Separate Training Classes??

We've been wanting to get Tandie into training classes but were waiting until she recovered fully from her operation and now the earliest ones available will be in the new year. By then we will have our new puppy.

My question is, does a puppy have to attend puppy classes, or would he be ok in a regular beginners training class? Obviously it would be much more convenient to bring them both to the same class (and there's two of us to manage them).

You could bring them both to the same class but usually the puppy should be at least 4 months and also, much of what is taught in a regular class is too advanced and demanding for a really young puppy. It also depends on the instructors; many will not allow puppies into a class at all til at least 6 months old; often older.

I would stand at opposite ends of the room though if you are in the same class or the dogs will just distract each other. That's why it is generally recommended to train separately.

Can't offer any advice on puppies...but I just finished a training course with my 3 and 4 year olds. Someone else in the class handled one while I handled the other. And then we'd switch off. It was great for my two to be in the same class with me but not get my attention and to learn to be handled by someone else. We had a good time and learned a lot.

Just FYI Tara and Lisa allow puppies in at 4 months. They used to do separate puppy classes but now I think they take puppies in the regular beginner classes. They are happy to have different handlers, people's kids, whoever. Each trainer is different, though!

Usually the puppy classes allow time for socializing the puppies by letting them play together. That's my favorite thing about puppy classes!

We had two of our puppies in the same puppy class once. It was a somewhat small class (6 to 8 pups) and even though Kris and I were at opposite ends of the class, those two were forever distracting each other. Fortunately the training center had 2 days that they held puppy classes so we could take them on separate days. If theer is a way to take them seperately, I would. If not, just try to keep them at opposite ends and hope for the best.

I happen to believe puppy classes are VERY important, more for the puppy's socialization than anything. Every one of our dogs have been to puppy class, even though we could probably teach the class, because we want them to get the socialization with other people and other breeds.

I do want to reiterate that my guys were much older when we did this class together. I don't know that I would have tried both together as puppies. They both knew basic commands and were used to following my lead. The class helped with Jake's inability to accept someone else handling him. It also helped with them being separate from me but in the same basic area. We weren't doing beginning training. That would have been much harder with two.

Karlin said:

Just FYI Tara and Lisa allow puppies in at 4 months. They used to do separate puppy classes but now I think they take puppies in the regular beginner classes. They are happy to have different handlers, people's kids, whoever. Each trainer is different, though!

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Well actually that's the reason I posted, because I couldn't find any mention of puppy classes on the DTI website and I wondered if it would be possible to book both of mine into the regular beginners! Dougal will be 4 months by the end of January and the earliest we could get Tandie in would be the middle of January so we might as well wait a couple of weeks. It'll save us doing two runs & leaving Dougal at home alone one night a week.

I was lucky, when training Joly, because our trainer did mainly individual work, so Joly got his own cut price short puppy sessions. The price went up as his sessions got longer.

Hi Cecily

We do beginners level 1 and include puppies and older dogs (none with behavioural or aggressive problems). We generally have lots of puppies in the level 1 class.

We like to allow the puppies to meet at the end and experience supervised socialisation. We also like puppies to learn from older adults so we watch the dogs body language and interaction closely.

Plus because there are only ever 8 puppies or dogs we can watch each one closely and allow for appropriate socialisation.

We should be running puppy socialisation groups and some puppy only classes from February onwards. The January classes are on at various times so you could have one in say the 6.30pm and the other in the 7.30 OR if you want to go to one class with both and we see that they are getting too distracted we can set up a block or safe area.

We regularly work with siblings and couple dogs and it's great to get them working independently of each other.

Hope that all helps.

I have a similar question. I would like to get my 2 new dogs into one of the training classes but because I will be doing the training on my own I am confused about how to go about it, ie. bring each of the dogs on alternate weeks or finish out an entire session with one dog and then start with the other one.

Reading these posts it might be a good idea to go to a 6.30 class with one and then the 7.30 with the other one. Is there somewhere safe that the dogs can stay when they are not in class?

Any ideas would be appreciated!

If you can crate one and she will remain quiet you can hold her right there -- they have some barriers that they can put up to create a quiet area for a crated dog. Or you can keep one crated out in a car parked by the training centre. Or do a class with one, then with the second one.

Thanks Karlin.

I think they should be OK in the crate so I'll give that a go