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Originally Posted by xmasbaby75  This is interesting because last night was also my first night of obedience training (no dogs the first week), so I guess we'll be going through this together! My main concern was when I found out it was required for them to have either a choke collar or a prong collar! Now, maybe that's fine for a Lab puppy who weighs 60 lbs. but my Brandi is 10 times smaller and she wears a harness only. I had to talk to the teacher after class and I explained that she is a Yorkie, and her neck is only this big, and she said to me "Well, I've seen them on Chihuahuas - I know they make them that small" and I told her I knew that too, but that isn't the issue. She said they can't be trained with a harness, and unless there was a medical reason, she needs this collar - so I told her the medical reason is she is prone to collapsed trachea and pinched nerves (as with the whole yorkie breed) so she finally said "Fine" ... I just can't see pulling a yorkie around with a metal prong collar! As for hitting your dog - that only teaches them to fear you - and who wants that? Looking forward to next week's class - we will be doing the sit, heel, and stay commands. |
I really don't want to sound rude but I think you might want to find a different obedience school. Sadie and I are just finishing up our second level of classes. I have learned that there are more or less two philosophies on training. With these little ones, positive training works so much better. She is required to wear a flat collar (for training only), but they emphasised - no choke or spike collars are allowed. The class you are describing sounds as if they use "corrections" which are basically jerks on the leash. The class we're in only uses positive methods. You capture the behavior you want with a "click" and then treat for it. I can't tell you how far we've come with this. It really is amazing. I just don't believe you ever would want to train a little one like ours with anything that is painful or could potentially damage them. Please consider the kind of training you are doing. Obedience is wonderful and it is creating such a bond between Sadie and me. I don't think we could have that bond if this wasn't positive.
I'll shut up now.
