There's a training group locally I had thought we would use, their classes are outside and several of my friends take their dogs there and are happy. Their website says they use positive methods and don't use force, smacking or shouting - but some of their behaviour advice on their website doesn't totally back this up (shaking a tin of stones, teaching 'no' and 'off' etc.). I've read the article about choosing a training class but I wondered if somebody could help me with the questions I should ask if I send an email enquiring about classes? I'm not entirely sure of the correct terminology! We went to training classes with our dogs many years ago and I remember they threw chains on the floor to stop jumping up and we had to give a quick tug of the lead to stop pulling - I can confirm that neither of these worked and we never entirely got our dogs to stop jumping up or pulling on their leads! So I'm keen to do something different and the articles I've read by Pippa make total sense to me. Funnily enough, my parenting style (of my human babies!) is fairly similar, in terms of teaching them what they can do instead of just telling them off for what they can't!
Re: Positive Training Class I've found it hard to find a class that is totally positive reinforcement that is local to me. However, I have spoken to the people running all the different classes and I think you can suss out which are better than others. One I spoke to started talking a lot about domination and pack behaviour, which was a no no for me, and another was negative about clickers, another no no for me. The one I have decided to go to does advocate saying 'No' etc but I asked about policy on punishment and they were very much against that. I just had an upfront conversation with the guy who runs the class, told him the type of training I'd like to do, and he was very accommodating and said that he realised people have different methods, and also different rules, and he explained that puppy class isn't just about teaching obedience, it's also about socialising pups with other pups of different ages in a controlled fashion. So I'm going to give this a go but stick to my guns about what is acceptable for me and my pup, and if I feel like it's not for me, I'll stop going! It's probably a good idea to go along to the class beforehand and check it out and see how you feel - most of the people I spoke to said this would be fine, free of charge. I never got round to it before Seren arrived and now he's here and life has turned upside down (in a good way) ;D Good luck with finding a good one!
