Training and dood personality

[Lu]

Ted is now nearly 20 weeks and is in his 3rd puppy good manners classes  (sit, down, stand, recall, heel, lead walking etc)

There are 5 pups in the group and of all of them he is the one that demands to be centre of attention:  he wants to play with the other puppies, he wants to be the one up there doing it all the time.

It is absolutely exhausting trying to keep him occupied (trays of newspaper with treats to find, stuffed toys) and listen and pay attention.  If he isn't occupied he barks barks barks for attention

He gets the lessons a shade slower than the labs but remembers them a lot lot better - once he's got it, it's there.

The trainer commented that she has a labradoodle in another class and he is exactly the same has Ted.

What are your experiences.

[Carol and Banjo]

Banjo had his 2nd class yesterday. He is 18 Weeks now, there are 2 other pups in class. A 12 week old and a 7 month old, both labs. Banjo is doing great and handles distractions very well during exercises, the instructor is very impressed with his attention span and ability to learn quickly. The problem is during "free" time. He is relentless in his attempts to mount the 12 wk old female. Her "owners" are an elderly couple (in their mid to late 70's) and it is clear that they are very "bothered" by Banjo's bad manners. The instructor has been great in trying to explain that this is all normal and if left alone the female will get tired of Banjo and let him know. She did in fact start to do that, but the elderly gentleman kept pulling her away and pushing Banjo away. I was getting rather annoyed that he and his wife were so bothered. I'm secretly hoping they were troubled enough that they don't show up next week.

[Lu]

Ted is relentless in his playing. Both at classes and out of them - some dogs he leaves alone and gets the message pretty quick. But others,you can see that they are getting really fed up and turning properly nasty with him - you can see the owners are uncomfortable and telling their dog not to be so grumpy, but I don't think he "gets" it yet. I'd really like him to understand before he gets a bite that needs a vet.

We have a little girl lab in our class with elderly owners and they are exactly the same - she keeps going back to Ted for more.

[Steve D]

Max was always very distracted by the other pups in puppy class. To him the sole purpose of being there was to play. Commands he had quickly learned at home were not followed in class. Well... he did not listen to me so of course they were not followed. The last few weeks of the class he seemed to be getting better. Having a constant playmate at the house seemed to help. He was not quite so distracted by the other dogs. I finally just decided that I was happy with the class being lessons in socialization and we continue to work on commands and tricks here at the house. Ted is so cute! I know Ted is much smarter than even the labs in the class. He just has a lot going on in that smart brain of his. He is smart enough to know that playing is much more fun than sitting :) It is the grumpy dogs in the class that have the problem not Ted!!