Looking to see if anyone is from the Connecticut area, or even Western Mass? I would love to get together with someone during the day and just work on training and get feedback from other people.

As many people have seen in my previous posts I'm becoming more passionate about the dog training. The more feedback, suggestions and training I can get to pass onto my dog would be fantastic.

Thanks!

Rob, are you mainly looking for an ob partner? Plus maybe someone who is looking to dip their toes into nosework or other sport after ob is solid?


As for western Mass, are we looking at Springfield, or maybe Worcester County?

 Quote: Connie Sutherland

Rob, are you mainly looking for an ob partner? Plus maybe someone who is looking to dip their toes into nosework or other sport after ob is solid?


As for western Mass, are we looking at Springfield, or maybe Worcester County?

OB & once it 110% nosework or dog sport would be fun.

Worcester County is a little far, I live about 5 minutes from Springfield, I'm willing to travel a little (little being key word lol)

So you are near Somers or Windsor Locks?

(It's always easier to more or less pinpoint the geography.)

 Quote: Connie Sutherland

So you are near Somers or Windsor Locks?

(It's always easier to more or less pinpoint the geography.)

Haha between the two!

Enfield

I find the club scene to be very beneficial in terms of interacting with other owner/trainer/handlers. Maybe you can find a club doing some sort of activity that you and your dog can learn together?

I haven't found many clubs in my area that are close. Majority of them are fairly far.

If you really want to work with someone good....you will most likely have to drive. 1 1/2 - 2 hours & more is not unusual to have to go to find someone that is worth training with. You do it if you are serious about training with the best & have high goals.

I live in SW CT & traveled to Southbury to train with my original SchH Nationals mentor & also to north NJ for months to train with another SchH nationals trainer. Also had a guy that did decoy work for me come to my home & work my dogs in my yard & local field & LEO K9 friend do some decoy work for me here at home & at local field near by.

You can also find like-minded folks to form a training group with. I did this with several friends & we had a decoy we knew come & 'catch dogs' for us. We used to meet every Saturday & train. We had a great time & got a lot of work done too.

There used to be some clubs SchH up in the MA, RI & CT area a reasonable drive from you. I know that there are a couple of FR clubs up that way too. Don't know if they are still meeting or accepting new members. Check the national web sites for club listings to see what is around now. Also most clubs want folks that are serious about work toward titles. There is only so many timeslots that the TD & decoys can devote to in a day of training. So they want members that are serious about trialing.

I am sure that there are AKC clubs in your area or a driving distance also. Check the AKC national site. Should at least be one in the Hartford or Springfield area I would think.

Most important……have fun with your dog.

Thanks Anne,

Unfortunately as much as I am interested in Sch & FR I don't think I am ready for something like that. I am interested in OB & Nosework mainly. The big thing for me is availability, I work evenings 3-11 and a lot of training classes are at 6pm at night because it's better for the majority. I'm okay to drive a bit, I drove 2 hours north to drop my dog off for in-board training and I would go back up - I'm working on discussing it with him.

If you're in SWCT, would you be interested in getting together? Haha

My experience with training has been mostly on weekend days with clubs. But sometimes it depends on the availablility of a field to train on & can mean that you train at night on lit sport fields, indoor horse arenas, or other indoor venues when not otherwise in use.

I used to meet of my original SchH trainer during week days but we had fields/areas to meet & train. We used to use several locations. Which also gave my dogs multiple places to train…so they never cared about where we were & worked anywhere. My trainer in NJ had a field at his place that we trained on.

I think that your best bet might be to look into AKC training clubs or groups to start with. Or maybe some individual training with a reputable trainer. I would carefully vet the trainer out & observe a few of their training classes before laying out $$$ & signing up. Also references would be preferable from folks with titles in the fields that you are looking to do with your dog.

NOTE: Bob, if you see this, does AKC have scent work titles etc? I would guess that they might. AKC titles has never been my field of interest....so I have no idea if they do or not.

Sending you a PM