and looked clean. Each gated area had an employee who played with all dogs and was there to clean up accidents right away. I like the rules which stated that no bones, toys or personal items of dogs were accepted (which prevents territorial fights) and I like that dogs were screened before being accepted. Anyway, I just mention this because I had a fear of placing my dog into a daycare where she stayed crated 24 hours a day except for a quick walk and I found that there are places where this is not the case.

Other then that, Jade started teething and it’s a handful with her wanted to chew on everything but its all been worth it.

[hokisteph5]

I would think there are quite a few trainers in the DC area. Here's a site that could help you find one you like. I know I took Gretchen for a refresher course in January and I used a new trainer (long story).

I found the class boring and I felt there were too many dogs. I realized I prefer smaller class sizes (<= 6 dogs) and that it's better for me to keep my dogs in CGC-prep classes (they both have their CGC certificates). The class I took Gretchen to was beginning obedience. I worked on keeping her attention on me, but that was about it.

[brutus'mother]

The puppy class may not be all you thought it would be but it does provide a great environment of distractions and oppurtunity to get and keep your pups attention. Brutus met another "rott friend" in our first class, they were the best mannered pups in the class-nice to see that. We also had the basic commands down before going to class so I worked on keeping his attention on me instead of the "yappers" Try another trainer/club for your next class. Good Luck.