group obedience class

S

sarasomething

Forums Enthusiast
i found a local kennel club that holds an obedience class. i've gone once so far (it is a pay-by-the-session sort of thing) and it was good for socializing the dog, but i noticed everyone there used "traditional" corrective methods to train their dogs.

the instuctor told me to hold my dog's muzzle and shake it when he barked to get him to stop. against my better judgement, i caved to the peer pressure and did this. my dog acted so depressed after i did this. i felt horrible. after that i just had him do sits and downs when he got too excited and he stayed focused on me and quiet.

i would like to train with a group like this, but i don't want to pressured into training in a way that isn't effective for my dog. that would just be counter-productive and frustrating.

should i try to talk to them about different training methods? or just go look for someplace else? this is my "local" kennel club, and it's 30 min. away. the people seem nice, just misguided...
 
My recommendation would be to go elsewhere. In my experience, training clubs often have a training philosophy that they follow, and want to convince others that it is the way to go. Convincing them otherwise is difficult and can be frustrating.

If there are other options around you, I would recommend calling ahead and seeing if you can just "drop in" on a class or two. You can get a really good feel for how a club trains by watching. That way you don't have to pay until you're comfortable.
 
I went 4 different places before I found a school I was comfortable with. The first 2 places I went with Justice was very much a jerk and pull place. My way or the highway attitudes.

Justice was a brillant puppy(he was though Comp Novice by 9 months and in Open by 11 months) and trust me I darn near ruined him because of those training methods. I was never as hard of him as the other people in the class either. He started off happy and animated and got more and more depressed working. He had 5 novice titles(CD's) and 2 CDX's but his scores were dropping from high 190 to low 190's and occasional high 180's just beause of attitude issues like lagging, slow recalls, slow returns. I knew it wasn't right.

When I found my current school it was like the light came on. It took over a year to retrain Justice. But he came back some never do. He stills doesn't work with the joy my girls do. People call him robotic and that makes me sad because he is so not that way.

My suggest would be to look for another place more inline with your training style. You won't change them and you'll always feel uncomfortable there.
 
Save yourself the trouble and just go some place else. It shouldn't be too hard finding a facility that uses positive training methods.
 
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