A quick question

[ilsongirl]

I was just wondering if anybody went to training classes, and if they do how many dogs are normally there?

Last week there were 20+ dogs and some times it tends to be a little mad

Thanks
Sarah

[Wooferhound]

I run training classes and take in no more than 8 dogs, and occasionally Roo if she can take the strain!

I'd be walking out of that class, 20 dogs is FAR too many, how can they teach and you learn with so much distraction?!

You can take a look here in (your area) for a good trainer Local Dog Trainers - Association of Pet Dog Trainers UK

Good luck

Jo
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[Sheebs]

Hiya

I used to take Sheebs to a puppy training class where there were sometimes 16 dogs. It was good for her socialisation skills, but not obedience. By the time each individual dog had practiced the particular bit (sit, stay etc) Sheebs was a bored maniac and acting like the class clown.

After about 6 class lessons I found it better to have 1 to 1 training. It only took 3 1 hour sessions to get her on the right track - even recall.

Shes a star............but then again I'm biased.

Sue & Sheebs x

[LOVEGSD]

Yes I agree 20 sounds way too many, best to look around for another class.

[GypsyGSD]

Ive always gone to training classes,but 20 sounds a bit to much for quality training time per dog/pup most classes I no split there training into sessions started with puppy right up to advanced in the course of a evening. I would say look around for another group go along without the dog /pup and talk to the trainer and other owners before paying out any money for the course colleen

[ilsongirl]

That has confirmed what I was thinking. There were a lot of new starters/ people who has not been for a while last week. I am going to see what tonight is like. There had been about 15 the last few weeks and a few of those are doing the Obedience classes which follows and use that one for socialisation so did not take up much of the trainers time.

Thanks for the link I will have a look.

Just another quick question how long do the classes last?
These are 2 hours and are a bit too long for Sophie and she starts making her zombie and cow in a fight noises!

Thanks

Sarah

[GypsyGSD]

It depends time wise on the age of the dog, pups only need a short time I would say under a hour as the main thing is for them to play and mix with other pups, older dogs can go a bit longer but I would never train a dog full on for 2 hours without lots of breaks, the class I use is more of a social thing as I do most of my training at home , we do all the basics up to advanced in short exercises per dog and then works dogs in groups for heel . sit , and stays the send aways , and retrive and scent work are done at the end of the evening with the older dogs, when I work for schutzand this is again done in short times , tracking first then obidence and last the bite work colleen

[Wooferhound]

My sessions run for 1 hour per class, regardless of what level. In the puppy/novice classes we encourage owners to 'settle' their dogs in distracted situations.

Good luck with finding a good trainer.

Jo
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[ilsongirl]

I will see how tonight goes, if there are still too many people and dogs and it still sees like to long for them dogs I will look elsewhere. (that almost sounded like a decision)

We can get Sophie to settle straight down, but so far every week she has a little moan pretty much exactly the 1.45 hour mark.

There are breaks when we are not working with her but it is sitting round the side whilst the others work.

We do spend a lot of time training at home and up until now all of her training has been done at home (she was too scared of dogs to take her before now)

Thanks again
Sarah

[GypsyGSD]

Hi sarah, and you are right about the sitting around whilst others work there dogs but this can be good as it gives you the chance to chat to other owners and keep your dog under control around others at the same time,but in such a large class I can see why there could be a lot of hanging around ,Mick the gsd I lost a while ago could never sit or lay down for long periods because of his problems so after he had down his bit and had his digestive biscuit I would always put him back into the car he could never settle in a classroom Gypsy my older shepherd hates training indoors and much prefers the outdoors may be there is a class outdoors you could try fynn my collie is not fussed where she trains and would prefer to lay on the settee with the cats than train at all colleen