Confused about Puppy Obedience training

[Brooke and Zenyatta]

Hi everyone. We are picking up our new goldendoodle tomorrow! In preparation I've been calling around to different places and searching online for a good puppy school. I'm very confused. Some places will take the puppy after her first distemper shot..even as early as 8 weeks old. Others say they need to be 12 or 14 weeks. Help! We are in the Twin Cities (Minneapolis) area, so any local suggestions would be great as well.

Should I wait till the puppy is fully vaccinated before starting a class? Is there an "ideal" time to start classes? Any advice would be appreciated. I really want to raise a wonderful pup.

Thanks!

[Kimberly Daisy Kalli]

We started Daisy at 14 weeks. She went to PetsMart and had a fabulous trainer (small class with lots of attention but enough socialization). For a number of years, we worked with several trainers in our area when we had a rescued Rottweiler in our family. She was a challenge to train (to put it mildly), so we worked with trainers who specialized in large breeds. They trained state police and customs dogs in our area. I was hesitant to do the PetsMart class with our doodle at first, but it was an excellent class with quality instruction - just enough for our easy to train doodle. We also did basic training at home before the class started. We worked on teaching her her name and sit before the class started. We just brought home our 2nd doodle last night and we will do the same training with her.