Controlling a Fired-up Dog in Obedience Class

[ShelterDog]

Once a dog gets fired up in Obedience Class, is there any way to stop that behavior, or is it best to leave class and come back another day. This happened to us for the first time last night, and it was embarrassing and just looked bad. My dog is 1 1/2 year old rescue. She's fine until another dog stares her down, growls, or lunges at her. She then turns into an unruly mess. She starts lunging at every dog that gets close to her. The class was filled with about 15 other dogs. A snarling small dog repeatly slipped it's collar, and ran around until it was caught. This seemed to be trigger for the behavior.

[SouthernDixie]

I would ask the instructor to show you how to control it, if possible. No better place to learn that than at the classes :)

I was at PetsMart once and they had their dog classes going on. We were browing around and had one of the dogs with us. Some bully dog was in class and started going crazy when it saw Dixie! The trainer then started telling the woman what to do with the dog, while motioning to us that everything was fine.

[SEAL]

yeah to me its critical that you can command your dogs attention. its crucial at other times ie to keep your dog from running out the door after something. try the treat in hand thing. When the dog starts force it into a sit position and make it stay ie not pulling on its lead.

[Diesel]

Yeah, you need to get the dogs attention, so that its so busy looking at you its cant be bothered with everything else. ONce you get the dog trained to watch you everything else is so much easier.
start by having treats in your hand and be alone with the dog. and say "watch me" or "look at me" or some other key phrase that you like. as soon as the dog makes eye contact with you praise and give the dog a treat. it doesnt take long before the dog knows what to do, slowly introduce distractions and try to keep the dogs interest. start with a dog just barely in sight, as soon as you see your dog has noticed the other dog command "no" and then "watch me" you can gradually move the other dog closer but at first you want it a distant distraction so that the dog is barely interested in the first place. One you get this down all other training will go by mich faster becuase the dog is looking to you for commands instead of watching everything else and your words are just background noise.

it takes time, but definately worth the effort.

[SouthernDixie]

Hopscotch is a fiend at the beginning of every class. She eventually settles. What I do to divert her attention to me is hold a treat in my hand, up by my head and say look at me.....so what I am trying to say is to refocus her.
I did this also. I used the command "eyes" and pointed to my eyes. Though I'm sure there are better commands to use! For me it worked well, until another dog was too close and all focus went to trying to get to the other dog. Though back then, she was wanting to play - and pouted when she was unable to.

[ShelterDog]

There was another pit bull in class as well. He was about 8 months old, and was having a similar problem. The instructor grabbed his muzzle, and told him to stop. That did nothing. We took our dog to a corner by herself, and tried to regain focus back to us. She was too far gone at this point. She does all of her commands perfectly at home.

[SouthernDixie]

Oh and you can also keep some hot dog in your mouth and show it to the dog. It also gets the dog's attention. I tried it, and it worked, though it was hard not to eat. :)

[tommy3]

There was another pit bull in class as well. He was about 8 months old, and was having a similar problem. The instructor grabbed his muzzle, and told him to stop. That did nothing. We took our dog to a corner by herself, and tried to regain focus back to us. She was too far gone at this point. She does all of her commands perfectly at home.
I'm no expert in obedience training but I would take my dog to a different trainer if he/she thought that holding their muzzle would solve anything. That sounds like poor training practices to me.

[SouthernDixie]

Hopscotch loves balls, and if I am going to be in a crowded class, she knows the ball is in my pocket and will not leave me alone. Find what she loves, it may not be food!
It'd be hard to fit a springpole into a pocket. LOL

[ShelterDog]

Thanks for all of the suggestions. We've (my fiance and I) have worked hard to build a better relationship with her. She's a very independent dog. She hates to be petted, and often choses to sleep away from the rest of the family. When we walk and run with her, she pays no attention to us, whatsoever. She'll just strain at the end of the leash. We're trying to work towards a CGC title, but that seems sort of far away.

[SouthernDixie]

Just keep pushin'! It'll click with her soon hopefully! We went for the CGC and the only thing that kept her from passing was the tight lead. They had us train with prong collars, but test with nylon collars. Bad idea. Just keep on working with her and all your hard work will definitely pay off! :)

[Hoyden]

Just be patient and consistant and it will come.

