Tonight was the first training session of a course I’ve signed up for at the local boxer club. It appealed to me because the idea is to work on the various exercises that are part of competitive obedience and to do it focused on what each dog already knows, allowing for a group with very mixed experience. Seeing how up and down Ringo can be, it seemed like it could suit him.
We started by talking for about an hour, introducing ourselves and what we’ve done with our dogs so far. I tried to give fair warning of Ringo’s habit of flipping out when there’s too much for him to take in. They also explained how they like to train, with a focus on lots of playing to get the dogs happy to be around them and eager to take contact with them.
Then we went out to show how we play with our dogs, one at a time. One of the instructors demonstrated, and we followed along. When it came to Ringo, he soon decided to show himself from his worst side. We were supposed to play a bit, then sit down and gently pull them closer to just stroke them and get them to settle down. Ringo just assaulted me. ;P And then the instructor too, after she stepped in to try. So, we got orders to sit and watch the others, to work on him learning to be calm and passive. And we discussed quite a bit how to respond to him when he flips out like that. No wrestling him down, they absolutely agreed with that. But swift corrections, maybe a slap on the nose when he invades my space and lunges at me, and lots and lots of praise afterwards.
Both of the instructors know boxers well and have recently worked with another similar boxer, so this made me feel more confident about the advice. They felt it is a combination of him being easily stressed and highly reactive and him being insecure about what we want him to do. The way he will sometimes throw himself on the ground, roll about or crawl, or sit-lie-sit-lie half in a panic, is all insecurity. So, he needs a lot of work at being calm and at trusting more in us. We’re supposed to be playing with him lots this week to practice being able to stop him mid-play and get him to settle down.
When everyone else had done it, we tried the play exercise again, and this time it went quite well, and after that we finished up with a stay-down exercise with the whole group. He stayed down pretty well, off the leash even, though he did bark if I walked off too far because by then he was in “demand candy”-mood. Overall, I am cautiously optimistic that this course might help give me a better handle on him and hopefully we will also learn enough to maybe compete this autumn.