I don’t know about the dogs, but I think it is the most annoying sound around. I don’t use them or allow them in my training classes. If my students want to use them outside of class, more power to them. I would **** to be in a class of 10 to 12 students, all with clickers.

I truly believe the training method and location is second to the trainer themselves.

When I got my first pug about five years ago, I took her to Pet Smart for the puppy class. Unfortunately, two weeks into the class, my pug puppy broke her foot which had to be put into a cast for about six weeks. The trainer was a really nice, and allowed us to start classes in the beginner section after the cast came off. The trainer herself was very friendly and clear in her directions. What I liked the best about the class however, was at the last 10 minutes of each class was spent with the dogs off leash in the training area playing with each other under professional supervision. At the beginning of the classes my pug was quite fearful of other dogs but by the end she was playing with everybody. The socialization was just as important as the commands she learned. To this day, she is still the most friendly of our dogs. Also, she has remembered. Almost all of the commands that she learned during her beginner’s class.

When we got our German shepherd puppy last year, we knew immediately that we would have to take her in for training. The trainer was not the same at the original Pet Smart store, but we were confident in the methods. This experience, however, was terrible. The trainer was awful. She would spend most of the class reviewing what was gone over in the previous class, and would only address new material, very briefly in the last 10 minutes of class. Also, due to insurance constraints, we unleashed supervised play that I’ve had been such a fan of during the original classes has been discontinued. My German Shepherd puppy really did not learn anything from this trainer.

My husband and I were at a different Pet Smart in January and met the trainer at that store. We told her about our experiences with the trainer at the other store and how disappointed we were. She was extremely sympathetic and explained her methods for training. First, she does not believe in automatically graduating a dog at the end of the class. She does believe that different dogs learn different rates and she believes that a dog should not graduate until they have learned the concepts. So, to that end, she has dogs repeat classes until they understand and have the concepts down. But, only the first round of classes is paid for. As long as the owners are willing to put in the time, she will not ask them to put in more money. Now, some people may say that part of the job of the trainer is to make sure that the dogs learn the commands in one series of classes and if the dog doesn’t, then it is the fault of the trainer. I disagree with that.

We started our German Shepherd puppy in the beginner class and it was wonderful. The trainer was very patient but would tolerate no excuses, if we slacked off in reinforcing the lessons. She would say there is only so much she can do in a one-hour session once a week, and if we were not willing to put in the time to reinforce the lessons at home, we might as well just take our money back and stay home.

Now, some people don’t like this method, which brings me to the point of this answer. You really need to have a chemistry with the trainer in order for the training to work. Go see a couple of classes before you sign up for them. See what methods the trainer uses. See how the trainer asked with the dogs and with the owners. Then decide for yourself whether you agree with what they are doing or not.

Always remember, however, that there is no miracle cure for bad behavior. It took a long time to develop the bad habits, and it will take a long time and a lot of patience to make them go away.

Whatever you decide, good luck with your training!

you can teach old dogs new tricks but if the obedience traing doen’t start right away as a puppy then you will have a hard time training your dog to do anything. Obedience training will make your dog a better dog. So start with that and then move on to bigger and better things.

That dogs respond to the same psychology that human children do when that is not the case.

Thinking that a well-trained dog is going to respond correctly and immediately 100% of the time. As someone put it, if your spouse or child asks you to come over to where they are, you don’t always immediately jump to your feet and go rushing over. Sometimes you want to finish doing X first. But for some reason we expect that from a dog.

This one isn’t strictly a training issue, but a general one about dog owners: That a dog loves you unconditionally and constantly. If a dog really wants to do something and you won’t let it, it’s not necessarily going to like you at that point, and that’s ok.

And this one is my particular hobgoblin: That all dogs need to know how to Sit. My dog doesn’t sit. She stands, she lies down. She’s a greyhound, she doesn’t sit voluntarily, so why do I need to force her to do something that is physically uncomfortable and doesn’t do anything training-wise that a Down doesn’t? And yet every trainer I work with seems to want to try and make her do Sit.