Sep
06
What’s your opinion on the dog training classes at PetSmart?
ByI’m considering enrolling my dog into the classes, but I want to hear your own personal opinions on your experiences with the class before I do it.
Stop Your Dog’s Annoying Barking
5 Comments
September 6th, 2011 at 1:05 PM
yes it is good because dog is best guard of home and it is essential for them.
September 6th, 2011 at 1:15 PM
Useless and a waste of money. All of those silly puppy classes are asinine. How do you expect a PUPPY to learn anything in a class of…you guessed it…other puppies. They will be distracted the entire time, and the quality of the kids teaching obedience at any petstore is always going to be extremely low.
You’d be better off buying a DVD of all positive training methods and learning about corrections training at a later date. Try Mike Ellis’ “The Power of Training Dogs with Food”.
September 6th, 2011 at 1:57 PM
As someone who has gone through dog training with PetSmart, I will give you my view, if you decide to do such a thing, don’t just do one section, go all the way through. They are good, but it also depends on the trainers. Talk to some of the employees other than trainers and ask them their opinions. You can get a lot out of the dog training classes they offer. The trainers are usually well trained and also have previous experience. It’s important no matter what to go through training classes, if you decide PetSmart is not the best way to do it, find someone that is better. You should also remember that PetSmart does offer private classes as well.
September 6th, 2011 at 2:43 PM
It depends. They have a decent curriculum developed by a top trainer but most of the trainers they hire have very little training and experience (and from what I’ve observed, don’t even follow the curriculum very closely) and they are very poorly paid. However, there are exceptions, occasionally you’ll find a skilled trainer at PetSmart.
In addition to trainers that aren’t very skilled, it is a bad environment for beginners level classes. There are far too many distractions & it makes it difficult to teach new behaviors properly. Now, it’s a great place to work on proofing established behaviors — but thats more advanced than I’d recommend their instructors for. I do competitive dog sports & PetSmart is one of my favorite places to go and practice basic skills around crazy distractions, but I do that on my own–not with their instructors.
You should look into other trainers in your area and pick the most skilled trainer to work with. If that is PetSmart, then so be it–at least it’s a place to start. There might also be a kennel club that offers noncompitition oriented classes. What ever you do, choose your trainer carefully and find out about their techniques ahead of time (I hope you’ll look for a positive trainer) and then don’t do anything your uncomfortable with.
You can read books, watch videos, go to seminars and find all sorts of info to help you learn to train yourself. That is a good way to do it but you will still need to train some around other people and dogs — ether in a club or a park or whereever. Classes are a great way to get started because of the structure–it keeps you accountable and motivated to work with your dog and has built in distractions.
Use the links I’ve provided to search for a local trainer. I recommend the KPA CTP trainers as the gold standard (I admit biass to the underlying philosophy). A certified trainer on the APDT search would be next, followed by those who aren’t certified. PetSmart trainers would need to be evaluated on their own merrits and with caution.
September 6th, 2011 at 3:26 PM
For puppy manners class, sure.
For “real” training — no. The VAST majority of these “trainers” have no clue. The sign on the door tells it all — “Dog trainers wanted, no experience necessary”. They have their own training program and the trainers must follow it. One size fits all.
At Petsmart training, you pay more and get less.
Why not go where you PAY LESS and GET MORE??
Look at this link, and contact a training club near you:
http://www.akc.org/events/obedience/training_clubs/