Obedience school for toy breeds?
Posted: January 10th, 2011 | Author: admin | Filed under: Common Questions | Tags: Breeds, Obedience, school | 11 Comments »I have a small toy breed 6 month old puppy and I’d like to enter her into obedience school. My local SCPA has a training course that I tried…but all the other dogs were HUGE and it was outside (a half an hour in 20 degree temperature nearly killed her). Can anyone tell me what I should look for in a toy breed friendly obedience school? Especially in the DC/MD area. ty!
Petsmart usually does obedience, and they do it inside the store, not out in the cold.
Search for local kennels clubs, or go to the AKC website to find one near you.
I know in my area, they don’t have seperate classes, but it is possible to get a private lesson by yourself.
Look for local trainers or breeders that do obediance training classes. You’ll just have to search around.
look on yellowbook.com and look up toy dog obeidence classes, cal around, and make sure its not outside!! thats so dumb that it was outside in the freezing weather.
Petsmart offers a beginner class for young dogs, and it’s a reasonable price, about $100, and affective. Money back guarantee.
Petsmart and Petco have their training classes inside. I have a private trainer that teaches her classes inside at a local auditorium and she taught a class specifically for little dogs. Your vet may be able to give you a recommendation.
You’ll still probably find that you are outnumbered by big dogs. Unfortunately toy breeds need training just as much but many toy owners seem to treat them like babies that couldn’t possibly hurt anyone and don’t bother – which leads to the problem of many toy breed dogs with terrible manners. So I appreciate that you want to do it. My golden retriever took obedience classes with a corgi and some terriers, and they all got along fine. And my golden still plays with a friend who is shih tzu and they are great together. Dogs do very well at compensating for size when they play and socialize.
I recommend puppy classes. This way the dogs are generally smaller and since your dog is young, it should fit right in. I’d also check with a local small dog rescue, most rescues have trainers and classes that they recommend.
20 degree Farenheit? -6 Celsius? Sheesh! That’s insanity.
It might be a good idea to contact your local breed club, or toy dog club if there is one nearby, or maybe the breed clubs for other toy breeds, to see if they can recommend a good toy-friendly place to take classes.
Basically, you want to see a class where the instructor is alert and in control of the class. Go and watch a beginner class, see how it is run, and see if you would feel safe with your dog there.
If all else fails, you might want to round up a bunch of other small-dog owners and see if you can arrange with one of the local clubs or trainers for a special small dog only class. If you can guarantee them a certain number of participants, they’ll probably go for it.
Another idea might be to attend some local obedience trials, and if you see any toy breeds there ask them where they train. Some will be from out of the area, but there should be some local dogs too.
I took my dog to Petsmart. My dog is very small and was very skiddish when we got her. I spoke to the trainer about my concerns about her being so small plus a sissy about everything. Even though My dog was technically not in the puppy class age range She still let me put her in that class and she did great she was the star of her class plus now shes in intermediate obedience class. Talk to the trainer first to see if she will let you enroll her in the puppy class and have fun.
PETSMART
try petsmart or petco.. they have classes INSIDE like another person said.
You wont find a class that is exclusevly for small dogs tho. The point of a group class is to socialize and to train your dog to ignore other dogs when you are “working”. There will be dogs of all sizes and ages, depending on who signs up. You should expose your dog to dogs of all sizes.