10 mos. is the age we took Lucy and Tucker to Petsmart. It was a really good experience. Going from memory, we learned sit, stay, down, off, leave it (this is great for when you drop a vitamin or other pill and they launch for it!), how to walk politely on a leash, heel, wait, come. and then they cranked it up a notch once the basics were covered, by adding distractions during these (like a squeaker toy or something). For graduation, Tucker had to sit and stay while I walked into the next aisle (out of sight). He did it!
More importantly, it taught me *how* to train my dogs to do other stuff (that wasn't covered in class). By doing just the hand motion like you are dribbling a basketball, Lucy will bounce up and down
good for a laugh every now and then. She is such a ham.
Of course, you do have to practice these things at home and continuely after the class is over, or they do get rusty. Also, you can retake the class (same level) if you need to, as many times as you want. Also, if you feel it's not working for you, you just don't go to the rest and I think they have some kind of reimbursement policy.
Teresa