Training Classes

Hi everyone

My beautiful Bella has her second set of injections booked for Friday so I will soon be able to take her out and about. I am really keen to take her to puppy training classes after Christmas, are they worth while? How do I choose a good training class etc?

Any recommendations for classes in Birmingham would be much appreciated.

Many thanks!

Michael

i dont know if they are worth it. We were going to take Miley for a 2 week course but everything she was going to be taught we have taught here ourselves. All the help you need is on this forum

I've never taken Suki. They can be great for socialization though if she isn't able to interact with other dogs very often or you are having an issue you don't know how to solve.

I took Steff mainly for the socialisation with the other dogs and to get her out of the house It ws good but she didn't learn a lot there, it was hard for her to concentrate all she wanted to do was play with all the other puppies..

Moo was older when I got her, but if I had a pup I would defo go to training classes, ask a the vets, if nothing else you could meet people with a pup similar age and find a play date

They're worth it, if only from the socialisation point of view.

I took Dempsey to one when he was about 4 months old so that i could get him used to lots of dogs in an enclosed space, because I was going to show him. To be honest, he learnt virtually nothing (well, nothing I couldn't teach him myself), but the staying calm when there are a lot of other dogs there was useful for the shows!

we currently take our boy to classes and he is doing ok but have to say theres far to many dogs great for getting aqquainted but to many distractions for doing much else.. the one that i find most owners have most trouble with [including us] is to stop jumping up but he is improving all the time dont no if we will start next year. a good point was made you do learn a lot from other owners on sites like this who have been an currently going throo the same.

Im glad i didn't bother i find Staffys to be intelligent dogs and fairly easy to train , i started training Duke with treats and a clicker things such as sit shake a paw, stay were all easy using a treat same as re call i just hold a treat up and he is back , a lot of vets hold socialization classes so might be worth checking a few in your area , we took Duke to a park where a lot of dogs are walked Sunday was the best day lots of dogs there .

Duke is 18 weeks now and we don't use the clicker anymore just the treats, give it a try yourself you will get a lot of satisfaction from it im sure , there are plenty of self training sites on the net just google it and good luck

Got to admit that I was very disappointed with puppy training classes I attended with Kuchar. It was a clicker thing. The only one who seemed to benefit was a golden labrador/retreiver who was already middle-aged at 12 weeks old.

What I wanted, and I suspect many others, was a puppy socialisation, but this was not allowed. Puppies on leads at all times, must ignore the other puppies. Impossible for my Staff!

And I found you need four hands for clicker training - one to hold the lead, one to hold the treats, one to click the clicker, one to admininster the treat. Kuchar was deaf to the clicker, of that I am sure and just tore the skin off my fingers getting to the perpetual treats and I really don't think he connected the 1) doing whatever he was supposed to do with 2) click and treat.

and then he was sick in the car on the way home, due to excess of treats so that even now we have to lift him bodily into the car as he hates it so much.

Personally, I wish I had never taken him to these classes, which cost A LOT of money. Incidentally, the trainer was a nurse at our vet's.

Sorry to sound a downer, it just didn't work for my pup.

We currently take Tilly, she is 18 weeks old, and we started at 13 weeks. They have proved invaluable for our super confident Stafford puppy lol. She was like a whirlwind for the first 4 weeks but we had a breakthrough this week and I maintained her attention for nearly the whole class :-) Tilly is fab one on one or off the lead at the park but has struggled with enclosed indoor areas where there are other dogs and the classes have really helped.

I think they're great for socialisation (as long as it's allowed) and maybe for picking up a couple of tips on training.

i took cass to puppy classes, purely for the interaction. first class they let them off in groups for a play together. he loved it.

have i learned anything i didn't or couldn't have found out myself? not really. cost £75 for 6 weeks and the 6th week was basically each person going through what you've learned, in front of everyone, which i thought was ridiculous if im honest. i stopped going after the 4th week.

Training classes for older dogs (with the right trainers!) are great. Puppy classes, to me, are really more about teaching them to interract properly with other dogs than pure obedience.

Caryll wrote:Training classes for older dogs (with the right trainers!) are great. Puppy classes, to me, are really more about teaching them to interract properly with other dogs than pure obedience.

i agree, my brother in law has a black lab which he's traingin to be a gun dog. he says the classes are great and jess is a fine example already when told what to do. i did the puppy class so cass would get used to other dogs.

what i do find funny is seeing people go to classes who try all these clicking techniques, only for the dog to ignore the owner and do their own thing. a women was trying to show off to me whilst i was waiting to go to puppy class, the dog was about 2/3 and she was asking it to sit, then clicking, giving a treat etc the dog just ignored her and began jumping everywhere. hate people like that "look at me and my dog at how good it is." i just smiled and turned away.

Caryll wrote:Training classes for older dogs (with the right trainers!) are great. Puppy classes, to me, are really more about teaching them to interract properly with other dogs than pure obedience.

Absolutely agree Caryll, that's what I wanted and unfortunately didn't get.

I wish I could find a class that would concentrate of socialisation for puppies, even though my pup is now almost a year old so that hopefully Kuchar could get the excitement of being with other dogs out of his system. In the "old days" (my last pup was 20 years ago) everyone met over at the park and all the dogs, old and young, ran about together. Nowadays, everyone is too scared to let their dogs just play.

I am considering training classes for older dogs, but only if they don't use those wretched clickers! But even then, Kuchar still goes insane with excitement when he sees other dogs, so wouldn't learn anything.

He's trained (after a fashion) every day of course, and away from other dogs he's - well okay, some stubborness or battle of wills to be overcome! - but it's all forgotten as soon as he sees another dog.

Wish I knew the answer

Steviec wrote: a women was trying to show off to me whilst i was waiting to go to puppy class, the dog was about 2/3 and she was asking it to sit, then clicking, giving a treat etc the dog just ignored her and began jumping everywhere. hate people like that "look at me and my dog at how good it is." i just smiled and turned away.

I would recommend training classes as a way of sociialising your puppy, you may well learn something yourself too. Ask around at your local park if anyone has been to a good one.

Hi all

Little update on this. Tomorrow I am going along to watch a puppy training session at a local dog training club to see how it works and whether it's right for me and Bella.

If I like the look of what they are doing then they should have a place on the course for Bella at the start of February. To start with theres a puppy induction and basic training and then she can progess on to the good citizen dog training scheme. They keep classes really small and meet for an hour every sunday for training as well as regular doggy social events. They also give you homework to do between classes. It's a not for profit group so only costs £20 for the year to join and you can then go for as long as you want to.

I will update with how I get on and then hopefully in Feb I will be able to tell you all how well Bella is doing,

Michael

This sounds good Michael, I do hope it works out for you and Bella.

Definityely from the socialising side , Tommy could be a bit growly when he first met the other dogs in a small space and he's learning out of that. Our trainer is very positive and constantly commenting on Tommy with his appeasing gestures etc, and for the first time yesterday we could put him in the circle of dogs , drop the lead and bring him out . This also helps to change other peoples perception of the dogs too. I was doing ok with Tommy but struggling in some areas like the jumping and puppy nips and also it's great for my daughter who is getting the most out of how it should be done

Bacchus has already completed a course designed around staffies. As Caryll says, from a training point of view the benefits are limited. Imagine a room full of staffs of different ages!!!! But for socialisation, great.
He starts a mixed breed class tomorrow morning, but suspect he will create havoc.
We will also continue with the staffie classes when they resume in February.