Mr. MC and Sir Fern? Fancy names you got over there
Queen Ally and her no name mum sends their best wishes

I'm sure it'll be great and you'll both have a good time. (And learn loads, of course ). Looking forward to hearing all about it. You might even make some new friends.

So how did it go then?

Hi guys, got back from training last night in one piece

I think I spent the entire time laughing, I do sympathise so much for anyone who does dog training, it takes real patience and commitment!!

Fern walks in, or rather pulling me like a freight train while his legs a splaying all over the place

There are two chihuahuas already seated and VERY upset to be there, they barked at everyone and everything for almost 45 minutes - I pitied the poor rottweiler that had to sit next to them as these little dogs tried to take him on

So the dogs came rolling in, one dog was actually walking on its hind legs trying to get into the door while the owner struggled to settle him down.

So we've got Fern, 2x chihuahuas, a puppy cocker spaniel, a staffy, a collie, 2x mixed breeds, and a dog that I just didn't know what was, it looked like a wheaten that was black if this helps describe him (he was the dog walking on his hind legs). He also tried to shag the collie dog - it almost felt like we were at some kind of strange dog swingers party

The trainer was really impressed with Fern, she said that he learns very quickly, but I didn't have the heart to tell her that he already knew most of the commands - albeit our commands are in Danish, so in effect Fern was relearning the commands in English - he did a good job regardless

We started off with the health checks, just so the trainer could see whether there were any behaviour issues with our dogs being handled. She noticed that Fern doesn't like anyone touching his mouth. I explained that is because he is a hoover and we've had to pry glass and all kinds of things out of his mouth so she said that we need to teach him to 'leave it' and showed us how to get him comfortable with us touching his mouth, she would lift up the side cheek and then give him a treat. We have got a long road ahead with this as she said as he gets more confident it's likely he'll become possessive and growl at us.

She put Fern in the circle to teach leave it take it, and she said he was so fast at learning, but Fern learnt this command in Danish some time ago, we can put a treat on his paw and make him wait to eat it . However for some reason we have not been able to use these commands to stop him from eating nasty things off the floor, something to work on.

I did feel sorry for the trainer as the two chihuahuas kept barking over her and it was very hard for us to hear, and the poor little puppy spaniel and owner left the class not knowing how to do half the tricks including sit - I wanted to bring it to the trainers attention to get her to focus on them but wasn't sure how to go about it without embarassing anyone

Still it was a great class, she's a really nice lady, Fern was very well behaved, he just lay there most of the time watching all the other dogs, and f@rted

OH made it to the last 10 minutes, to see Fern in all his glory in the middle of the circle showing off his tricks, and for once he didn't go ballistic, too many distractions for him to notice that his pa had walked into the room.

Alls well that ends well for this week anyway

That is excellent
Told you had nothing to worry about - puppy classes are always more or less a disaster at first. Til ppl settle in and can keep their nerves under control

I´m glad you enjoyed it and I bet you look forward to next week

Well Done !

It sounds like a right mixture of dogs, and I'm pleased for you that it went that well.

Cant wait to heat how it goes next week

Pleased the training went well Sounds as though Fern was a bit of a star

I don't quite understand the reasoning behind this:
Once Fern understands that having his mouth touched, opened, and having you put your hand/fingers inside is rewarding why should he become possessive & growly? He might not like it, but he should accept it with good grace

Glad it went so well MC

Sorry SB I should have explained it better, she said we will need for us to work on it to make it a pleasant experience because at the moment its not and she said that if we don't correct it, it'll become a problem, tbh this was the hardest thing for Fern to react to with me - I tried but he kept walking away, so I put him on short lead held the treat and tried to open his mouth with the treat hand - didn';t work very well at all, so I might try to get OH to hold Fern's lead and I'll try it again this evening.

Ah, right. Got hold of the wrong end of the stick - sorry

Fern will get used to 'open' in no time I'm sure