Dog class trainer etiquette?

N

Narci

Forums Regular
So, we started our first official training class yesterday. My husband and I have both had dogs before but have never really trained particularly well. Beau is a smart little rescue who clearly had a lot of training before we got him, but we have some communication issues we're still working through. I get the feeling like I'm confusing him sometimes, etc. And he loves learning, so I thought he might like to do some obedience with me past the basics and I just need structure to get there. We're going through the dog training club, which goes up through UKC/AKC Rally/Obedience/Agility, so a fun way to meet people and get involved.

Long story short, we're in basic starter class. Like puppy kindergarten, but for older dogs. Beau is twice the age of the next oldest dog. (He's six. MONTHS? years. YEARS?) Heel, sit, downstay, etc. Beau can already do 90% of that 90% of the time but more practice can't hurt.

We're walking out the door after an exceedingly boring first day lecture on like, how to pick up poop and what door to walk through and types of collars, when he hollers back at us to say we're only allowed to have one handler. I can see why only one person should be in ring at a time, with the rest of the family watching. It could confuse the dog and it would get really crowded if people brought families. But he's saying we're not even allowed to trade off weeks.

The whole idea was for BOTH of us to bond with the dog and get technique pointers, and it's not like we're doing high end agility where the handler bond is complex. He should come/down/stay for both of us, and both of us want to learn.

It really rubs me the wrong way that the instructor only mentioned this as an afterthought, it wasn't on their website, their application, or even in the standard introduction day lecture. It's not in the handouts they gave us. I don't want to sit on the sidelines for months. Is this totally standard practice and I'm over reacting?
 
I would also be annoyed. I think that is ludicrous.

First of all, it's a basic obedience class. Second of all, that is doing your dog a disservice to say that he is incapable of learning/understanding commands from more than one person. If you walked into my house and asked my dogs to sit, I'd expect them to do so.

My husband and I have both handled our dogs through advanced obedience classes as well as handled both dogs to advanced agility titles.

I had an agility instructor say that we were ruining Lexi by both handling her. We found a new instructor after that.

Edit: Forgot to mention that the best part about taking classes is learning to be consistent. I think it's commendable and extremely helpful for multiple members of the family to be there, and be committed to being consistent with the dog. If one of you stayed home, you'd be transferring information to them second hand, and it would become watered down. You're obviously both going to ask Beau to do things (sit, stay, etc...) why not be able to practice it in a helpful, learning environment?

Sorry, but this got me fired up!
 
I had a puppy class where one dog brought a whole family member with him, a dad, a mom, a son and a daughter. Mostly kids participated in training in the beginning and when they got bored, they ventured away and the parents took over. I never went any training class where they had one handler restriction. If it was me, I would look for different training class.
 
I agree that is ridiculous. If you get into competing, no matter what the sport is, your dog may need to be handled by more than one person! What if Handler #1 is sick? Breaks a leg? Whatever! The dog would be much better off if that person is a family member who has already trained with the dog.

And the after-the-fact announcement is just wrong too. I think I'd do what corbinam did and find another trainer. :mad:
 
Alright, glad it's not just me who thought this was unreasonable! I was steaming but this class is at the end of a 16 hour day for me, so I wasn't exactly at my best. I'm going to try to find out if this is standard policy for all the dog club classes, or if it's just this one instructor's preference. I would MUCH rather go through the dog club than some teenager at PetSmart, though.

Or if it's one of those things that they prefer but won't try to enforce. He said he prefers not to use choke collars but it's fine if it works for us. That's what Beau is used to for walks. If he was a feisty doberman pup pulling at the leash, fine, but he heels and has a huge ruff. I'm not putting a pinch collar on him to get tangled and break his fur.


Okay that was a huge digression. I guess my point is I need to find out if this is a preference or a hard rule, and if it's a rule, if it's this instructor or the entire club. There ARE other classes but they're full.

eta: We frequently train together already for fun. We'll do recall games and chases and namegame and trade sit/stay/comes. Beau has zero issues responding to either of us, and it gives him something to process and think about when he gets to switch between our voices/hand movements. I could accept one at a time for the benefit of other dogs who are more hyper and space considerations.
 
Last edited:
most training classes i've been to, the instructor would actaully encourage us handle different dogs. and for a lot of competitive dogs, they do better to accept multiple handlers. sometimes a handler will ask someone else to handle one of their dogs in the ring because they have too many dogs entered in the same class, running too close together.
 
LoveDogs said:
I had a puppy class where one dog brought a whole family member with him, a dad, a mom, a son and a daughter. Mostly kids participated in training in the beginning and when they got bored, they ventured away and the parents took over. I never went any training class where they had one handler restriction. If it was me, I would look for different training class.
Click to expand...

the places that I have been encourage as much of the family as possible to come- that way, everyone learns together and they learn the same things so when you say down, the dog lays down instead of jumping off the couch- that command is off.

and to just yell it at you as you were leaving- I'd also look into somewhere/someone else. check out Petsmart/Petco- not all the trainers are teenage never had a dog but need a job people......
 
Ann said:
I agree that is ridiculous. If you get into competing, no matter what the sport is, your dog may need to be handled by more than one person! What if Handler #1 is sick? Breaks a leg? Whatever! The dog would be much better off if that person is a family member who has already trained with the dog.

And the after-the-fact announcement is just wrong too. I think I'd do what corbinam did and find another trainer. :mad:
Click to expand...

My girl Diva is co owned. Her co owner Rachel and I both handle her in agility and there has been many a time that it was useful that Diva knew how to work with her because of my work conflicts.

I didn't ruin her at all or confuse her. Diva has 1st placements working for both of us in agility and rally(Rahcel hasn't even trained her in rally or obedience).

Not one of the instructors in any of the many classes we have taken together have ever had an issue with us both training her.
 
Question - is this "person" (I am being nice here) the owner of the school or just someone working for them? If someone working for them, I would follow up with the owner. If he is the owner, contact him, let him know that both owners would be at all training sessions and working with Beau, and that is was totally inappropriate to yell after you like he did. I would also look around for another training school.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top