I've watched a few basic obedience classes while I happened to be shopping there. My impression is that their "training" is nothing more than a bunch of feel good, politically correct garbage. They don't allow chokers or prongs yet Petsmart sells these items in their stores. What a hypocrisy!

I later learned that the particular class that I was watching was the 6th of an 8 session course. To me it looked like none of them had ever had any training.

It's not my intention to trash Petsmart. As a dog lover I do appreciate that the local Petsmart assists some of our area rescue groups. And I think the people there are nice and well intentioned. It's just that I think their training is a bad joke.

I guess this is no great revelation to many of you here. Regardless, I hope that you'll share your thoughts and impressions.

I have two boys in college. My oldest son loves dogs so he decided on his free time he would go to the local shelter and donate his free time. It is a very nice run shelter one of the better ones I have seen. What he would do or other volunteers are interacting with the dogs, take them for walk and train them. The first problem he saw is that they used halti collars. The next day he was in the headadministrator’s office making his case for prong collars. The administrator was open to his suggestions. My son felt that since it was a kill shelter he had no time to waste. The results my son had were incredible. I came down and he had this 6 month shepherd pit bull mix trained in basic ob. The same dog that the shelter labeled dangerous. Anyone that doesn’t thing there are benefits with prong collars is wrong. My own dog actually starts choking and coughing when she pulls on a flat collar and has no problem with the prong. Just to finish my story my son didn’t last at the shelter because he would train and bond with the dogs and they would be destroyed.

Milt

Well, these type people don't really understand real dog training. They train more to the "feel good" pet type people. They use these fancy clickers and food, but no corrections. Dogs learns things from corrections. All of my dogs were trained with choke collars.

A few years ago I attended a training course with my dog through Petco, and surprisingly, they did allow prong collars. But I did not go through this course to train my dog, only to add some proofing in a group environment as he was already obedience trained. You're right, for the average uninformed dog owner, these classes are worthless. Case in point, our class had 28 participants and one trainer! We got group experience all right... It was ridiculous, and I saw very little if not any improvement from the other dogs throughout the 8 week course. Most didn't even stick around til the end. Maybe that's why they make the classes so big, because they know they'll be so many drop-outs. It's a scam. I now find my own more constructive, and cheaper ways of training my dogs around other dogs and people, and it's much more fun for both of us. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

I had to laugh when I saw this post. I was walking into PetSmart about 2 weeks ago and this was this woman and her dog who had obviously just come from obedience class. This woman was dragging this dog along next to her, leash taught, telling the dog to heel. The dog wasn't heeling at all, in fact it was pulling towards me and my husband barking & growling, but the woman was telling it "good heel". All I could do was roll my eyes. It amazes me that some people are stupid enough to pay for that type of training.

I actually had a very embarrassing and upsetting experience at a Petco. I took my 7 month old GSD there to get some treats or something. I had him on a prong collar, he likes to bark at other dogs... Well, he started barking at a dog in line, so I had to drag him out, very embarrassing. Well, I was followed out by one of their "trainers". She asked to pet my dog, I made him sit and she pats him on his head. Well, she then starts on their "training" program and asked if I had taken advantage of it... I say no, he has a trainer... Well then, she asks to give him a treat, he is NOT GENTLE, I warn her, she gives him a treat and he took the food with her finger, she yelps, and then tries to get him to take the next treat gently...
I am trying to get out of there, trying to be polite. Well, then she sees he is on a prong... That’s starts her again, telling me about the gentle leaders and how it changed her shepherd!!! I wanted to die. I so wanted to tell her off. Needless to say I have not returned there with him and learned my lesson.

<img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" /> I have 2 GSDs, one who is extremely fear aggressive, and the other who is sweet as can be. We've gotten into discussions/arguments with trainers at PetSmart about our dogs, and to this day, they are STILL convinced that they can change my fear aggressive one with a Halti or Gentle Leader. One of these people was an older woman who walked with a cane. She insisted upon showing us how the Halti was used, and then proceeded to tell me that everything I have done with my dog (muzzle, prong, choke collar) was wrong and that I was making him worse. She wanted to remove his muzzle & prong and put a Halti on him to "show us how it's done". I felt like telling her to give it her best shot...he probably would have ripped her arm off and then dragged her through the parking lot. She was so irritating that it really was a very tempting offer <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

On the other side of the coin, we did meet a trainer at PetSmart who wanted to work with my dog. He originally wanted to use a flat collar on him, but when I insisted that he couldn't be controlled that way, he said it was fine if I wanted to use the prong. This trainer is one of the only people my dog would tolerate, so I guess not all the PetSmart trainers are bad.

I make the analogy of a health club. Those 5 dollar an hour trainers that walk around and help you with your workout are just as much of a joke as the Petsmart trainers. Next time you go to the gym pick one person who is being trained then look at them 6 months later and see if you see 1 bit of change in their appearance. Do the same with a dog before and after training. No change.

When I was living in Russellville they had "Obedience" classes for pets at the university. I helped out there and they used the clicker along with food, and none of those dogs were really any good at the end of the course. The classes were only one hour per week and there is no way you can train a dog like that. These people quite obviously did not work with the dogs in the week between the classes, yet all of them "graduated" the class. I mean my dogs were better trained than the ones from this "class". I took my old German Shepherd (she was 8 at the time) on campus sometimes and walked her around and worked her and she was much better mannered than the dogs from the "class".

I have not met one person who has ever come out of one of these classes with a fully trained dog. The problem is that people don't understand what a dog must go thru to be considered fully trained. People bring their dog in, learn how to get them to sit for a treat, stay for a treat and down for a treat and they leave thinking "wow...that trainer is a genious!". Then they go home and spend no time working on anything. I wish more people would smarten up and save their money!