Dog Obedience Classes

ddesire said :

For socialising I highly recommend the belconnen dog park. I take my dog several times a week and she loves it. There is always a good mix of breeds so your dog will learn how to get along with all sizes and temperaments.

I agree that the dog parks are great, I frequent my local park and usually leave as happy as the dogs! They are usually so exhausted from running and playing and have had so much mental stimulation that they will retire for the rest of the day. I can’t possibly walk them enough to give them that kind of workout and experience.

A warning for newcomers to the dog park – be on guard. I can read my dogs body language pretty well, but it took me a while, and I am still never 100% certain. I now know that they will herd dogs that look remotely like sheep (and these owners know that B&W dogs will herd their dogs), and my dogs do not take kindly to dogs with ‘little man syndrome’ who insist on yapping in their face or jumping up and biting their nether regions.

The most disappointing thing for me is that some dogs clearly do not play well with others, but their owners insist on bringing them to the park in an attempt to ‘socialise’ them. Off lead areas can increase dogs’ social skills, but they can’t create them.

When your dog has had enough, or is driving other dogs crazy, just get out. The possible consequences aren’t worth that type of ‘socialisation’.

Oops the above link didn’t work. These are the photos of Elbie: http://www.dailypuppy.com/dog/elbie_44603

Perhaps dog experts will be able to tell me whether his ears are going to be up/down or one up and one down 🙂

I have a very energetic border collie and she went through the ACT companion dog club with no issues. The class sizes are pretty small and the instructors are helpful.

For socialising I highly recommend the belconnen dog park. I take my dog several times a week and she loves it. There is always a good mix of breeds so your dog will learn how to get along with all sizes and temperaments.

I took my border collie/kelpie to the classes at RSPCA and they were great. Their classes are designed so that you can start with a dog of any age and experience.

The classes are less focused on the formal obedience such as heeling to within an inch of you or sitting and staying in the same position for 10 minutes, but more focused on having good manners all of the time, having a strong bond with you as their owner, and making walk time and play time a pleasurable and fun experience for both of you.

They won’t let you undertake classes with your dog wearing a check chain, and here are their reasons why http://www.youtube.com/user/Pinklink1#p/u/8/r-bKMsFKyik

The classes are relatively cheap, the training manual produced by the RSPCA in Canberra is one of the texts recommended for people doing the Delta dog training course, and I found the classes quite fun.

Good luck with the training! And as for the ears, mine has one up and one down – permanantly

koalathebear said :

preacher: thanks for all the info! Also, it’s great to know that the kelpie/border collie mix is a good one. So many people have warned me that it’s an almost dangerous mix because both breeds are so energetic and easily bored!

Your friends may be right. I used to take my girl to the local oval, train her for 15 minutes on check chain, let her run for 30 minutes off-chain, later go for a jog with her, then at home sit on a lounge, and throw a ball and get her to fetch it until she was tired (about 20 minutes). But if I wanted her to sit and rest, she would also do so.
Lots of energy, and possibly destructively bored if that energy is not released.
Also, the best companion, highly intelligent, easy to train, and few (if any) health problems. This is also a typical Kelpie.
Exercise and train him well, and you will have a fantasic dog.
My 3/4 kelpie 1/4 border collie cross (same as yours) stayed energetic until she was about 8-10, and lived to 16.5 years, and only got ill at the last few months.

My next dog will hopefully be this mix again.

We took our kelpie/scotch collie cross to the RSPCA training and it was great.

ACT Companion Dog Club is the one in Narrabundah: http://www.actcdc.org.au/

I can wholeheartedly recommend it after the ex and I took our very intelligent and “do what she wanted” Staffy/ boxer cross puppy there. The classes and instructors were great, very helpful. We also did the initial puppy school at the RSPCA which is where we got her from.

preacher: thanks for all the info! Also, it’s great to know that the kelpie/border collie mix is a good one. So many people have warned me that it’s an almost dangerous mix because both breeds are so energetic and easily bored!

Elbie (our puppy) is 3/4 kelpie and 1/4 border collie. This is how he looks right now: http://www.dailypuppy.com/profile/album/52583 We have no idea how he’ll look when he’s grown up and how lively he will be. At this point, we don’t even know if his ears are going to stand up or be floppy – right now they can’t seem to decide.

We’re attending the Puppy Classes at Brudine Veterinary Clinic now so would be wanting to start with obedience classes. I realise that he could probably be trainable up to 1 year old but he’s very energetic and smart – already knows how to sit, wait for his food, drop etc and he is pretty much toilet-trained now at 11 weeks so we think he would love obedience classes. We also think it would help to avert destructive behaviours – although right now he’s already very bitey and jumpey …. yes we have tried ignoring him/time out/yelping and all that sort of stuff.

The dog club at Mitchell is Belconnen Dog Obedience Club and they look pretty busy but we’ll try contacting them in person – it’s possible that the voice mail message on their answering machine is old and hasn’t been updated in a while.

I also had a dog that i took for lessons at Narrabundah (some years ago now), the beginner class was excellent, most classes ended with the dogs being let loose together in paddock which was great (and funny at times).

The next level of classes the instructor was more interested in showing us how good his dog was, and it was on a Thursday night in winter, so I quickly lost interest.

I had a kelpie/border collie cross that I put through obedience training at one year old. Best mix-breed ever.

How old is your dog? If it’s a puppy now, next year will be fine. This cross-breed will be willing and able to learn for at least another 5 years +.

However, you can start yourself soon by training your pup to walk by your (left hand) side on a check chain. Using the check chain correctly is an art, which obedience training will teach you, so maybe one private lesson might be in order, if you can’t get in this year.

I found that obedience training was as much about training the owner as it was the dog. e.g. the right way to fit the check chain, and how to walk with your dog. But the socialisation was also good. (and maybe you could sneak to training just for the socialisation, and then leave).

You’ve got a great dog there. This mix-breed loves discipline….and praise. They love to please you. Start teaching sit, down, come, with hand commands – http://www.bordercollierescue.org/advice/Content/UniCommands.html

Stay/come is a great game to play.
And lots and lots of exercise.

I envy you. Training a dog is a lotta fun. And rewarding for both of you.

sit. read.

the northside vet (cnr barton hwy and nthbourne) have puppy kindergarten, which i can heartily recommend. now.

the rspca also has obedience classes. later.

roll over.

There’s a place in Mitchell just off Flemington Rd opposite Sandford Rd intersection.

Narrabundah Dog Obedience – excellent!

RSPCA! http://www.rspca-act.org.au/pages/page36.asp