|
Welcome to the YorkieTalk.com Forums Community - the community for Yorkshire Terriers. You are currently viewing our boards as a guest which gives you limited access to view most discussions and access our other features. By joining our free community you will have access to post topics, communicate privately with other members (PM), respond to polls, upload content and access many other special features. You will be able to chat with over 35,000 YorkieTalk members, read over 2,000,000 posted discussions, and view more than 15,000 Yorkie photos in the YorkieTalk Photo Gallery after you register. We would love to have you as a member! Registration is fast, simple and absolutely free so please, join our community today! If you have any problems with the registration process or your account login, please click here to contact us. |
|
| LinkBack | Thread Tools |
07-27-2008, 07:58 PM | #1 |
Yorkie Talker Join Date: Jun 2008 Location: Vancouver Island, BC
Posts: 14
| "Puppy Classes" worth it?? We're thinking of taking our puppy, Sadie, who is 5 months old, for Puppy Classes and I'm wondering what your opinion is of this kind of training? Have you all had good success with these sorts of classes in obedience training? I'm thinking we likely should have started earlier, but we were away so much in the last couple of months (Sadie came along!) that it didn't work out. What have prices for obedience classes been like in your area? There are very limited classes available in the town where I live, but the ones we've been looking at are around $250 for 9, one hour sessions .... is this high?? I want to get a good start with Sadie, but $250 is not peanuts for us, so I want to make sure I'm not getting taken for a ride. Lastly, have you had good success with training your dogs to do all the "normal" sorts of doggie things like sit, stay, heel, various tricks, etc., and at aprox what age did they master these? Sadie can sit ..... but that's about it (and only when she darn well feels like it, or when I have a treat for her!) I love my little fluffball dearly, but have to admit that she doesn't seem to pick up on these kind of things as quickly as our Sheltie did (he died 6 yrs ago) .... is this breed quick to pick up on training?? She is not completely housetrained yet either - will play outside for an hour, then come in and head downstairs to the playroom for a poop if I don't watch her!! I'm interested to hear your comments about all of this! Wendy-Lee Last edited by jolisey; 07-27-2008 at 07:59 PM. |
Welcome Guest! | |
07-27-2008, 08:00 PM | #2 |
I Love Thor Donating Member | I think it depends on where the puppy classes are/who they are provided by. I'm not much help here. Welcome to YT. I'm in Vancouver, good to see another YTer from BC! |
07-27-2008, 10:49 PM | #3 |
Donating YT 5000 Club Member Join Date: Jan 2008 Location: MD
Posts: 10,908
| Welcome to YT. Our obedience class was $150 for 6 one hour classes. It's not just the pup learning, but you are learning as well. I think it is more you that is learning. We were working with Hot Rod (he was a little older at 6 1/2 mos when he started classes) and he knew a lot of the basics, sit, down, right and left paw, etc. But we learned how to talk and act when we wanted certain things from him. It was also good to have him socialized around other people with the same goals and the other puppies. The others commented on how much he had "grown" as far as being more confident around other dogs at the end of the 6 weeks. I would recommend it because it teaches you as well. Good luck.
