Petsmart puppy class?
 

Anybody taken their little monkey to the Petsmart puppy class? I wonder if it is any good... Any input would be greatly appreciated!:aimeeyork

alot of people here have used petsmart's training classes. I signed morgan up for them too, but after the third class i quit because all the stuff they were gonna teach, morgan already knew LOL i should have thought of that before signing up. the classes are good for socialization too

i personally haven't since I trained all my babies personally...and they would have taught them the exact same thing i have already...kekek

we love it! but you have to love your trainer... try and go and watch a few classes with the different trainers and see which one you like best... we love our trainer and we've taken begininner and intermediate with her.. and we are now signed up for click a trick and will be taking advanced in the summer! i love the socialization it gives layla!

Gordon will have his 5th puppy class this Saturday.

I have been with two other dogs of ours before and it helped them.
I had already taught him a few of the basic commands, but I wanted him to have the socialization with others (dogs and humans). Gordon learns the commands pretty good within a couple of minutes......the problem with Gordon is distraction. The Petsmart that he goes to.....the class is sorta in the middle of the store , and lots of distractions. The first two classes , I thought he didn't learn anything because he was so distracted. Yet, when I gave him the commands at home , he did them.
In the four classes so far he has learn the basics, (sit, down, stay, watch me, leave it, take it, and how to walk nice on a leash) he doesn't have all of them 100% but he is at least 80% even with the distractions.
He only does the commands for treats (cheerios) but once he is 100% we will faze them out. He is already doing sit and down with hand signals real good.

He will start advance classes at the end of May and then clicker classes.

It is well worth the money and the drive (45 minutes) for me.
Oh, and Gordon it the only one in the class , there were two others but they dropped out.....to long of a drive.
He will have lots in the advance class , so that will help him a lot.

I love the petsmart puppy classes! I do really like the trainer, and that he gets to socialize with other dogs. Ozzie does know a lot of what is being taught but, he is also learning new things.( He is the star of the class). We have done four classes, he learned watch me, and leave it. He perfected sit, down and walking on a leash.

I would say they are a lot of fun, and convenient.
I would definitely recommend them .

Well Wrigley is repeating puppy kindergarten! We had our first class at Petsmart last week. We didn't take it there the first time around. The main reason we wanted to do it was for the socialization. Wrigley is really scared of other people and dogs, except for our Yorkie poo who is 3 times her weight, she rules her!
I liked the trainer and the class is full with 8 dogs, just what we wanted! There is even a 12 week old Yorkie puppy!
The trainer even told us if she is still timid and scared at the end, we can repeat the class again at no charge! I would hate to think our baby would need to do kindergarten three times! :eek:

I have Annie in the Petsmart puppy classes
and I really enjoy it. Although they teach
them the basics ((which I had already done)),
I took her for the socialization and to get
her used to being around bigger dogs. She
does great in the "circle" but really shakes
and panics when we do the training/walking
in the store. She is getting better with it every week though.
Overall I would say it is well worth it.

Kasey

Yaay! I can't wait for Hustler's beginner classes to start this saturday. By the sounds of it, the classes were a worthwhile investment =)

Lola & her cousin Lily (2 lbs chihuahua) LOVE Petsmart training. The petsmart in Vacaville, CA has a wonderful trainer named Ellen. It's amazing how quickly the pups catch onto! She has some great ideas that have helped with some of our training problems.

It is my opinion that most puppy classes are very similar in content: sit, stay, heel, good/bad behaviors, etc.

Of course you want to find a teacher that you like though. We loved our puppy class teacher. She was very knowledgeable.

But the important thing to remember is that most of the training happens at home. So pretty much no matter the teacher, you can take the guidelines and do great things if you put the time it.

Sam is in the puppy class now and we love it. Now he doesnt do any of the tricks while we are there.... just every now and then, he mainly wants to play with the other dogs. And Sam loves Ms. Rachel. She brings her dog and shows us everything he knows. She is very patient and super friendly.

This week will be our 5th class. They teach you as much as you teach the puppy.

Thank you all so much, knew I could count on you for honest opinions. I am getting Ms. Reesee signed up! Thanks again!

Dior took went to puppy sch in nov. of last yr. We have had a horrible experience. It april and she still hasn't graduated. Y u ask? Because their final exam was on jan 8th and she got sick the day before because of the many treat we were using for the training. Ever since then i have been rescheduling up her appt to graduate and the instructor never shows up and is always sick. It getting to be soo frustrating. But other than that its was ok. We had somewhere to take her on Wed. and she made a few friends. I personally wouldn't recommend it. They can learn those things at home from a book or a tape. You the parent just have to stick with it.:thumbdown

You won't be sorry! :) Even if she did know everything they were going to teach her, you need it for the socialization. Chloe was so scared on her first day, I thought it wouldn't work. By the third training session, she OWNED Petsmart--it was her place. Now, she gets so excited when we go to training. I love to tease her first and get her all wound up. I say to her, "Chloe, do you want to go to Petsmart and play with the puppies?" She comes running lightening speed and dances all over the place. Then she waggles that little tail, and toenail taps, waiting for me to take her, so I say it again..." do you wanna play with the puppies?" She starts dancin' all excited. But I have to do it one more time... "puppies?!" LOL...If I torment her any longer, she'll start barking as if to say, "enough, let's go already!"

She doesnt know any commands. She is very friendly with people and dogs and I want that to continue. She is my first pet so I feel like we both need the training :D She is starting with a small dog playgroup in my neighborhood on Saturday so more socialization there, I just want her to learn some things and to learn how to learn things if that makes sense.

Also meant to ask, Reesee is kind of small, 2 lbs 2 ozs at 15 weeks. Are the bigger dogs watched at the class?

Tia graduates from puppy kindergarten tomorrow at Petsmart! We are very excited! I can't believe teh progress we've made! The class seems well geared towards people who are first-time dog owners. I think if (when;) ) I get another one I would register it too...even though I could probably teach it all at home, the socialization is super important and fun (Tia has a boyfriend...and s**tzu named Barkley! He luuurves her and she plays hard-to-get!)

I thought it was well worth the money and we are definetly moving on to Intermediate.

I just read the most recent posts now....

Our class was a mix of large and small dogs. Our trainer made sure that for the first few classes there was a seating arrangment made according to dog sizes. There is no off-leash free time. You will be taught how dogs should be introduced to one another correctly. It was a great experience for us...Tia always thought she was a "big" dog, until she actually met some...she has been humbled :p !

How much do those training classes cost? I just got a 12 week yorkie pup (ROCCO) and would like to enroll in some classes, also because he's my first doggie :aimeeyork

Thanks!

-E

Not recommended
 

I took my puppy Bentley, and I did not like their approach to training at all. They only train with treats, which taught Bentley to only obey me if I had a treat. Also, you are usually in a class with alot of dogs, especially larger puppies, and the other puppy owners sometimes don't watch their dogs. (Bentley got yelled at by the trainer cause he was barking, but what she failed to see was another larger dog had just trampled all over him)

I found a different independent training place that I just loved. They did leash training and off-leash training (no treats!). And it was less expensive than Petsmart. He learned so much and so fast, and now I don't have to depend on treats for him to listen to me.

Good luck!

From what I know the classes were 99 and my Petsmart has Yorkie/Shi Tzu dogs only but we do hve a pug lol --

Oh I hate to hear that. We too learn w/treats but Ms. Rachel also has us do it w/o treats but lots of praise

I have used the Petsmart puppy training classes to socialize my puppies but not really for training purposes. The classes always seems to be too distracted for my dogs and their three second puppy attention spans.