We have a 4.5 month old husky and we attended our first training class this weekend. Ranger cried/whinned the entire class (except for when it was playtime outside!) because he was on his leash and unable to play with the other dogs. He was so worried/concerned with the other dogs that he would not do hardly any of the training activities. I was mortified the entire class but made sure to stay possitive.

After class I asked the instructer what she suggested me to do for the next class. She would like me to sit by the door and everytime he whines to step out until he stops and re-enter the class. While I understand this, I am leaving the class and not being able to hear anything she is saying during the time I am in the other room which to me is counter-productive.

I would like to try to work on this before we have the next class this weekend. We do not really have any friends that we can practice on with their dogs. What/where do you guys suggest we could take him (we do have a local dog park I could keep him leashed) and how do you suggest we go about making the crying/whining stop? I was thinking of using the word quiet but how do you get him to actually BE quiet?

Any thoughts or suggestions would be fantastic!!

I have the same issue. My girl has no attention span when she wants to play. For me, it's easier to work on because we live with two other dogs so I always have the chance to practice with her. The goal is just to show them that if they want to play, first they have to listen. Is your dog park off-leash? If so, I'd suggest keeping him on leash and practicing something like "sit." Whenever he finally decides to listen (because no, he won't listen right away in the beginning), let him off to go play for a little while. Eventually he'll pay attention to you no matter what distractions are around. It also helps to have really good treats he doesn't get often, but I wouldn't suggest this in a crowded dog park. That'll work more at home with someone trying to distract him or even just out on a walk where there's other people, dogs, and cars.

My girl's the same age and I'm just starting to see the improvements on this. For example we were at the vet the other day and she really wanted to go play with the pit bull puppy. But I demanded her attention and made her sit before she could say hi. It took some time and I did have to step right into her line of sight, but eventually she sat. I also use hand signals and she responds to those a lot more than verbal cues so sometimes I just have to stick my hand right in front of her face and not move it until she obeys.

Our trainer told everyone to get a squirt bottle, and when the dogs started acting up in class we'd give them a zap in the face with the "enough" command. It worked really well, and for the most part we can just say enough and Ghost quits doing whatever it was she was doing. Lulu (our Cocker) on the other hand, doesn't quite grasp it...

blueeyedghost wrote:

Our trainer told everyone to get a squirt bottle, and when the dogs started acting up in class we'd give them a zap in the face with the "enough" command.

Note: Dogs who love water think this means you're playing with them. Or at least my mom's lab (water dogs. gotta love em) does. Callie won't even go outside in the rain so it would probably work on her. Guess it all depends on the dog. It's worth a try though! If it doesn't work for your dog, then it doesn't work. Sadly, it's all trial and error.

Mine did the same thing and I understand how embarrassing it can be.

We didn't really do anything to stop the behavior, other than just ignoring him. The trainer laughed at first and explained to the class this is normal husky behavior, but after that everyone stopped paying attention and eventually he gave up.

He loves water so that is out of the question. I am glad to hear I am not the only one with this issue!! I was just home for lunch and did all the exercises they wanted us to practice at home and he's an angel with them... just when there are other dogs around!

Are you exercising before class? As we all say a tired husky is a good husky. Maybe if you wear him out before class then he will have less desire to play. Just a suggestion, hope it helps.

Could some of the crying be excitement? Whenever we take Bandit to the park, he has kind of a freakout where he'll cry like we're hurting him (we're not) and run around all crazy on the leash.

Yeah he is excited he just wants to go up to all the other dogs and sniff and play!

We will walk him before and make sure he is tired and see if that helps. I thought about doing that but worried that he would be too tired but anything is better than having that happen again!

~ UPDATE ~

We walked Ranger for about 40 minutes right before class to wear him out. We left the room a few times and that's all it took for him to understand he needed to be quite to be in the room. I was SO PROUD when we left I wanted to scream at the top of my lungs!!

Aw good! I'm so glad it worked out for you!