Re: That's it - I'm giving up Sorry you had a bad experience, this should be fun. I think I was lucky too, We only had 8 in the class and also had a seat. It more more like a talk for us to learn then go away and practice ONE thing. After the talk each week we would go outside and DO (or not ) what we had been asked to learn. After that it was outside in an enclosed purpose built pen and the pups ran about having a brilliant time while we all laughted at thier antics for 10 mins. This was with a trainer who is accredited with the Gundog Club
Re: That's it - I'm giving up [quote author=Jane Martin link=topic=5975.msg77492#msg77492 date=1400138154] Rachel, get in line! (For Tatze) [/quote] Jane you probably deserve her more than me because I spelled her name wrong :
Re: That's it - I'm giving up We did 6 sessions in a village hall for puppy training. It was clear that the trainer had some experience to share, but there were too many dogs. There were two rescue dogs in the class who needed one-to-one work, meaning that the rest of us got relatively little attention. The only real benefit was that Holly got some really good socialising experience early in her life. We didn't go back when the puppy course ended. By word of mouth we found out about another group that worked locally. It was run by a brother and sister who ran a kennels, and whose mother had run classes for one of our previous dogs. The trainers had a good pedigree! The quality of the training was much better as there were two trainers and a smaller class size. We went there for many months until we felt that Holly (and us) had got about as much benefit from the classes as we were likely to get.
Re: That's it - I'm giving up Rosie,I say bin the classes!dont put yourself through it!we had a parallel experience....and added to my lack of control and embarrassment in the situation was Dexter was on a really restricted diet....gastro puppy kibble that is the size of ice chips...most of my hour was spent getting him up from being pressed scrabbling horizontal to the floor as he tried to swim me over to everybodies tastier treats I took away what I'd been told in the class and practiced at home and in the places we go and used dogs that we meet and have the time to stop and spend a little time with us. At 8/9 months Dexter definately needed more practice around dogs so I signed up for another set of puppy obedience classes at a different place.....fearing that we would look silly as we were the oldest....we weren't and it was a much more positive experience.Similar to me,it was owners wanting to improve basic skills around dogs at an age when their dogs were more able to concentrate,everyone there spoke of their first set of classes not being very successful.i was disappointed at first when we were told the dogs weren't allowed to interact but I quickly appreciated the purpose in this and it was a really useful set of lessons for me. Best wishes Angela x
Re: That's it - I'm giving up Angela, thanks for that advice - yes, perhaps that is the answer for Pongo, classes somewhere else in a couple of months. He is really very good at most things, but I know he is going to need to work on control when with other dogs. I don't want to bring him up as a badly-mannered dog, but I don't think those crowded classes were really helping anything along those lines! Thanks, all you lovely forum members....
Re: That's it - I'm giving up Rosie, so sorry to hear about your class, it sounds like you definitely done the right thing. Where I live there seems to be so many different trainers, some in halls, some doing outside work in woods and fields or a combination. Are there any different types of training environments you could try?
