Once in a while, I have a person inquiring about our group obedience classes and requesting to go straight to Advanced obedience because they have taken a class at a pet store.
I used to engage in lengthy educational conversations that boiled down to one single point: pet store classes are an insufficient equivalent to our introductory obedience course. At some point, I gave up and refused to register people who have taken up pet store classes to Level 2 level and above, period. This proved to be an efficient solution, but I feel like my position needs some elaboration.
I have started training dogs almost twenty years ago. I have seen many training styles, many dog sports, many trainers. As a teenager, I even worked at a pet store which offered dog training classes. I did not teach them but witnessed enough to conclude that the designation such as “puppy play dates” or “dog owner meet-up” would have described their practices much better than the term “training.”
Their way of training was to carry a treat in a pocket and a spray water bottle in hand. They encouraged people to shove the treat into their dog’s face every time they needed something from them. When the dog did something undesirable, the owner had to spray into its face from the bottle. If the dog did not want a treat but preferred that other puppy over there, the solution was to shove the treat into their mouth harder. If one spray in the face did not take the desired effect, they needed to spray more.
Now, I realize that not all pet stores operate according to this specific training philosophy. Yet, I have seen enough graduates from pet store courses to conclude: whatever they teach in their courses does not work. Not even a little. Moreover, their teaching methods lead to disastrous results when these methods are applied to high-energy dogs who have working potential in them.
And I am not even talking about Dobermanns and German Shepherds. I had a field-bred Lab who came to me as a rehabilitation project after going through several pet store courses. This dog had learned that harassing its owners for treats was acceptable, and that lunging on leash was fun because it resulted in a cool game called “snatch the water bottle from your person’s hand.”
I had a spunky Yorkie who learned that biting its owner every time they demanded something from this dog was okay, because pet store classes told this owner that all they need to do is have treats of higher value so that the dog behaves better in order to get treats. The problem was that they could not find treats valuable enough to stop this behaviour.
It went the opposite way, too. I once had a Doberman who developed a fear of spray bottles so bad that it froze, tucked its tail, and submissively urinated every time he saw any person carrying something that resembled a bottle in their hand.
I am saying all these things not because I want to banish pet stores and their programs. They might be good for puppy meetups and for making new friends. However, speaking from my experience, these programs do not teach half of the skills that we cover in our Introductory course. This, ultimately, means that a person who had taken classes at a pet store cannot join higher obedience level without feeling terribly behind in their training.
With that being said, I do not care where a person had taken their obedience classes prior to coming to AK9. It does not matter to me insofar as they can demonstrate the skills necessary to keep up with their level.
The thing is, in the twenty years I have been training, I have never witnessed pet stores delivering this same level of training, so my reaction to “I took classes at bla-bla pet store” is always the same—I treat those individuals as complete newbies.
This post might ruffle feathers and raise questions, especially from those who do not have much experience with dog training. It is okay if it does.
I stand behind my words.
Pet store classes do not deliver feasible results. They do not prepare you for real-life situations. They give you unrealistic solutions to your very real problems. It is okay if you took them, no judgement, we can still be friends.
However, claiming that these classes gave you a foundation sufficient to continue at higher levels of obedience is like claiming that an eggplant is the same as an oak tree, because both are, technically, plants.