Available training classes

[Peggy]

Originally Posted by FlyingCorgi

Maybe it's just me but why would a robot dog be amazing?

I'm with you on that one!

Peggy

[Booski59]

Like Peggy said, this is just a Border Collie behavior. You can almost teach them anything because their pleasure is your pleasure.

[FlyingCorgi]

Ein had his first beginner training class tonight. I was a little worried that he was going to have trouble because of the stress from the extra dog in the house but the trainer worked with him for about three minutes before deciding that he needs to be moved up to intermediate. She said that the training we've been doing is obvious and that if he stays in the beginner class we'd both get bored.

Then she said something in front of some other dog owners that probably everyone on here will disagree with. She asked everyone if they knew when to switch off of puppy food. I stayed quiet just to see what she said and she told these folks that you switch off the puppy food when the dog starts to put on weight. She told a yorkie owner that if their dog didn't gain weight that it would be all right to give puppy food for three or four years. Yikes.

So Ein starts intermediate training next Tuesday. Shortest beginner class ever!

[littlestar0316]

Congrats on your "promotion!"

And, um... :-X on the puppy food thing, but I think your "yikes" summed it up nicely.

[glencorgi]

Originally Posted by FlyingCorgi

Then she said something in front of some other dog owners that probably everyone on here will disagree with. She asked everyone if they knew when to switch off of puppy food. I stayed quiet just to see what she said and she told these folks that you switch off the puppy food when the dog starts to put on weight. She told a yorkie owner that if their dog didn't gain weight that it would be all right to give puppy food for three or four years. Yikes.

While I won't agree 100% with her, there is some logic in what she said. I have a friend who was in Maltese and she kept her show dogs on puppy food to help with their weight. When Bruin was actively showing and not holding his weight, I mixed puppy food in with his regular kibble for the calories. It just depends upon the breed to an extent and on the individual dog.

Congratulations on the move up in class.

Debbie

[FlyingCorgi]

Originally Posted by glencorgi

While I won't agree 100% with her, there is some logic in what she said. I have a friend who was in Maltese and she kept her show dogs on puppy food to help with their weight. When Bruin was actively showing and not holding his weight, I mixed puppy food in with his regular kibble for the calories. It just depends upon the breed to an extent and on the individual dog.

Congratulations on the move up in class.

Debbie

Thanks!

Must just be me. I thought I'd read that higher protein puppy food can cause problems with puppy growth with plates fusing and whatnot. From what you're saying it sounds like the puppy food might help keep their weight up. I've seen some brands that put out an active dog food but I've never checked the calorie count on it.

[Peggy]

Originally Posted by FlyingCorgi

Must just be me. I thought I'd read that higher protein puppy food can cause problems with puppy growth with plates fusing and whatnot. From what you're saying it sounds like the puppy food might help keep their weight up. I've seen some brands that put out an active dog food but I've never checked the calorie count on it.

It can, and more so in some breeds. Both corgi breeds have been known to have problems with growth rates.

Toy breeds grow and mature faster than other breeds. Their nutritional needs are differnt from other dogs.

The protein and fat content of active foods is often the same or higher than many puppy foods.

Peggy

[FlyingCorgi]

Ein started his intermediate class last night and we got right into the 'heel' command. That's one we'd been having some trouble with and I felt like an idiot for having used the four foot chain leash. The trainer showed me some heeling leashes and we tried one out in the store before buying it. I will never have little chain indents in my hand again!

One of Ein's other puppy issues had been jumping during greeting. He won't do it to me, of course, but anyone one else gets a puppy jump. I'm proud to say that after recruiting random shoppers in the store, including children, it took about five minutes to fix the problem.

The trainer continues to say that it's obvious to her that I've been working with Ein but when we go in he completely stops listening to me and focuses entirely on the trainer. Unless she walks away or turns around, I'm basically invisible.

Oh, and I think that some of these kids should be on leashes as well! I only say that because there were three kids running around the store with no parent around and they ran right up to my dog in the middle of training and had to be corrected and kicked out of the area twice. We couldn't find their parents in the store and it turns out that they were waiting in the car because the kids liked to come in just to play with the dogs. Go Petsmart.

[glencorgi]

Originally Posted by FlyingCorgi

Must just be me. I thought I'd read that higher protein puppy food can cause problems with puppy growth with plates fusing and whatnot. From what you're saying it sounds like the puppy food might help keep their weight up. I've seen some brands that put out an active dog food but I've never checked the calorie count on it.

You have to keep in mind a growing adolescent corgi that is being actively shown (or trialed in rally, obedience, tracking ... ) or even an adult dog that is being trialed in agility or herding will sometimes need extra boosts in food. That's the niche of the active or performance lines of dog foods. In my case, I chose to add some puppy food to the normal food.

Debbie

[FlyingCorgi]

Originally Posted by glencorgi

You have to keep in mind a growing adolescent corgi that is being actively shown (or trialed in rally, obedience, tracking ... ) or even an adult dog that is being trialed in agility or herding will sometimes need extra boosts in food. That's the niche of the active or performance lines of dog foods. In my case, I chose to add some puppy food to the normal food.

Debbie

That makes sense. For the normal, stay-at-home Corgi though, that might be too much? I've seen plenty of the high performance and high energy dog foods while looking around and decided that as much as Ein runs around I wouldn't constitute that as working dog level. How much do you show your dogs?

[Peggy]

Originally Posted by FlyingCorgi

That makes sense. For the normal, stay-at-home Corgi though, that might be too much?

Yes, the active/performance foods could very well be too much for what I'd call the average pet.

I belive Debbie meant for dog on a show circut reguarly. Meaning the dog is going to shows darn near every weekend.

My dogs are shown occasionaly, there maybe be a few times it's a couple weekends in a row but usually it's more like one or two weekends a month. And not necessarly every month. My dogs are not on a active type food because they don't need it. Maybe if I were training and doing agility trials on a regular basis ...

Peggy

[P_J]

Petsmart trains all of their trainers how they want them... if you find a good one then it's fine. However, here, the less you know, the more likely they'll hire you. It's a corporation, what do you expect. They told me I have too much experience to be one of their trainers because I've trained my own dogs and competed them on my own and done well. Kind of lame. I have seen some very good one's though, and I wouldn't knock them to anyone who wanted to do training there, I agree with Alex, you need to meet the trainers and see how you like them.

[FlyingCorgi]

Originally Posted by P_J

Petsmart trains all of their trainers how they want them... if you find a good one then it's fine. However, here, the less you know, the more likely they'll hire you. It's a corporation, what do you expect. They told me I have too much experience to be one of their trainers because I've trained my own dogs and competed them on my own and done well. Kind of lame. I have seen some very good one's though, and I wouldn't knock them to anyone who wanted to do training there, I agree with Alex, you need to meet the trainers and see how you like them.

This one's all right. I think the trainers concern me a bit but for teaching commands and basics, they obviously know more than I do or I wouldn't be there. It's going well for our classes right now and other than hiring the $80 a day trainer there's not a whole lot more I can do. I'll stick with Petsmart until Ein reaches his training limit. If he needs more after that I'll start looking again.