I'm taking some more obedience classes with Siku. There is one lady in the class with a ~10month old GSD who's clearly a little freaked out with being around a lot of people, dogs, and new place. For the most part she's fine, but if a dog comes too close to her she'll bark and lunge at it like she wants to attack it. The owner is clearly having trouble controlling her and doesn't really know what to do. I'm of the mindset of distract the dog and make them face the other way when it does that and just keep working on raising her confidence. Well the trainer's approach last week was to hang the dog by it's collar, which is a choke chain I might add. I was a bit pissed when I saw her do that. She didn't really give the owner any warning at what she was going to do, just did it. Well what do you know, that poor lady did not show up this week and I bet won't show up for the rest of the classes either.

Makes me so mad. I wish I had talked with her that day and told her about a different trainer in the area who I know for a fact will not hang your dog. She has much better ways of dealing with aggressive dogs and even has a special class for those dogs that I've heard is a wonderful class. I wrote down the info for tonight, but she didn't show up. Hopefully she finds a trainer who knows better ways to work with dogs like that.

The rest of the class if fine and uses a lot of positive reenforcement, so I was a bit shocked to see that happen. On a good note, Siku did really well tonight and did her heeling great!

I would be out of there so fast - but if I were that owner I would have bitched up a storm. If that dog had any fear towards people before, it just got worse.

Sounds like an idiot to me.

Wow, that sucks! We went to a training class that we did NOT feel comfortable in and did not return. It was not so much the trainer as the hardcore crazy GSD ladies with the choke chains insisting we had to have Chili on one instead of a regular collar. Um, no - he listens to us...

Hopefully you see her around town or she may find the other trainer herself? Is there a pet store in town that you all go to?

Ewe does that his classes (regular OB) have really helped him improve so much. Poor lady. I'm sure that set the dog back a few too.

The classes are through my local kennel club. The lady teaching is new. She's Polish, so maybe that's where she learned the negative enforcement. Though I did hear from the good trainer that she's had someone else come to her, cause a different dog class hung her dog. Not sure if that was through the kennel club or not. Just know that's a quick way to lose customers!

It's funny, cause I feel like I've been spoiled by my first trainer PJ. She was so good at explaining things and helping people with their problems. I can see where is new trainer fails in a few places and I see the affect it has on the owners. Some of them are still confused on how to get their dogs to sit! They just try to push their butts down instead of using a treat. The trainer now is really good at training dogs, but not so great at training people!

I'm going to finish the class with Siku and then do Elara (it's free if you are a club member to take your dog once) and then I may volunteer and help with the classes. If the GSD lady never comes back, I'll point that out to the trainer and see if I can get her to never do that again.

I had that happen to me once. I had a Collie the gentlest dog you ever seen. We went to training class and KC started barking. He always barked when he got excited. The trainer did the same thing walked over and hung him choke chain and all. I was flabbergasted. I started yelling at him to put him down left and never came back.

That's such a shame, I guess that's where people learn such terrible things. I'll never forget the day I was walking my pack and we crossed paths with another person walking their dog on a head collar. As we passed their dog was getting excited so the owner hung that poor dog by his head collar! I felt so awful for the dog, I was afraid the poor things neck was going to snap.

That is so terrible and sad that a trainer someone who is suppose to know how to train dogs does it that way.

There was a Husky that came to the dog park one time all he did has bark at all the dogs in a warning way it did not sound friendly. Blaze wanted nothing to do with him, he hide under the picnic table. Well the owner left with the dog and started walking him on the path I saw from a far that he was hanging him at one point it looked like very negative training with the dog. I guess that explained why he was like that in the park around the dogs.

There is a dog training school across from my sisters and they frequently work in the gated area or the field so we can see them from where she lives. They teach the owners to pull on their dogs like that and I have watched it happen. The assistant trainer has a red husky puppy that looks almost like Cally and we were on a walk and I couldn't resist asking to pet him and the guy said yes (they were on a break) (I also had Cally) and I go over and this dog had a huge choke collar on and the owner has a tight grip on him with the collar pulling on his throat and yanked back Hard on him to get him to sit... Cally, being a puppy whom I allow to go to the dog park and play with other dogs was excited to see another dog and started pulling back on the leash when I tried to pull her away and once I got a little ways away the guy was like "if you want your dog trained, you know where to come" I understand obedience and I think my dog is fairly well trained but there are times for obedience and times when she can play... I was extremely mad at his comment to say the least, I'm sorry that I do not use rip my dogs neck off with a choke collar (if used correctly, I completely agree with them. His method was definitely not correct)... just goes to show what some trainers are teaching people.

Wow way back when I learned that choke collars were to put resistance on a dog not to actually choke him or her. I can't imagine lifting a dog let alone hanging one by a choke collar. All I can say is that trained should be glad I wasn't in the class and if they'd tried a stunt like that on Jeter they'd be in the receiving end of a bunch of pain.

That reminds me of the Malamute episode of Dog Whisperer where Caesar Milan did that... gross.

That's terrible. I'm not surprised they didn't go back. It amazes me how many people still do that kind of thing. And as for that episode ... ugh.