NEXT QUESTION

[REBELBABY]

Who does the best obedience classes, and does he have to be a certain age?

 

[JAKEISGREAT]

OHHH I bet you will get a wide assortment of answers! They have puppy classes from wee pups on up..my sister is a professional trainer and for anything more serious (behavioral etc) she says 6 months. But that's for adult like stuff.
[MENTION=1904]cali baker[/MENTION] used Petsmart...

 

[LynnA]

Luckily, I had a dog training facility right across the street from where I work and Otis started at 4 months. Now, 13 mos later and all is good but the jumping - I do have to say I think besides that I have a genius on my hands.

 

[BulldogMoma]

You will definitely get a variety of responses. One trainer I spoke with believes in starting them at 8 weeks with private lessons. I thought that was a bit young, although Morgan will be 13 weeks tomorrow and just from us working together at home, he can walk on a leash, sit, shake (my favorite), down, stay (most of the time) and come. Like a young child, they seem to learn quickly. I would definitely wait until your baby is fully immunized before any lessons, class or private. We see our vet tomorrow and this is one of the things up for discussion.

 

[Marine91]

I don't think there is any one right answer to this question. I am sure there are a lot of excellent trainers out there but you need to choose one that both you and your pup are comfortable with. Harlea is 16 weeks old and had her first puppy class last week at PetSmart. I have a post in the training and behavior forum discussing our first night and why we ultimately chose them over others we had talked to if you are interested. As for age all pups are different and some will do better starting a bit younger than others. I apologize that I didn't post the link to my other post as I am on my phone.

 

[Kross225]

We took Luca to a Petco puppy class as soon as he was able to. They need to have all there shots to participate and can only get certain shots at certain ages. There he learned the sit, stay, lay down ect ect. He was about 4/5 months old at the time. It was a decent class with a very good trainer. (Who the trainer is makes all the difference btw) It was good socialization for him too. After puppy class was finished we didn't continue on to the adult classes and I'm kicking myself now cause though he still listens to commands inside the house (amidst no distractions) he is unfortunately hard to control outside on a leash and becoming a little too easily provoked by other dogs.
Originally I was going to have his old trainer come to my house for private lessons to correct this but earlier today I stumbled across a trainer I had previously seen on the local news channel on one of their pet segments. I'm sure it will cost me a small fortune. Probably $300 just to look into his eyes but its a small price to pay for a well trained bully boy. The moral of this story is get them in training as soon as possible and for the sake of the Gods and all things calm, stick with it. They get big and they get big fast. And English bulldogs don't exactly tow the line in training. Such stubbornness is hard to break. Don't get me wrong. I would love my dog even if he was the "Dexter" of bulldogs; mild mannered bully by day/feelgood serial killer by night. It's just nice to know after I've sink enough paychecks to the powers that be.......... He'll be a good friend and a good dog too.

 

[cali baker]

I liked the Pet Smart classes for the boys--had a very enthusiastic instructor who made the class fun and was also a great way for the boys to socialize. You do get the most out of any training class however if you do the "homework" outside of class. For me, that meant working with the boys for about 15minutes a day on whatever they learned that week. I also enrolled them in a private training class to deal with the fighting behavior between Tate and Finn and found that to be beneficial as well. Again, i had to put a lot of effort in training during the week and even now, it's still a challenge walking both of them together in the correct "heal" position. When i walk them individually, it's so much easier, so it's still an ongoing process for us.

 

[ddnene]

I used PetSmart for Bella & had a wonderful trainer, but she was young @ 12 weeks. Winston is 8 mos old & I'm using a more private facility. Winston is catching on way faster than Bella did... I'm glad I waited! Although I don't believe the place matters, talk to the trainer... If you feel comfortable then your dog will too!!!


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