Our trainer uses a water bottle for lunging barking dogs. He will squirt them if they start acting out.

Birdie learned the Kangaroo Pit bull (bouncing on hind legs like a kangaroo instead of walking on all fours on the leash) from my older pit, so I used the water bottle to correct that.

A trick I used and it worked great to keep my dog at heel was I clipped her leash to my belt with a caribiner clip and held a piece of cheese in my closed fist with my arm straight down. She would nose at my hand and I would walk a few feet, saying heel, then give her the treat.

I gradually increased the distance, then eliminated the treat all together. I couldn't leash correct her with out loosing my balance, so this was an alternative. I also started working on this in our fenced in back yard, then the drive way, then the street etc. I also had a second handle on the leash to grab in case I needed to contol her.

[rocksteady]

Your best bet is to get private classes with just you and your dog until the dog learns basic and some advanced obedience, then gradually add distractions. The group classes are way to distracting to your dog. Theres too much going on and your dog will never fully focus on you and thats unfair to both you and your dog.. Your "trainer" should have made that asessment allready IF they are knowledgable about pit bull type dogs and aggressive behavoir in the first place. While a younger puppy does usually well with group classes , the older turned on dogs need to get the basics down first and learn to pay attention to you first. TRaining a dog takes time and patience.. too much too soon can ruin it for the dog

As for squirting with water... I dont like that and I would never use that because it can teach the dog to fear water and in the case of a more aggressive /dominate dog, could attack (case in point, a child out playing with the hose squirts the dog and the dog lunges at the hose and at the same time grabs the child unattentionaly) since alot of aggressive issues dont come out until a dog is mature, this may lead to problems.

[findrodhere]

I don't agree very much with the water bottle tactic (it's a quick fix at best). You got to catch your dog before his or her brain gets to that elevated state. My dog is the only pitbull in class and any kind of aggression would have him removed henceforth (we got our CGC and now moving up to some agility training to keep him busy). "Watch me", "look here" and any attention getting drills are super important. Bring cheese (sargento from the gas station), don't feed her as much in the daytime and try to exercise her before class. When in class, DO NOT STOP PAYING ATTENTION TO YOU DOG. The moment you do, she'll lunge. Showing her that by looking at you the cheese will just keep coming (at such an early stage, give as many treats as you can).

Grabbing a dog by the snout and saying "no" works great on herding dogs in my experience, but this isn't a breed affected strongly by touch, you'll just incite the dog to keep doing what it was doing.

You have muzzled dogs in obedience class? I didn't read every post, but where are you training her at? If it's a pet smart, please look into a place where the trainers aren't getting paid a little bit over minimum wage and can't wait to go home (I hope you know what I mean). Try a local animal protection society where people come out who actually train dogs for competition and agility. Learn from someone that loves dogs and takes it very personally that you and your dog succeed.
If you are in NC I can recommend excellent trainers.

[SouthernDixie]

Grabbing a dog by the snout and saying "no" works great on herding dogs in my experience, but this isn't a breed affected strongly by touch, you'll just incite the dog to keep doing what it was doing.

The only luck I've had with grabbing the muzzle and saying "no" was to deter the biting. Grabbing and shutting it while saying "no bite" helped for me with my pup who bites when he gets excited or when he jumps (lol). But as for controlling a dog in general, I don't know how well that would work...

[missybee16]

This class doesn't seem to be working out for the instructer either. When dogs get out of hand, it's up to the owner to control his/her dog. Use a 4ft. leash with a collar, every time the dog starts the rolling of eye or head movement, 2 quick tugs(sideways) should do the trick. When the dog knows it can't get away with it anymore, it won't even bother. It's being in control of your dog, making sure the dog knows, no is no. When you get a room full of dogs, it's a who's top dog thing. They need to be structured & controlled. I was walking into Petsmart the other day, my dog gets lunged at by a Lab. I told the lady, control your dog. She says, you too. I said, use your common sense. She didn't understand so, I let my dog go & took her dog by the leash. Walked him to her car & left him there. He didn't move, mine didn't either. She said, sorry. When you have total assurance of your training with your dog, you will have total control. Good luck!