The Ins And Outs Of Dog Training Classes

[Lollipup]

If you run or attend dog training classes, how are they run and what do you like/dislike about the way they are run?

For example:

How many dogs are in a class?

How many different skill levels are there?

What time of the day are they run?

How many trainers are on staff?

Can you keep going or are there a set number of lessons?

Where are they held? ie sports grounds, schools, clubs, council grounds?

I currently run a 6 week course but many people want to stay on, which is great except I need to limit numbers and they are all at different skill levels. I want to restructure it for the new year and bring in any improvements I can to make classes better for both the students and my needs.

So I am looking for all kinds of ideas. I know this is something that lots of trainers struggle with. A few I have asked that run their own classes have said when you find the perfect structure, let me know!

I am the only trainer and my husband assists me by helping setting up, looking out for anyone who is stuck, filling water bowls, etc. So class size has to stay at a manageable size for one trainer and one assistant.

Looking forward to hearing all different suggestions :)

Edited September 30, 2012 by Lollipup

[megan_]

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Edited September 30, 2012 by megan_

[fuzzy82]

I love the drop-in style classes, where you pay per class and attend whenever you want, or you pay a set amount and attend as many as you want until you reach the next level.

I don't like how dog training classes are held ridiculously early in the morning on weekends. I wanna sleep in on weekends. I prefer the classes that are held in the evening on weekdays, but I guess for families weekends work because they're up early anyway.

The size of the class doesn't really matter, as long as there are enough instructors to come around and talk to everyone in the class at least once per exercise, and if there are issues they should have time to hang around for a few minutes to try to help. If you spend the whole class without any one on one time with the instructor something is wrong.

I think it's also really important to encourage people to have frequent play breaks, not just between exercises, but several times while working on one exercise. And when you're standing around receiving instructions for the next exercise, people should be encouraged to get down to their dog's level and give them a scratch, or put them away in a crate.

Personal space between dogs is also important. For the class we're currently doing this was emphasised during the orientation night where we went there without dogs, and everyone whose dogs need extra space were encouraged to let everyone know. And speaking of orientation night, I think that's a good idea too. You're not distracted by your dogs and you go over all the rules and get to ask questions etc.

[Poppy's mum]

A few other threads asking the same sort of question in the "Training" section, from time to time.

[Lollipup]

A few other threads asking the same sort of question in the "Training" section, from time to time.

Thank you. I remember one of them a while back. I searched for more before posting but couldn't find them. I thought I would put it in general to get views from both trainers and attendees.

[Lollipup]

I love the drop-in style classes, where you pay per class and attend whenever you want, or you pay a set amount and attend as many as you want until you reach the next level.

I don't like how dog training classes are held ridiculously early in the morning on weekends. I wanna sleep in on weekends. I prefer the classes that are held in the evening on weekdays, but I guess for families weekends work because they're up early anyway.

The size of the class doesn't really matter, as long as there are enough instructors to come around and talk to everyone in the class at least once per exercise, and if there are issues they should have time to hang around for a few minutes to try to help. If you spend the whole class without any one on one time with the instructor something is wrong.

I think it's also really important to encourage people to have frequent play breaks, not just between exercises, but several times while working on one exercise. And when you're standing around receiving instructions for the next exercise, people should be encouraged to get down to their dog's level and give them a scratch, or put them away in a crate.

Personal space between dogs is also important. For the class we're currently doing this was emphasised during the orientation night where we went there without dogs, and everyone whose dogs need extra space were encouraged to let everyone know. And speaking of orientation night, I think that's a good idea too. You're not distracted by your dogs and you go over all the rules and get to ask questions etc.

Thank you fuzzy82 that is really very helpful :)

[Podengo]

I run domestic obedience for a company (paid work) and an introductory agility class for a club (unpaid).

The intro agility class is 8 weeks long, dogs must be at least 12 months old to attend and must have a decent recall and be controllable around other dogs. The class runs 8-9pm on a Monday night (including gear set-up time) at our club grounds (which is a high school) and this particular class is run on a fenced tennis court with floodlights. We have around 15 dogs each class with 3 instructors. We talk at the start, do a recap of what we covered last week and everyone gets a chance to talk about the training they did throughout the week, then we do some group training (usually looking at waits or tugging), then split into 3 groups of 5 to rotate around 3 modules with an instructor at each module. We find this structure works really well, and we mostly have a good number of dogs attending the full 8 weeks of class (usually lose 1 or 2). Of the 15 that start, usually 4-8 move up to the next class which we think is because the people struggle with the amount of training at the basic level, and putting in the effort in the next class which is a lot harder is quite daunting.

For my domestic obedience I run classes for 5 weeks, with a maximum of 8 dogs in the beginner classes, and 6 in the intermediate classes. My beginner classes run on a Sunday afternoon for an hour (I usually run 3 or 4 of them so 2-3pm, 3-4pm, 4-5pm, 5-6pm) in a public park without lighting, and my intermediate classes run same time/same place on a Saturday. Beginner class is for beginners, we mainly focus on loose-lead walking and recall, with some other stuff thrown in for the sake of fun. Aggressive dogs are not welcome in class, unless I have worked privately with them beforehand as we have large numbers of puppies in the classes and we don't want to risk any babies having any big scares, and our beginners classes do not cater for aggressive dogs. I am the only trainer, and I do find it hard to make sure everyone is getting an even amount of help - I think I do spend too much time helping some individuals and look over others on occasion, I would love to have a helper but I don't think it's too viable an idea with the company I am with. I usually start the class by getting everyone to talk about how their training is going over the week (so they can admit if they have done nothing all week lol) and what struggles/great things they have faced and then work on an exercise or two, have a break and let dogs have a play/sniff/socialise/drink, and then back to doing some work, play some training games (often Simon says since it's easy for newbies), a little more work, then last 5 minutes is talk time so they can either go home, or hang out and chat (usually we sit around having an informal chat about anything dog related).

I find some people really LOOOOVE my classes and sing my praises, super excited to be there and take everything I offer, then move on to agility because they want to continue training with me, some come to lesson one and never come back, I try not to take it to heart... I would rather have a class full of people who have fun training their dogs, enjoy the training, enjoy chatting and having a laugh, learn lots about themselves and their dogs and HAVE FUN!