Training: (We are currently unable to offer Obedience Classes. This page will be updated as soon as the current situation changes.)

Obedience Training Classes (subject to change)

We hope to offer a Rally class and an intro to Beginnerr Novice - all part of the same class.

Plans are to do a CGC/Beginners class, with the Canine Good Citizen test done at the end of a 7 week session. This is a fun class for all levels of training!

There have been some major changes to Rally - especially in the Advanced and Excellent levels. We can cover those in Rally class as well as the Novice levels.

The Beginner Novice (BN) title is one that a lot of us can earn on our dogs with just some basic training. We will show you what you need to know to earn this newer AKC title. If you have never shown a dog, but want to give it a try, this is a great place to start.

PUPPY CLASS

The Puppy class, aka puppy kindergarten - is a six week course that is designed for puppies 12 weeks to about 6 months - depending on breed. It is basically a manners and socialization course. The class is done in three segments - a group activity, group playtime, this includes all the puppies in the class as well as family members, followed by another group activity. The activities include walking on a leash, coming when called, sit and down. Also covered is basic puppy care - like early grooming, getting the pup used to being handled - both by the owners and the other people in the class. Also, people can bring their problems to the class to be dicussed and solutions are offered. The general feel of puppy class is fun, informational and relaxed. Classes are a minimum of 30 minutes in length.

BEGINNER CLASS

The beginner class is a seven week course of 50 minute classes that cover all the basics of what AKC describes as a sub-novice course. Everything is done on lead and we use either a standard "choke chain" style training collar or a prong collar. The use of a prong collar is used sparingly and with permission and instruction from the instructor(s). Each week builds on the lesson of the pervious week and culminates with a formal graduation. Graduation resembles an AKC sub-novice obedience trial - with the addition of a refreshment table with goodies for dogs and handlers!

Listed below are the lessons covered each week:

Week One - Registration/Orientation, and an overview of the whole program, brief demo and a question and answer period.

Week Two - Basic Heeling with auto-sit. A fun recall - come-fore - this is done with a lot of enthusiasm on the handlers part! We also introduce heeling variations such as circle-left, ircle-right, about turn, and pace changes.

Week Three - Review excercises from previous week. Add the Sit-stay. This is done by just telling the dog to stay in the sit position, then doing a pivot in front and staying there for about 10 seconds, then pivoting back to heel postion. As the dog understands the command better, the time in front of the dog gets longer - up to one minute. We also teach the figure eight. This is basically putting the left and right circles together. This is also a good way to get the dogs used to working around each other and ingoring each other. We also continue to work on the recall - still very informal and fun.

Week Four - Review previous week. Teach the down-stay. This is done the same way as the sit - only gradually working up to three minutes in front of the dog. We also start getting some distance from the dog during the stays - eventually getting to a full leash length (six feet) from the dog. We also introduce the walk-around return. Instead of just pivoting back to heel position, we walk around behind the dog to return to heel. The recall is now done from a stationary position and a "front" position is encouraged.

Week Five - Review the previous weeks excercises. The stand-for-exam is taught. We break it down into several components - the stand, stay and finally the exam. We often skip the exam part and do that in conjunction with either a sit-stay or down-stay since by now, most of the dogs are fairly solid on those stays. We also do a formal recall from a sit-stay. We expect the dog to come in relatively straight and sit in front of their trainer. As a seperate excercise, we also intro the two types of finishes - the military (swing) and the walk-around.

Week Six - Review everything we have done up to now. Get the class ready for graduation. Time permitting, everyone gets to do the "L" pattern used in the heeling portion of "graduation".

Week Seven - GRADUATION!!!!

ADVANCED and or RALLY

This is a six week course.

Rally -This class reviews all of the signs that are used in the AKC's newest form of Obedience. Rally is a fun combination of standard obedience and a bit of agility. It is a much less formal form of obedience since you can talk to your dog and give had signals while doing the various exercises. AKC Rally trials are rapidly growing in popularity and they are very enjou=yable for both dog and trainer!

Advanced - this class builds on what was one is the beginners. Since various dogs will be at different stages of training, this class is a bit more free-style. Those who are ready to do off-lead work are permitted to do some off-lead work in the class - others must keep their dogs on lead. We work on perfecting the various obedience elements - better heeling position, quicker sits, sharper recalls and finishes. We also do run-thrus - similar to graduation - but not so formal. We also critique each other and our handling techniques. this seems to help everyone get better!



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