Puppy Training

[Janalle]

What age did you send your puppy to training classes? Sam is 3 months old and I asked the vet her opinion and she said
"NOW". :-). I'm looking into a bootcamp for him.. I know some don't agree with sending a puppy somewhere for a week but my mom did it with her poodle and she was so great.. I've reached my training point with him.. He's a great puppy but I can't seem to break the jumping and biting and barking at the kids.. The trainer said between 6 weeks and 16 weeks is where they learn their behavior.
So what is your opinion?

[John Wang]

Our puppy Boomer is just about 10 weeks old, and we've joined a small class of same-aged puppies at Petsmart. There's a poodle and labrador in the class, both just about 10 weeks old as well, and then randomly a 6 month of rottweiler that wishes it could get in on the action of playing with the others, but is kept isolated because she's 10x heavier than all the rest.

These are very basic classes, and showed us the proper way of doing sit/come/watch me commands. Six week course for $109 all in.

He doesn't bark (unless he's lonely or is crated and needs to pee BAD) but he does nip a lot. To train him not to, we'll yelp "ouch!" and stop interacting with him for a few seconds before resuming. This allows him to calm down a little.

[Emily, Bentley, & Maserati]

We did puppy imprinting with Maserati. From 8-16 weeks he spent M-F at the trainers house and the weekends with us. Every night we got video updates, pictures, and lessons for us to work on with M for the weekend. When he would get dropped off for the weekend we spent an hour at drop off and 1-2 hours at pick up reviewing our "homework" with the trainer and puppy. I highly recommend it! Maserati is a fantastic puppy at 5 months old. We get compliments from people where ever we go about his good behavior. 

Josh, his trainer, is still in weekly, often 4-5 times per week contact and has continued training since he has been back at home. We have spent hours working with him and carry his lessons at home, which has been great for Maserati as well as our other 2! 

We will begin more training one-on-one advanced training with Maserati and Josh for continued training. Currently, he can do 30 min stays both in and out of sight. Off-leash with a solid recall as well as on-leash manners, still in the heel position. He has mastered the basics, sit, lay down, shake, etc... He loves his crate and knows he is only allowed out when told "free" which is his release command. I could go on, but those are the large obedience we have mastered and are only continuing from here! 

[F, Calla & Luca]

Wow, that is impressive!

[Alissa Edwards]

That sounds amazing - do you mind if I ask how much something like that costs?

[Sharon & Mazie]

Started Mazie as soon as her shots were completed at 9 weeks. Started puppy kindergarten where her basic manners were started and went through to basic and beyond basic. She got her CGC at 10 months. I loved the classes because they afforded one on one time with her while I was being trained on how to handle her LOL. I must admit I like the idea of having someone do the training, it is hard at times and great patience needed, and have her come back all trained but even if you do the boot camp you still need to continue her training every day for life. You need to choose which works for you but the great part is that you are training her and not letting her train you. You will both benefit from it! Good luck

[Christy&Riley]

We went to a one on one training class once a week for four weeks when Riley was around 4 months old I think. We too were thinking of sending her off to training camp but quickly learned that half the training is training mom and dad. The trainer would first get Riley familiar with a command and then he would teach us how to give the command.

While we had gotten her started on the basics on our own, the trainer taught us some little things that made a huge difference. For example, we were pretty sure she understood "sit." But, she wouldn't always do it. We would say sit 10 times and she wouldn't do it. He taught us that you say the command once. If they don't respond, you say No. We were AMAZED at how that worked. Also, never say their name in front of the command. For example, Riley sit. Their name is often used to call them over so it may confuse them. You want to say the command first and then their name if you want. "Sit Riley." Seems so simple but it really helped.

One word of encouragement. We went through times between probably 5-8 months where we know she knew the command but would not listen. All of a sudden around 9 months she really seemed to start following the commands consistently. Even "come" which for some reason was impossible with her, started to work. I guess it was just a stubborn stage that passes as they get older. :-)

[Susan, Coby & Chloe]

The one piece of advice I'd like to add to this is to be sure to check out reviews and better business reports on all trainers and/or classes prior to registering, enrolling or entering into a contract.  I had an interaction with a local trainer who professed to be "Harvard educated" (which he very well may be) and gave a good talk but turned out to have a terrible track record not just with training tactics but with business interactions.