A new Bouvier Des Flandres puppy joined my pack here in early April. She was just 12 weeks old and she has settled in fine. House trained very easily.
Chepam Valentina (Isabella) at 12 weeks old
This puppy loves toys and food and is going to be very easy to train.
The B’dos. Dog Training Club’s basic obedience group class is an introduction to obedience training of dogs. It is 9 classes and has the most reasonable dog training rate around. This particular class, which started on April 24, I believe will have approximately 30 dogs (a large number of which are puppies).
At the end of the class, the dogs should do reliable sits, down, stand with stays, walk properly on a leash, know commands like come, and stay. and be introduced to the recall exercise. I think The B’dos. Dog Training club gets excellent results and people are pleased with the training results so it gets a lot of word of mouth recommendations and repeat customers. It is also an excellent way to socialise puppies/dogs.
As this April class is so large, (I believe approximately 30 dogs were supposed to be attending) it is being divided into 2 groups. Each group will have a trainer and an assistant trainer so that the dogs get lots of individual attention. Lovely variety of dogs, pedigree and non pedigree, all shapes and sizes, old and young and from the first class we attended, I saw an extremely keen group of handlers with the dogs.
I am seeing lots of puppies, the pedigree ones like the Rottweiler, and Rhodesian Ridgeback, and all kind of mixes, the Mastiff mixes, Great Dane the Jack Russell and some cuties which I think were “rescue dogs”.
Dog training class in Barbados
Jennifer Fields is doing the training and is being assisted by Jenni Wilson.
Isabella already knows simple commands like sit and down and come. She gets rewards (small treats) and she has learnt the word “no” for things I do not want her to play with. It was only her second evening out as she is 16 weeks old and just had her third inoculation against parvo virus.
Chepam Valentina at Calliope (Isabella) in the garden
Isabella does not need to go to any class for basic obedience as I could easily train her at home on my own but I enjoy bringing her out to socialise her where she will be in contact with a lot of other dogs and people in a friendly environment. It is very important to socialise puppies and this training will be ideal for that.
She loves to retrieve a ball and will bring other toys to have them thrown. I am encouraging this as I plan to do further training with her and the retrieve is a good exercise.
She loves to play with the Tibetan Terrier and sometimes my other Bouviers play with her.
My new Bouvier Des Flandres puppy Isabella with my Tibetan Terrier, Tibby
She was not accustomed to travelling in a vehicle so barked a bit but has quickly settled down and I expect she will greatly enjoy the training class and love the interaction with the other dogs. She will probably be the youngest on the class but not the smallest as she already weighs 24 lbs!
I think it is great that so many people are bringing their dogs, and especially puppies out for training, especially in group classes to socialise them.
Some of these puppies/dogs I suspect will go on to further training, some may end up in the show ring where training is a key to success but regardless, I think the handlers and the puppies/dogs will enjoy their time out with The Barbados Dog Training Club and their owners will be pleased that basic commands are followed. It is, of course, important for the owners to continue to reinforce and develop their puppies/dogs but these classes are an excellent start.
And the puppies/dogs certainly enjoy their opportuntiy to make new puppy/dog human friends and have a fun time training as well.
One of the cuties on the Barbados Dog Training Club’s Obedience Class with Issabella at the training grounds at Waterford
Tags: B'dos. Dog Training Club, Bouvier Des Flandres, Dog training in Barbados, Puppy training in Barbados
