[luv2byte]

Today we stopped in at petco, just to see the animals in for adoption today. I was sitting on the floor loving on a lab mix puppy that was brought back to them, too rambunctious for the family. The pup was very mouthy but not out of control. When I went to pet it, it mouthed, I slowly pulled my hand back, said 'ah ah' then went to pet again. It didn't mouth me again. The lady bent down, grabbed its muzzle tightly, shook its head & told it no. by the 4th time I told her to stop abusing it, its just a baby that was obviously too young from its mom. She snapped at me that its mom died, I told her its no reason to be mean, not a proper way to teach it. She said she had shown at akc level before, I told her 'I'm happy for you, but it has nothing to do with correct training & to stopmistreating the pup'. I was so mad! Hubby said he noticed it too & was glad I said something, he was busy chatting with someone.

 

[Greater Swiss]

Ugh, that would have driven me nuts. I got Caeda from what I now know was a BYB, but at least she was very concerned about the puppies, where they were going and she was very open and specific about how she treated or corrected the pups (she touched them on the nose and said uh uh....she showed me, she just touched, not tapped not slapped). I'm glad I got Caeda from that BYB rather than a Petco or something, where any magical mystery moron could have been doing stuff like you describe.
Sure she can show at AKC level...I don't know much about it but I know its not a contest in training methods.

 

[sscott87]

Yeah, let's just grab a puppy by its head and shake it every time it does something that a puppy does... Sheesh. Congrats, I'm glad you know how to show a good-looking dog bred with specific genes, but that doesn't show any knowledge as to handling a puppy correctly. Props for saying something.

 

[Fuzzy Pants]

I'm confused. Was it a Petco employee, a rescue organization representative or the family member that brought the dog back that was abusing the puppy? If it was a rescue or Petco employee then I would definitely complain to management. They might not know they have an employee behaving like that and might reprimand the person if informed.

 

[Spirit_of_Cotons]

I'm glad you said something, that lady was wrong in doing that. That's where you feel like reporting her to someone in charge. More people need to speak up, so good job for you!

 

[luv2byte]

I'm confused. Was it a Petco employee, a rescue organization representative or the family member that brought the dog back that was abusing the puppy? If it was a rescue or Petco employee then I would definitely complain to management. They might not know they have an employee behaving like that and might reprimand the person if informed.

It was a rescue group that brings in animals on saturdays for adoption events. It wouldn't have bothered me as much but she had a FIRM grip on its head while very sternly saying "no biting, no no no'. If it was a store employee imwould have gone right to mgmt.

 

[Bordermom]

Hate to say it, but not everybody is on this forum or totally up to date with the accepted training methods most people on here use. That doesn't mean she's wrong per say. Getting into a fight with her on the spot isn't likely going to get her to change her ways - likely she's left with the thought that you'e a treehuggingsofty who wouldn't know how to train a rock and got upset because you didn't know anything about training.

Unless you're going to grab the puppy and make a run for it, likely that's how that pup is still going to be trained, untill the rescue is educated otherwise. How about printing out some current information on training and sending it to the rescue with a polite letter of concern for how the dogs and pups are treated, so they have the chance to read through things and learn and decide?

Keep in mind some rescues are very set in their ways, I used to work with one rescue offering help etc. and found that more or less all they wanted was a place to send the aggressive out of control dogs! I use treats and clickers, but they were set on promoting trainers who were trained through Brad Pattison so every dog wore a martingale and got jerked around in the name of 'training'. Not all rescues are the same and not all of them want advice or to change their ways in other words.

 

[luv2byte]

Hate to say it, but not everybody is on this forum or totally up to date with the accepted training methods most people on here use. That doesn't mean she's wrong per say. Getting into a fight with her on the spot isn't likely going to get her to change her ways - likely she's left with the thought that you'e a treehuggingsofty who wouldn't know how to train a rock and got upset because you didn't know anything about training.

Unless you're going to grab the puppy and make a run for it, likely that's how that pup is still going to be trained, untill the rescue is educated otherwise. How about printing out some current information on training and sending it to the rescue with a polite letter of concern for how the dogs and pups are treated, so they have the chance to read through things and learn and decide?

Keep in mind some rescues are very set in their ways, I used to work with one rescue offering help etc. and found that more or less all they wanted was a place to send the aggressive out of control dogs! I use treats and clickers, but they were set on promoting trainers who were trained through Brad Pattison so every dog wore a martingale and got jerked around in the name of 'training'. Not all rescues are the same and not all of them want advice or to change their ways in other words.

No training method is acceptable when utilizing the way she grabbed that pup's muzzle. I was nice when I first commented to her about grabbing & shaking like she did, then she peacocked "I used to show at AKC level", which is when I told her "good for you but has nothing to do with you obviously not knowing proper training tecniques & proper handling of a pup, stop mistreating it".

There are many ways of training that does NOT invovled squeezing a 8 week pup's face, shaking its head while yelling at it then harshly letting its face go.

 

[Fuzzy Pants]

Is there someone in charge of the rescue higher up than that woman that you could complain to or send an email to informing them of her behavior along with links to sites that promote good training methods like Ian Dunbar?