I haven't taken my yorkie to an obedience class but we did take our bloodhound and had great results from it. It was really nice because we were in a class of about 15-20 different dogs and that came in handy when we did these types of socialization exercises. Some of what we practiced was walking around the other people while their dog was sitting. When you walk around them your dog was supposed to walk right next to you and not look at the people or dogs, if you were the ones sitting your dog was to remain sitting while the others walked around you. The other excerise that we practiced was when walking up to someone if you stop the dog is supposed to sit down and wait to be petted if they get petted at all, either way they have to sit by your side until you are ready to start moving again.
One thing you might start trying is when you pass people and your dog tries to take off, stop and make him sit down by you until they pass then continue on. This might lower his excitement level a little bit. While he's sitting you can talk to him or what not and praise him for remaining seated. Then when he gets to where he will sit calmly while they pass try passing them without making him sit and if he starts acting up again make him sit.
I would recommend taking a class if you can because like it was said earlier it really is a lot of fun and just gives you something to do if you are like be and live a pretty boring life. It also makes you spend the time working with your dog, because you don't want to be the only one in the class who's dog can't heal or whatever. And it is also just another way to spend more time with you pup.
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Courtney |