How to get kicked out of school?

~ Agata @BarkTime

The answer apparently is extremely simple – you just have to be big enough to freak out your class mates resulting in them not accepting you…

But let’s start from the beginning…

On Saturday we decided to take Bunk back to school. Our 9 year old wanted to do some dog training so we checked out our favourite training school BarkingMaddts and found when their “K9 kids class” was on. Saturday apparently from 12 o’clock till 2 o’clock.

So last week we drove there (without the dogs) on a reconnaissance mission just to make sure that she can attend it and to have a sneak pick at what the other kids were doing. We spoke to the trainer about Bunk and he said “Ok, bring him in and we will see”… so having the green light we were all set and one week later off we went… back to school.

There we were at 11:30am, on a bright and breezy Saturday morning ready for our “back to school” ride. As always any trip out is like a military operation so let’s begin:

Dog – check

Treats – check

Water bowl – check

Tons of leads, collars and chains – check

House keys, car keys, money - check

Human nourishment – check

Oh and of course sprog – check

Upon arrival, once everyone had had a good look at Bunk and his sheer size, he was black balled! We were told “I am really sorry but he is simply to big…” As most of the other dogs in the group and even some of the kids would fit neatly into Bunks mouth we were expecting that this might happen but sometimes you just have to take a chance… Docile and adorable as he is, it does take a certain mind set to handle being around a Newfy, an unnatural adoration of washing gloopy clothes being one of many traits for example.

I am so gonna gloop that sizist trainer, just a couple of steps closer… closer…

We totally understand why the trainer decided against Bunk being in the class and we don’t hold a grudge… the only one who did hold a grudge was Bunk… poor pup had to spend the next 2 hours watching E. “playing” with a rent-a-dog… yes you are reading it right, at times like this they have a pool of back up dogs, less well behaved than Bunk but a more appropriate size. The irony was not lost on us, two dogs at home and here we are renting one, life can throw a curve ball at times.

You are joking aren’t you… tell me you are joking….

Coincidentally, E. was too small for the adult class where Bunk was accepted, albeit with a slightly raised eyebrow. He slipped under the radar when he only weighed 10kgs and was only slightly bigger than other dogs, but now at the ground shaking 65kg weight now a days he can’t slip under anything anymore, even planes pull up when they fly over our house 🙂

0 thoughts on “How to get kicked out of school?”

  2. They kicked me out too, because they only had xs-dogs in this group and they thought a larger breed could destroy their fashion show and the small talk. who cares, mom bought a nice pair of shoes for the money we saved and I got a big bag of Greenies. world peace rescued LOL

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  6. As the owner and head trainer of barking mad dts, it was a difficult decision to not let beautiful Bunk do the kids club however, as stated, we have to consider the size of Bunk verses the ability of the young person attempting to hold him with lots of appealing distractions going on and all the 5-12 yr olds in between !! Bunk is a true ambassador for his breed and has been and is continued to be very welcome in all the other pet and sports classes that we offer. He is (by far) not the largest breed we have at our school and we welcome all dogs, all sizes and all temperaments at BMDTS … Indeed, we see around 700 dogs a week just at our school in graveley, Hertfordshire. I hope this alleviates anyone’s fears of ‘size-ism’ at barking mad dts ;0))) we look forward to seeing Bunk again soon!! Regards, Richard Clarke, Director of Training, BMDTS

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    1. Evening Richard,
      No hard feelings I promise.
      We totally get it…
      We will try with Lilly - our lab - next week and maybe I can get Bunk into some adults classes which run the at the same time as K9.
      Anyhow, we will see you on Saturday 🙂

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  8. I understand businesses can set whatever parameters they want, but as a Newf owner myself I have trouble being unbaised about this or as understanding as you.
    But I’ve been doing a lot of size-discrimination ranting these days.
    I say they should’ve given it a try at least for one class, though. Everyone is nervous? Well then that’s a great way to teach people how to interact with big dogs! Goodness knows more people could use that. If Bunk was reasonably well-behaved, he would be a good ambassador rather than an outsider. And having him on the sidelines only reinforces negative images in the whole class.
    Besides, doesn’t it make sense that Emm learn how to handle her own dog?

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    1. He is more or less well behaved but with very young children in the class, with body mass of about 1/6 of Bunks weight the risk of injury is just to high… in the heat of the training, running after balls or chasing things a lot might happen… we will try smaller group or just 1 to 1 as a starter.
      There is still a lot of other training option open for us, just not K9…

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    2. I totally agree! I have never heard of something like this happening. There are many young kids participating in Junior Handler programs and I know some of them are working with Newfoundlands. I would make sure there was a head halter on the dog though which would prevent the dog from getting loose from the child. You are much more tolerant and understanding than I would have been. In a few of the obedience classes I have attended with my dogs throughout the years there have been adults working in partnership with their child so the child learns how to handle the dog. I guess I would enroll in an adult class as long as they were willing to let my child accompany me so we could both work with the dog. I think most obedience instructors would encourage this since it would benefit everyone involved.

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  11. I have never, in all my years of working with dogs and their people, heard of a dog refused obedience lessons because of his size. You might understand and accept it, but I don’t!

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    1. He was refused because we wanted him to join K9 kids classes… there are 3 years old kids attending it as well so it was purely decision based on risk assessment… I think
      He can join classes with full size humans, no problem

      Reply

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