Hi

I am considering taking Harley to obedience class as he is a bit rowdy and giddy/excitable.

The problem is when he gets really excited it sometimes leads to him collapsing and having what we think is some kind of fit. He's under investigation with the vet for this, but we really need to calm him down as excitement is the trigger for these episodes.

I thought that if we take him to obedience then he would learn how to calm down, however there will obviously be other dogs there which makes Harley excited!

What would you do?

given his collapsing I would try and seek out a personal trainer or someone with a smaller group of dogs to deal with as I know a big group can be quite excitable.

Im sure there's some trainers here who offer one to one advice. Or look online for good training books or DVD's which you can learn at home?

Good luck with him :D

I think Lottie offers individual training. Pm her and see what she suggests :)

Im sure the class instructor can offer you some tips on keeping his excitment under control or maybe a one-to-one before hand to teach you some tips on getting his attention on you

Please dont write off the idea of group classes completely. He's going to come into contact with other dogs at some point and a class is a much more controlled enviroment than in the park.

At all the dog classes ive been to the trainers work hard to keep things calm as its easier for the dogs to focus, most activities are done on the lead, especially in the beginning, and the dogs are kept at a fair distance apart.

Hi Shorty,

If it were me (and I'm not saying come to me - just giving me opinion!) I wouldn't want to take Harley into a class situation before first doing some one to ones.

Firstly I would want to assess how excited he gets for myself and quite how much it would take to keep him calm and to be honest, until some sort of diagnosis is reached I wouldn't be very comfortable about taking him into my class.

I would say a one to one approach would work best at first - you can still meet other dogs in a one to one session and teach him relaxation protocols to calm down on your cue. Then, when he is able to calm down on cue, consider introducing him to a class environment.

With an unknown condition such as this, I wouldn't feel comfortable putting him at a risk that neither of us know the extent of and despite best efforts in a class environment - even dogs that have done incredibly well at calming down can get excited and over aroused.

If you want any advice privately, please let me know - it's very difficult to suggest something on a forum as I've not met you or Harley but from what you've said I think the risk factor may be a bit too much.

There is also a book called Control Unleashed which is very good and has relaxation protocols in it to help you teach your dog how to relax on cue. If you want to take a look, just google it - it's around £16 to buy I think.