puppy training at petsmart??
 

I was thinking about signing gracie up for the puppy training classes this summer...she is 13 weeks and listens only okay!!! Mostly i want her to come to me when called no matter what is going on around her...and i just don't want to be one of those people who has an out of control dog!! I am just tight on money (in college) and was wondering if these classes are worth it?? or does your dog end up doing this stuff on their own as they get older?? HELP ME DECIDE!?!?!?!

I am not sure if the classes at Petsmart are worth it, but I know that the Petsmart we have here that offers training classes are REALLY popular. They CONSTANTLY have people up there with their dogs.... I like to stand there and watch them.. it's really cool to see how they do all of it.. and the trainers seem like they know what they are doing.

Good luck though!

I debated about doing the puppy headstart training or just waiting for the basic training. I'm a recent college grad, and I'm tight on money as well. I ended up deciding to wait and just do the basic training instead of the puppy headstart. I've heard good things about the puppy headstart, but again b/c of the money situation I decided that the basic training would probably be more worth the money. We now start training tomorrow.

We had signed up for the puppy class, but it was canceled. Tia is doing well with some basic commands, so we are going to wait and do the basic training as well.

I'm a part time dog trainer. I teach agility level 1 & 2. Most of my dogs are home schooled in obedience. I only have 1 in obedience class and he is in Level 1 competition class.

I think puppy class is great if you want to socalize your puppy and learn the basic command like sit, down, stay, etc..

For what you are thinking about which is a solid recall, its going to take a lot more effort on your part to teach your dog than anything. Classes are there only to show you how to do it. Remember, dog training classes are set up to teach YOU to teach your dog. How well your dog do depends are you.

I'm one of the naysayers when it comes to Petsmart's training programs because I had a bad experience with the one local to me. I posted this in another thread... one of the things I forgot to mention there was that I hated the fact that the class was given in the middle of the store.. there are just too many distractions and people were always asking the trainer where stuff in the store was, when it was obvious she was doing something. For older dogs the distractions would be fine, but for puppies it makes training basics that much harder.

Desi and I are enrolled in the training classes at PetSmart. We are on our 3rd lesson and I really like it. I started training her from a book at home but it was too hard as Desi never followed the instructions in the book :) So, I enrolled ( $93 for 8 lessons every Saturday). The classes are given in the back of the store and though people do come around to look, they do not disturb the class. What I like is that if one method doesn't work with your baby , they have different ways in which to achieve the same results. Yes, basically, they are training us so we can train our dogs. We work on 2 commands per class as not to overwhelm them and we discuss different topics, behavior problems, habits, what products to use, etc, Also, most of the dog are the same age (4 month to prox. 6 months) so we have a lot of the same experiences and we get to share. The people are so nice and we have a nice time. I am really enjoying it (you laugh a lot- these puppys do the funniest things). Every Saturday morning I give Desi her bath and get her clothes ready for class. Desi is 5 months and 2 1/2 lbs and she never met a person she didn't like, so she has lots of friends and everyone likes her, she is the tiniest one in class so she gets lots of attention. When we drive up to the store, she practically jumps out of the car . Such a social butterfly :aimeeyork

down stay command
 

what is the best way to teach a yorkie down?

funny you should pick that command. Thats the reason why I signed up for classes..no way could I make Desi go "down", I tried for weeks, to the point that she would run when she saw me coming with the treats and the lease . Its only took 5 minutes in class for her to learn it. From the sitting position, put the treat up to her noise so she can see it and smell it, then bring down towards the floor. As her head is going down then bring it out, still by the floor. It looks like an "L" motion... down and away so that she is forced to crawl towards it.

down
 

Enclose a very good treat in your hand and let your dog try to go after it.(don't let him have the treat yet). Next, get your dog in a sit position(don't let him have the treat yet). Say "Down" and slowly lower your hand with the treat downward to the floor. Your dog should follow it down. Give the puppy the treat once he/she is down.

Sometimes the puppy's butt will come up when you are trying to "down" him/her. You can do 2 thing. 1. put the puppy back in a sit position and start over. 2. Gently keep one hand on his butt when you "down" him/her until the puppy get it.

About petsmart training--I would say its not worth it. There are better training programs out there for the same amount of money. You might have a dog training club in your area that would be better. Also, I wouldnt feel comfortable taking a puppy in there anyway because they have little to no requirement on vaccinations for the dogs in their classes.

Actually, I looked into other training options but here in New York the prices are very high.. this seemed very reasonable to me.. As for the vaccinations, I had to get a copy of his vaccination record which included the vets signature. No one was allowed to sign up without presenting this document first.

PetsMart in the Bay Area, CA, only charge $99 for 9 classes. That is not bad when you break it down. I found the puppy training we class extremely useful. We have actually signed Stomper up for the graduate puppy training class!

IMHO petsmart training is the bottom of the barrel. The trainers have no more education than watching an instructional video.

Baxter is Signed up at Petsmart
 

for the Basic training. His first class is May 28th. I talked with the trainer first-I REALLY liked her. She was very knowledgable. I talked with another trainer there, and didn't think nearly as much of him. I would only take him to the lady.

My suggestion is to talk with the trainer first-get a feel for them. All I did was walk up to the training booth and the trainer was getting ready for class and she talked with me.