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.

I really believe it may be how each individual store conducts their training. No doubt, some stores may not be as vigilant as others. At our area PetSmart, the classes are always filled (but there is a limit to the number of trainees they accept because they will not over-fill the classes thereby keeping it comfortable for everyone). I've not heard any complaints and everyone comes back the following week.

thanks for the "down" command advice. I'll give this a try. I'll let you know how it goes. I have had a problem with "sit" with Silk. She will sit when I tug on her leash but will not do it off leash. I know she knows what I am asking because she will do it on leash. Any suggestions on how to get her to preform off leash? Stubborn girl :rolleyes:

Pet Smart
 

We took Gracie there for the puppy class and it was a wonderful success! The trainer was very knowledgeable about dogs and taught us so much! It was so successful that we are going to enroll her in their basic and intermediate classes. We feel that the more Gracie is trained, the closer we are to her. It was great!

I am glad you had a good experience. I am in a Petco puppy class. I loved the trainer and so felt very good about going there. The Petsmart here (in MI) were very rude and I didn't feel like they gave me the answers to the questions I was asking.

I am planning on furthering my puppy education/training classes outside of chain stores when Keeley gets older.

Starsky is in the puppy training class at petsmart and I'd have to say he is one of the smartest in there. They say Golden's are so smart. There are 2 Golden's in my class and all they want to do is play. I would have to say Starsky and a collie of some sort are the smartest! (I have learned not to ever get a Corgie, wild and don't pay attention)

I did the Pet Smart puppy classes with my Rottie & It worked wonders. I will use them again now for my 11 week old yorkie named Rocky. Personally, he has more attitude than my Rottie!!!!

Lexi Has graduation tonight at Petsmart, we took the basic puppy training class and I think it was so worth it. I tall depends how much you put into it after class, some people come to class week after week and their dogs still don't get the lesson but the owners may not work as much with them at home. Lexi loves class and gets really excited when we go, even just for odds and ends she wants to play in the classroom area. It has been great for socialization and for learning certain commands. Good luck, i would recommend taking it. Just remember you have to work at home too.

We did the training at petsmart and we enjoyed it because it really gave Esme a chance to socialize with other dogs. We started the classes the first week we had her and I think it really helped to quickly build our trust and relationship. I do althouth agree with Mystify, the fact that the classes are given in the middle of the store is a big negative. I wish they would do the class off to the side, or in a seperate room... I guess by doing it in the middle of the room, they are able to 'advertise.' People were ALWAYS asking the trainer questions. Also, I had a ZILLION people interrupted to ask me about Esme. What breed is she? How much was she? Has she been difficult to train? How old is she? How much will she grow? What is the name of the breeder, and the list goes on and on and on... I know I have a cute dog, but come on! They were really distracting me and Esme from the class. Overall, for $99, I think we got what we paid for, so I can't complain. Here's a picture of Esme on graduation day.

I have a friend that was a Petsmart trainer she had to go through over 120 hours of training, and learn all sorts of little things on top of the training hours. She also said they work with the head trainer to get their certification.

I would love to set Ramsey up for the classes, but no one has the time. I work 2 jobs and my dad is a Fireman so he works every other day (24 hrs a day) and the days he is off he is at the fire hall fixin the computer. My mom works graveyard so during the day she is sleep. If I could ever find the time I would love to take Rams so I would say sign up for it!! :D

I took my beagle to the petsmart puppy training class and she did great. She was the type of dog that wanted to run around the store and not pay attention before we took the class and once in the class she completely did a turn around. She jumped over the fence that they have up on one of the last classes and she went to the isle that we practiced the come command with all the distractions of the treats and food on the isle and when I called her she came straight to me and I was comepletely impressed. Now my parents have her because we are overseas and she still understands all of the commands and listens to everything my parents tell her and I give all the credit to our petsmart trainer for teaching me the proper way to train her. I just wish we were in the states so I could take Buster to the class. I think you should sign up for the classes because it's well worth the money!

my complaint is that people would arrive 15-20 minutes late - literally and the instructor wouldn't start the class until they arrived!! Of course class ended at the regular time so i was paying for these people to waste my time. I cannot stand people being late and then on top of it it was affecting me negatively.

Well when it comes to petsmart trainer, you can only work as a trainer there if you went through or learned training in there program wich lasts usually 6-12 weeks. It depends on the student. Ive often watched the trainers at my local pets mart and noticed how they let their student's do things to the dogs that will cause serious behavior problems later in life. Alot of people try to go into training cause it can be quick and sometimes people think dog trainings easy anyone can do it. But alot of factors come into play. Truthfully your puppy can start being trained to learn things as early as 6 weeks if you do it the correct way, it has also been proven these are some of the better times to teach them as well, the younger they are the more the brain will retain.