Originally Posted By: Snoopy's DadI have found a place that does training that is not based on treats or collars. It is all about praise and such. I want him to sit, stay, lay down, and come on command. Stop barking on command would be nice to.
Personally I would stay away from any club, class or trainer that relies purely on praise.
A good trainer knows that what motivates a dog most will differ from dog to dog. Daisy would give me the doggy equivalent of the rude finger if I asked her to work purely for praise, I would be an idiot not to use food when training her as she is incredibly food driven.
Some dogs aren't interested in toys or food and love praise, and in those instances, by all means you should reward and motivate with praise. If a dog is food driven, use food. If the dog is prey driven use toys. You want to set your dog up to win, not to fail.
I would stay away from any trainer who restricts themselves to one method only, as no one method works for all dogs. You want to find a trainer who is qualified, reputable and experienced in using a variety of methods and is very balanced in their approach to training dogs.
The other thing to remember is that going to dog training classes should be more about training YOU than training the dog. In most instances, classes teach you how to handle your dog in basic obedience. They teach you how to teach your dog and you should implement what they teach you when you do training at home each day.
I actually use my obedience club as distraction training - I do training myself at home or one on one with my trainer and when my dog is ready for the level of distraction that training at obedience club presents, we go along to a class.
Classes aren't really for teaching you how to solve behaviourial problems - in your case I would invest in some one on one sessions with a reputable trainer/behaviourist before considering doing any more classes. Once your pup's behaviour has improved then you can put him back in a class situation.
Our club teaches the basics for trialling so we cover things like formal heelwork, sit/stays, down/stays, stand for examination, recall work, off leash work, as well as working under a fairly high level of distraction i.e. weaving inbetween other dogs whilst keeping your dog at heel, figures eights, group stays etc. I started class there with Daisy when she was about 5-6 months old although we have done training with her since we got her at eight weeks. How quickly she picks up on things depends on the complexity and difficulty of the command. Also, it depends on how much distraction work we've done - even a simple command could be difficult to proof under high levels of distraction.
How well training works depends of course on the quality of the trainer and how well they teach you how to handle your dog, but most of all it relies on the effort and work you put in outside of class.