Hello All!

Does anyone have any recommendations for dog training in the twin cities? With my current dog, a husky/rottie (?), I'm interested in just doing agility/obedience for fun. He's just wrapping up Obedience 1 at TCOTC, but it's the first place I've tried and I was just wondering if there was some gem of a training school out there that people really recommended. I'm also hoping to get a working breed puppy (probably boxer) in the next year, and would like a place to set up a solid foundation of obedience/perhaps agility. I would eventually like to use the puppy for ringsports. I'm trying to get in contact with a trainer in the area who does schutzhund work, but until I actually meet with him (hopefully next week), I'm just hoping to pick the brains of anyone on the board. Thanks!

Em

Hello, Em!!

I will be at TCOTC on this Sunday (Feb 12) for a flyball tournament. My flyball team would be able to help you with trainer referrals if you want to come and pick their brains We are Chippewa Valley Wuff Pack.

The main problem I have with TCOTC is that they won't let you use a prong collar. I don't know much about their trainers, though.

My Rally instructor teaches up in the Cities somewhere- she's Karen Thompson and if you do Rally or OB, she's the one to go to!!! I will find out which organization she is with and let you know.

If you are willing to drive a ways- about an hour or so- ABCTC (Ann Braue's Canine Training Center) is the place to go for Agility training. We've had several handlers drive from the Cities for agility. During the summer, Ann will also have training "camps" that are 3 or 4 days of intense training. Ann has been on the Agility World team several times with her Border Collies, and her training staff is some of the best trainers around. http://www.abctc.com/ I have taken all of my dogs through the agility foundations classes and have never been disappointed.

--Kel

Karen Thompson teaches Open OB at Animal Inn in Lake Elmo. She knows of some other great instructors in the Cities as well. PM me if you would like her email address.

--Kelly

Hi Kelly!!

Thanks for the information! What time are you going to be at TCOTC on Sunday? I was just there wrapping up the final session of our obedience level 1 course and meant to look for any information but completely forgot. It would also be fun to see a flyball tournament in action. Their is a tcotc flyball training class at the same time (and two rings down - it's amazing any work gets done!) from the beginner obed. class and it looks like such a blast.

I did notice that TCOTC was very anti-correction. I try, of course, to train as motivationally as possible, but I also thought some dogs were able to repeatedly get away with some pretty dog-aggressive behaviour that maybe needed to be nipped in the bud. I'd like to be able to lay down the law, if needed, without people making me feel like a monster...

I really like the looks of ABCTC and have bookmarked the site away for future use. Thanks for the recommendation! My current dog is a low-riding lug - he's about the height of a border collie but easily 2 to 2.5x the weight with huge bones like a quarter horse. Plus, he's crazy bow-legged. I'm thinking he'll stick out in the serious agility dog crowd, but I'll definitely consider ABCTC when I get my new working dog in a few months here for some serious training. -Em

Hi Em,

Racing usually starts between 7 and 8am and will go all day- on a typical tourny day, our team will be there from 6:45 til about 3 or 3:30. We did one tourny and didn't get out until 7:30 that night- it was a LONG day!! Any time from 9 til 3 you should be able to catch us.

I found out the hard way that TCOTC doesn't allow prongs in the building. I had Toni with for the first time and I wasn't sure how she was going to react with all the excitement and other dogs so I put her prong on to give her a correction if she crossed the line. Seconds after entering the building, I got jumped I train motivationally too, but there are times that a dog will need a correction or you end up with bigger problems... in my opinion anyway

Karen Thompson and ABCTC instructors are fine with using prongs

Hope to see you Sunday I will be box loading for our team, but will have Terrible Toni with- sans prong

--Kelly