A few months ago, my husband and I adopted a dog. She is a 1-year old boxer/beagle mix who we named Daisy. We were excited to add this new addition to our lives, but we anticipated that it would be a lot of hard work. Previously, we had only cats, who do not require much maintenance. Well dogs, on the other hand, are quite challenging! However, once you get your dog trained, they prove to be such loyal companions.
Daisy is by nature pretty rambunctious, so we knew we would want to enroll her in obedience school. We already visited PetSmart for dog accessories and food, so we decided we would sign up for their obedience classes. PetSmart offers a puppy education course for those canines ages 10 weeks to 5 months old, and beginner, intermediate, and advanced classes too. We enrolled Daisy in a beginner course that would consist of 8 1-hour sessions.
Throughout the classes, we learned basic social commands like “sit”, “stay”, and “leave it.” We also learned how to get your dog to walk politely on a leash and how to sit for petting. We practiced getting our dogs to avoid distractions by going out into the store, having our dogs walk past toys placed in aisles, and sitting in front of the small rodents and reptiles.
Good news, Daisy graduated! She was given a Certificate of Completion and got her picture taken. Overall I am pleased with the course. I feel we covered the basics and now Daisy has a good foundation on which to move forward. I also liked that the weekly classes were a good way for Daisy to socialize with other animals. The price was reasonable, $109 for 8 weeks or $14 a class.
One negative of the PetSmart program was that halfway through, our instructor was changed. The first instructor was transferred to another store. She was an okay instructor, but a little “mean”, for lack of a better word. She never seemed to actually like the dogs, in terms of wanting to hug them and pet them. I did really like our second instructor. He was very hands-on and definitely loved the animals. However, it was obvious that the instructors had some differences in opinion; some of the things we learned with our first instructor were tossed out the window with our second instructor. For instance, our first instructor highly recommended we use a Gentle Leader, and our second instructor told us he did not like them. Also, we were given a Clicker in the first class but never worked with them.
If you are thinking of signing your pooch up for training, I think the PetSmart program is a good one. But be advised, they just shortened the class length to 6 sessions, but the price is still $109. If you are dissatisfied with your class, you can re-take it free of charge.
