Me and my dog went to meet with a trainer today( Bryant Meyer). The porpose was to have my pup (Hemi) evaluated and discuss training with him.
I was nerves about this meeting. I am training Hemi on my own with no experience, so i do not know what i am doing. I have read a few books and purchased a few videos but they do not explain how to start with step one they are usually around step 3 for instructions.
Hemi impressed my today. Bryant asked about his back ground and what i have been doing with him. I gave him all the information i could then he went to work on Hemi. He first grabbed a bird from the pen and rubbed it in Hemi's face, Hemi looked a little excited about it. Then he threw the bird and Hemi went after it, but did not grab it only pushed it around with his nose and nudged it around a little bit. This went on for about 5 min until Hemi finally got the idea to pick up the bird and bring it back. After a little bit of throwing the bird Bryant got out the staring gun to see his reaction to gun shot. Bryant went out in thefield while Hemi stayed back with me. A few gun shots went off and the bird was thrown, Hemi was on a B-line to retrieve the bird. we did this for about 10 min and took Hemi inside for more looking over.
He put Hemi on a runner about 4 feet off the ground to get a good look t him on the table. Hemi does not care for heights, he wanted off the table and on the ground. Hemi was walked Back and forth and had his teeth looked at. We talked about what he was looking for and training techniques. All was going well.
Went back out side with him on a leash to see how he responded to the usual comands and walk at heel with him. It took a few times for Hemi to respond to the commands, but he did.
the reason i was so nerves was because e you see how trained dogs act and how they respond to constant training but you don't see how they respond at the very beginning. I have been working with him but do not know the steps to which progress is made, again, I do not know what i am doing, so it made me a little nerves to meet with a trainer and find out i am doing every thing wrong. Well it so happens that i am doing everything correctly (so far).
At the end Bryant informed me Hemi is in the advance steps of training and is to keep doing what i have been doing with some modifications and additions to my rueteen. I am going to be meeting with him about every two weeks so he can see our progress and direct us on our training regiment, and he is doing this for a reasonable fee.