# Dog Training Classes - What are good ones like?



## siberiankiss (Sep 24, 2010)

I've taken Oscar to two different training classes, and didn't feel that either was particularly good - they didn't seem to have any idea how to deal with Oscar's reactivity and just kept telling me to throw chicken at him and correct him by yanking him. 

The classes (both of them) consisted of dogs and their handlers walking around in circles, periodically sitting, lying down and changing direction... and that was it. I asked another girl there and she said she's been going for six months and it's the same every time?

I always imagined training classes to be a little more structured - more like a training programme, incorporating more complex things as the group develops (anybody is allowed to join at any time so everyone is at different levels). Am I horribly naive, or do I just (as I suspect) live in an area of the country where there are NO good dog trainers?


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## leashedForLife (Nov 1, 2009)

here ya go... :001_smile: The Dog-Giggler. :thumbup:

YouTube - ‪keats1964's Channel‬‏

look for Day 1, Day 2, etc.


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## Twiggy (Jun 24, 2010)

I think you've just been unlucky and both classes sound very much 'old school'.

Are there no classes in your area that clicker train?


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## siberiankiss (Sep 24, 2010)

No - there is only three. The two I mention are the only APDT trainers in the area. There is a third, not affiliated with anybody - she encouraged me to put a choke chain on him. 

I think I might do all the training and open the first positive reinforcement dog training school in North Wales! Seems like the only way to get anywhere!


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## grandad (Apr 14, 2011)

siberiankiss said:


> I've taken Oscar to two different training classes, and didn't feel that either was particularly good - they didn't seem to have any idea how to deal with Oscar's reactivity and just kept telling me to throw chicken at him and correct him by yanking him.
> 
> The classes (both of them) consisted of dogs and their handlers walking around in circles, periodically sitting, lying down and changing direction... and that was it. I asked another girl there and she said she's been going for six months and it's the same every time?
> 
> I always imagined training classes to be a little more structured - more like a training programme, incorporating more complex things as the group develops (anybody is allowed to join at any time so everyone is at different levels). Am I horribly naive, or do I just (as I suspect) live in an area of the country where there are NO good dog trainers?


NOT Like the way the ones you are going to. GET OUT as soon as you can and have a look around for a good one. Even if it means travelling a fair way or even organising your own group and employing a trainer/behaviourist for a couple of hours. Share the cost with other like minded dog owners.


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## leashedForLife (Nov 1, 2009)

there may be genuinely reward-based trainers who'd come by once a week for a class of 6 or more - 
put a meet-up notice on Craigslist or meetup.com & see if there's local interest. 
ask the vet about putting a small notice on the bulletin-board in their office waiting-room, with a tear-off e-mail 
address, & see what comes of it.

check the APDT-uk members in adjoining districts - Somebody should be willing to come over, if the trip 
is not ridiculously far.

MEANTIME if their performance is that lackluster, i'd inquire at the APDT-uk headquarters & ask if they'd send 
an evaluator over to check the classes out. It cannot possibly hurt to ask! :001_smile: 
& it might improve local-classes enormously, if somebody came by & asked them when they'd forgotten 
everything they'd learned about motivating not ONLY dogs & puppies, but people! :laugh:

here are some possible alternates - 


> _- Conwy
> 
> Liz Hamel OCN	00356
> Address: 14 Rhodfar Grug, Upper Colwyn Bay, North Wales, LL29 6DJ
> ...


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