MADOR STORY Chapter 5 - September: school begins

In September 2004, school year begun not only for children but for Mador also - in the dog training school. Although I am a dog trainer myself, I consider very important to start early and keep on the socialization, the knowledge and understanding of dog- and human company unwritten rules, thus helping the peaceful living with each other.

In my opinion, a dog training school is the place where well educated trainers, using positive methods, meet enthusiastic owners and dogs, for the joy of both men and dogs. The essence lies in the mutual activity and motivation techniques. By the end of the training session, the participants are happily tired, have learnt something new or have successfully refined some older exercise.

In Mador's timetable, we currently have the classic dog school subjects like "Out-of-school Activities With Other Dogs" and "Basic Obedience Exercises" but we also have "We Can Behave In The Crowd" and "Dog Show Etiquette". The list will, of course, be longer, following Mador's developments. The above are the subjects of the first semester.

.	On a lovely September afternoon, we went to the Kõbánya Happy Dog School. This dog school not only is the closest to where we live, but also Viki has been training here with Liza and now Mamusz for Agility.

With Mador we arrived a bit early so he had enough time to explore the new territory and we met a beautiful one and a half years old rhodesian ridgeback Masai, who finally found a play partner (Mador) matching his size. The first time we joined the Beginners group with about 15 dog-owner teams. In the group we also had german shepherd, kuvasz, boxer, staffordshire terrier, airedale terrier, poodle, westie, collie etc. and mixed breeds. Apart from basic exercises we practiced heel and ladder. Mador performed the exercises wonderfully (really, objectively), followed by the approving look of the silver-medal winning dog trainer, also head of the dog training school Mr. András Benke. My dog obeyed both to my words and my gestures, he was quick and dynamic to lay down, sit, stand, stay etc. It was worth having made him work for his daily food or vitamines at home!

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At the second time we went to school, we were promoted to the Intermediate group, I was very proud at Mador. Here we have a more concentrated and purposeful work. Basic obedience exercises are considered known, we have the really spectacular neutralizing and other exercises (lay down forming a circle, go to others' dogs, stay for longer time when other dogs do exercises, go to the owner etc.) We have started the basics of Agility, but with a leonberger we should pay special attention not to overcharge the joints so we used only low obstacles and we skip crawling at all for months. With Mador, we both enjoy dog training, I can only recommend it to everyone.

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With Mador I do not plan, not even on the long term, to perform defence exercises, in my opinion leonbergers are simply not made for this. It is far more important to me to have a well socialized dog that can be taken anywhere with us, this is why I have started to get him used to the crowd at the local subway and train station. At first Mador had no idea what the huge crowd wanted of him (a subway just arrived), he looked around, he was alert. We sat calmly for a couple of minutes, I was scratching his ears and he gradually calmed down. When someone stopped and wanted to pat him, he was my calm, lovable leonberger again. Later on he walked among rushing people, a group of policemen, other dogs, salesmen etc. like someone doing this all in his life. He heeled nicely on the leash, he sat down when asked (of course he got some sausage), he let himself being patted, he almost drank one admirer's coffee (everybody was laughing except me who asked Mador not to do it). We have visited the bookstall, shoestore, while I had a little chat with people he sat down calmly at my feet. This 30-minute introduction was a real success. The next time we went down to the trains, one just arrived: Mador sat by my side very calmly, people smiled at him and patted him. This programme will be continued consciously.

© Mador.hu