so we went to training school.....

[sparklygothkat]

yesterday. We went to a free session, and the trainer thinks that our dog needs 1-2-1 sessions (at £50 a pop!!!) purely because he spent most of the lesson barking at this other dog and also he is crap on the lead, and has other issues which can only be sorted on 1-2-1. I said that I agreed, but the cost is a bit much for our budget, and he said we can do fornightly rather than weekly. He also said that the food we buy is like giving our dog redbull!!! so have to change his food. Dh done the training session with the dog and he really enjoyed it, so we are booked in for our first 1-2-1 session this thursday morning

what dog and what food?

lead training is easy if you've got a garden.. ...my dog very rarely barks so no idea on that (although he did used to whine a lot while we were standing around at the beginning of shoots and a tiny water pistol solved that!)

Hi Sparkly, glad to hear an update. That's quite expensive. I have some great training info given to me by my dog trainer. If I can get it scanned (or get dp to do it!) I'd be glad to email them on to you.

About the food - check the protein % on the side of the pack. 20% or below is recommended for staffies with a complete dry feed or if you're giving half dry, half meat try to make sure you balance it so that he's not getting more than 20% in total. That is a daily allowance so it includes scraps too!

The lead training is easily tackled without the need for a trainer. I discovered that after I'd paid a fortune

HTH

Bakers and a staffy, bad combo!!!
I actually thought he did really well, didn't go for any other dogs, didn;t drag DH across the field to get to the other dogs, and the other dog was barking just as much lol!!

hopefully he can go into a normal class (£12) after a few 1-2-1 lessons

shifting him off bakers would be a good start. .. ...pedigree stuff does much the same. Gilpa make some cracking dry food and it costs next to nothing - I used the 'working dogs' version for my lab and it seemed to calm him right down. The own brand Pets@Home stuff is also really good.

Lead work is mostly down to persistence and getting your dog to realise that when he's on the lead he does what he's told when he's told - same as holding a childs hand walking down the road...

The barking could be a lot to do with excitement which might go away without the fruit-shoot equivalent for dogs... ...if not it's the same as teaching little people - get his attention, tell him firmly no, then start over..

..took a couple of weeks of 10-20 mins in the garden every day to end up with a dog that stopped whining, pulling on lead etc..

...I only had to beat him with a large stick twice.... joking :-p

seriously though, the more you put into training your dog the more you'll get out. I've worked mine for 4 years now after training him myself (after never having done it before) and he's a pleasure to take out..

went again yesterday. Have been given lot of things to do, like lead work, and mat training. Took him out on the lead, he still jumped and wasn't interested in the food I had to distract him with in my pouch, but the idea is that he gets no other food, only the food he has in the pouch while on walks. Hopefully he will learn soon, that if he walks nicely he will get his food.

aqm so glad you went. hopefully he will be ok with some training, and not as jumpy.

wooo what happened with your name M??

the food is making a huge difference, he is not so barky, and much calmer. He is walking better on the lead, and has learnt that he has to stay on his mat when we are eating or when people are here. he only jumped at FIL once yesterday, after that he was calm and behaved..

what food have you moved him to?

James wellbeloved, from pets at home.