__________________ www.kissecollar.com Soft Cone Collars for Post-surgery and much more! 10% (non-food) - Discount code YT10 |
07-28-2008, 11:40 AM | #4 |
Senior Yorkie Talker Join Date: Jul 2008 Location: Mankato, MN, US
Posts: 180
| Hey. Well I have not taken Jack to Puppy Classes yet either but at Pet Co here in town it is something like $99.95 for 6 or 8 week classes. I do not remember exactly how many weeks. But Pet Co does not guarentee their services. Whereas, I think it is just about the same price through PetSmart but they guarentee their classes (such as if you are not 100% satisfied you can take the class again for free) and it is an 8 week course. I want to get him into a class as well. Hope this helps. |
07-28-2008, 11:51 AM | #5 |
Donating YT 500 Club Member Join Date: Dec 2005 Location: Saskatchewan
Posts: 3,154
| I actually took Layla to puppy classes starting when she was 2 and a half years! She had learned sit and lay down before that, but after going to the class she is much more consistent. I agree that most of the class is teaching YOU how to handle your dog, what to do if this or that happens, and getting answers to any training questions you might have. I took Layla there for the socialization. She was scared of dogs before, she wouldn't play with other dogs at all, and by the last class she was soooo excited to be seeing all her puppy friends and running around with them. We also did people socialization with "pass the puppy" where we'd sit in a circle and pass our dogs around so other people could get them on their backs and touch their ears, teeth, paws, tails, and just get them used to being handled by people (which is great for groomer or vet visits!) Some of the things she learned in class was coming when called (not just when she felt like it!), sit, lay down, stay, leave it, loose-leash walking, and we were shown how to teach "heel" although it was on our own time if we wanted to practice it. Classes here were about $110 I think for 8 1-hour sessions.
__________________ Lindsey and Layla, Lucy, and Kash |
07-28-2008, 11:52 AM | #6 |
Therapy Dog Donating Member | Hi Sadie and Wendy-Lee and welcome to YT!! I got Izzy at 5 mos. old too and I started her out right away on Puppy I classes at a very reputable training location (I also heard that Petsmart has great classes too but it depends on the trainer). I paid $125 for 6 1-hour classes (they went up to $135) but they are so worth it. I started out with PuppyI and progressed to PuppyII and then to CGC (Canine Good Citizens classes). I only wanted to do the puppy classes to socialize and get Izzy used to different people, places, sounds, etc., plus learn the basic commands (sit, stay, etc.) but one we went to class we both loved it so much that it just progressed and she learned the wait command, sit/stay, separating for 3 minutes, touching, combing by strangers, etc. Oh and these are all "Clicker" training with treats that she loves and only gets while clicker-traiing (check out Karen Pryor's clicker training website - it's awesome). Then people started to say how great Izzy would be becoming a Therapy Dog through Delta Organization. Long story short....Izzy is now a certified Therapy Dog with Delta and we now go on hospital visits to visit the patients. All starting with just a basic training class. Never to late to start training and if you can afford it - go for it.
__________________ Cynd, Izzy (Yorkie) & Cosmo (Biewer)(Secwetary & Charter Membwer of the Dirty FurKids Cwub)-Jusz say NO ta bein' cwean!)proud member of the CrAzYcLuB! ~The PINK club~SRC |
07-28-2008, 12:21 PM | #7 |
Senior Yorkie Talker Join Date: Jun 2008 Location: London, Ontario, Canada
Posts: 158
| I think it's important to meet with the trainer and find out what their goals are for the class. That price seems pretty high if they don't expect a lot out of the class! And these classes teach YOU, not really the dog, your furbaby will just learn what you want, AFTER you learn how to ask! My mom went to a set and then taught me what she learned, so when I got Scooter neither HE nor I needed to go! Also, there are some really good training books that tell you everything puppy class tells you for WAY cheaper. But 5 mos isn't too late if you want to try them out!
__________________ Sarah and Scooter |
07-29-2008, 09:52 AM | #8 |
Senior Yorkie Talker Join Date: May 2008 Location: Edmonton AB
Posts: 80
| We've been enrolled in puppy classes for 7 weeks now and we love it. For a few reasons: - if we ever doubt anything we are doing, we ask our trainer and she assures that all is normal and good. - We wouldn't have had any clue how to train him to sit, lay down, stay, take it and leave it, and now we are working on shake a paw... it is soo cute! - Also, if you enroll in a group class, they usually let the dogs have 'play time' for about 10 mins at the start of class. We love this as Winston is an only dog and this gives him some social time. We highly recommend it!! |
Bookmarks |
|
|
| |
|
|
SHOP NOW: Amazon :: eBay :: Buy.com :: Newegg :: PetStore :: Petco :: PetSmart