Puppy classes

[Giselle]

Wait, so 3 month old puppies were doing agility? Were you just doing tunnels and chutes or were you jumping and performing contact obstacles? I'd be concerned about the health implications if it was the latter =/

[IRescue452]

We did little jumps, they were honestly like 3 inches off the ground and for the smaller breeds they were just bars on the ground basically. I don't remember doing the teeter-tooter, but we did a short dogwalk and we did the tunnels and chutes and the sit/stay platform. It was all on leash and slow and a great way to give the dogs something fun to do and teach them to focus in different ways. Its a lot better in my mind than just heeling around a circle when you can walk with your dog at heel and come to something and say "over" or "through" or get them to ignore total distractions. That's a command I forgot, they also learned "leave it". To be honest I don't know why so many people pay $200 dollars for walking around a retail store rather than the $60 for the dog club classes. I've seen the retail store classes at petsmart and I'm not impressed. The dogs were jumping around and the owners were struggling not knowing what they are doing, and the teacher is totally lost if they are even watching at all while the owners/dogs are walking around the store perimeter.

[chocolatepuppy]

To be honest I don't know why so many people pay $200 dollars for walking around a retail store rather than the $60 for the dog club classes. I've seen the retail store classes at petsmart and I'm not impressed. The dogs were jumping around and the owners were struggling not knowing what they are doing, and the teacher is totally lost if they are even watching at all while the owners/dogs are walking around the store perimeter.

Gee, I don't know, I took Lacey 8 years ago to Petsmart(two classes) and Layla went through four. The trainer Lacey had, Lori, does obedience with her dogs and has a search and rescue dog. Layla had a different trainer for her first three classes who was nothing short of the dog whisperer and then for her 4th class had Lori. As for our local dog club classes it says on their website, one sign of dog aggression, and out you go. What the heck? So who will help me with my dog? Lori, at Petsmart did. She taught me how to better react to Layla's occasional 'outbursts'.
I believe I paid $79. eight years ago for Lacey and I paid $99. and $109. for Layla, not $200.

[shepgirl]

I mosly do the same as BC mom. I take bits and pieces from each different training methods that I think will work well for my dogs and I work them that way . I don't even use the same methods for my two dogs, they both have different temperaments and different responses to stimuli so I just adapt and try new things. I am a pretty big fan of NILIF though.