Need help choosing training classes

Saya

I never took my past dogs for obediance I really wished I had, but at the time my parent's were in a bind and we didn't really think about things like that.

With our new pups I'd like to do this for them.

I found four different training places, but two are not doing their classes right now and there's two others that are petsmart and one training place called DogTown Training.

Here's their website

http://www.dogtowntraining.com/puppy.html

The puppy class looks nice they do puppy socialization, desensitization to things like wheelchairs and things like that, and then training to sit, down, stay, target , and go to bed. The price is the same as petsmart's prices and they seemed nice in the email I hope to take a visit soon to see the place.

My question is which would be the best place to take Saya for her training Dogtown looks really nice I like the part with desensitization to stuff so I'm leaning to go to them, but I was wondering how is petsmart's training too?

It's too bad we missed out on taking Bella to puppy kindergarten luckily she likes the dogs that she has meet and luckily my neighboor has two boxers so they play sometimes when the owners have the time.

CrimsonO2

The PetSmart is a hit or miss. You should really talk to the trainers and find out what type of methodology they like touse (punitive vs positive reinforcement). The instructor at the Petsmart classes I took introduced me to clicker training (plus they had a jar of cheap clickers for us to take each class. I hoarded 4 of them). The advantage to PetSmart is the desensitization can also happen just as soon as you walk outside the training room, wala you're in a store with sights, smells, sounds, other animals, etc.!

Again, out of all these, I think since obedience classes are available in your area, it would be good for you to talk to the instructors and I'm sure you'll gravitate towards one or two of your options.

Good luck!
Jesse

mlvue

Tank graduated from Puppy Obedience at Petsmart and currently he's enrolled there for Intermediate Training.

We were searching for a trainer and were in Petsmart one day when one of the Petsmart associates walked right up to us asking to hold Tank. Prior to this experience Tank would nervously shake uncontrollably when someone unfamiliar walked up to him much less hold him. To our surprise Tank responded really well to the associate and snuggled right up to her. Turned out that she was a dog trainer. We started asking a whole bunch of questions on how to do this or that right on the spot and she ended up spending about 45 mins with us without flinching. We really like this trainer because she's very bright, extremely knowlegdable about dog behavior, and encourages us to use positive reinforcement. Also the fact that Tank responded really well to her helped sway our decision.

One of my co-workers had his dog trained at a different Petsmart and he did not like the trainer at all. He and she butt heads a lot. So I guess it all really depends.

shimaurashibalover92

We're taking Katsu to petco. We're on our second set of classes. Mostly because of the trainer Jo-Ann. She's really great and uses positive reinforcement.