Obedience Training In Wollongong

[Magstar]

I have been really slack and haven't taken my 1 year old GR to obedience training since he was about 7 months old. I only went to training at our local club for about a month and then stopped going because I wasn't happy there. I just found that the class was too big and so it was too hard for the instructors to really help people out. I also hate night classes.

So I was hoping to get some information about either of the Wollongong based dog training clubs, even though it will mean a further drive for me.

Does anyone know which club has smaller class sizes?

Also, are the people friendly, helpful etc?

Any information would be much appreciated

[corvus]

I went to South Coast Dog Training Club in Dapto for a while. Only just stopped because the drive was 50 minutes for me. I was going for agility and class size was about 6. I'm not sure what obedience is like, but Toujour on here does obedience through that club.

[CBL]

I did obedience with Oscar at South Coast as well and enjoyed it. We stopped when he got unwell, and we were also starting to do a lot of offlead work and my little bugger can't be trusted offlead.

I know 4 Paws on here went to both Wollongong clubs so a PM to her will probably give you some good info.

Corvus when were you there - I doubt it was the same time as me as I would remember Kivi.

[RiverStar-Aura]

I took Zeus to the South Coast Dog Training and had a fantastic time there. They've got an off-leash section at the back so I used to go early, let Zeus burn off his energy so he could concentrate on the lessons. Then after the class I'd let him off again as a reward for his hard work!

Once we graduated from the beginner class to Class 1, however, I did struggle a lot with the class size. There were around 30 to 40 people in Class 1, which was then divided into 4 or so groups (depending on how many teachers were available each week). Zeus has a problem of not being able to concentrate unless he's said "hello" to ever single dog around, which was something I was hoping to work at. It didn't happen though because I work in retail and was offered permanent part-time, which means working 3 weekends a month and going to obedience training once a month wasn't beneficial.

The other problem I found was the fact that the training ground is where the Dapto Markets are held so Zeus, being part beagle, did nothing but sniff out the food left rotting on the ground (once the little bugger picked up a leftover corn cob and wouldn't let it go!). He also found all the different smells much more interesting than listening to me trying to teach him things and again, I couldn't work with this because we had to give it up.

One dog training I'd like to try out though is a 6 or 8 week course at Naughty Dog School, which is held at Poplar Food Produce in Kembla Grange. Has anyone here tried it out because it sounds really good and the classes are small so it might work in mine and Zeus's favour. Either that or I might organise in home training sessions as they offer that too.

Oh and the other thing with South Coast Dog Training obedience is that after Zeus and I had the basics I didn't feel the need to really carry on with what they were teaching. They seem to teach things for those who want to compete in obedience -- not that there's anything wrong with that, I just didn't see the need for having Zeus learn these little obedience routines when I wasn't planning on competing.

[Rainy]

Unfortunatly It will be hard to find a club with small classes, alot of these classes are run by voluenteers so usually there is only just enough insturctors for each class, if you want more one on one type of instuction you may want to try and fine privet classes i know of one in nowra that is pretty good but dont know of any in wollongong but if you ask at the clubs they may be able to help you