How much should I expect to pay for puppy classes ?? I have managed to track down a trainer who runs puppy classes and has experience of deaf dogs, the classes are £55 for 6 weeks - is this expensive ?? She appears to be a good trainer and she was recommended to me, she is a member of the APDT (is that right ??) and is also a behaviour person (sorry, words arent coming to me this morning - bad hangover ) I have spoken to her on the phone and she is really enthusiastic about training Lily and sounds really positive, im going to go along to the class this week to watch. Really I just want to know how much others pay for classes and whether £55 is reasonable ? Obviously as Lily is deaf we need to go to a trainer who understands her needs, and if this means paying above the odds that is what we will do :)

Claire :)

I paid £30 for 8 weeks lessons, but i wasnt happy there so nolonger go,

I pay £3 for a group session that is 2hrs and cup of tea and biscuit included. We do the k.c. good citizen awards and after brew time you can either do ring craft or further training ie send aways and retrieves. Good value me thinks!

Lesley

Thats brilliant!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Where are these classes held? My pup needs both training and ringcraft and i have to go seperate!

Lesley that is great,
as i said i paid £30 for 8 lessons that was only 1 hour lesson, no cup of tea, and when it was busy you never had much of a lesson,

I only pay a £1 at my ringcraft club, It even has a bar in it!!!!! :) It's great fun, we aren't showing our dog but we have learned so much and our dog is coming on a treat with her training, there is always someone there to offer v good advice!

Sarah

My classes are just of the m6 junction 27 Standish. The turn off for Camelot theme park.
The trainer is brilliant, has spent many years showing and doing obediance and her worst method of correction is a water pistol. She firmly believes in working with your dog should be a pleasure for both off you.
Lesley

Lesley - do you go to Rosemary's class at Writington (sp?)

Kate

AS in most things in life, you get what you pay for. If the trainer is a member of the APDT she will be using kind effective training methods.

Price is not the first criteria I would be looking at if I was really keen to train my dog .

trust me, price wasnt the first thing I looked at, in fact I only checked it as an after thought !! I think I said in my original post that price isnt an issue, I was just asking out of curiosity to see what others pay :) I have got this trainers name through a recommendation as I didnt feel the training methods of our local dog trainer were quite up to date :rolleyes: , it is going to be a 60 mile round trip to training classes - thats how keen I am to get the best for little Lily :)

Claire :)

I have paid £20 for a 10 week course, not sure if i am totally happy as the lady who teaches the class has puppy's in before the youth club and tends to keep them longer than she should which means that our time is cut short, she also tends to chat alot about what her freinds have done wrong and what they should do, so to cut it short i estimate that we prolly get about 20mins rather than 45 mins.
Will prolly try and find a better group when i get back from my hols, trouble is i have made some nice freinds there and my GSD has taken a particular liken to an American Bulldog (he is lovely)

Cordelia

THat's brilliant; unfortunately there are still too many "training" classes being run by incompetent dinosaurs who have little "real" experience with a wide variety of breeds and stomp around the hall shouting, using choke chains and bullying both dogs and owners. These people can do so much damage not only to dogs but owners who are put off going to training classes for life:( Major R Sole and Captain Dick Head are two that spring to mind :)

The worrying thing is this particular trainer in my town is a member of the APDT, so people are going to trust that she is good. Did you know to show a 8 week old staff puppy who is boss you have to constantly scruff it and pin it to the floor, and in order to get a GSD to obey your commands you slap it round the face a few times very Barbara Woodhouse :) The worst thing is I believe she is the only local trainer so people are going to go to her :rolleyes: she has been running for years I remember going to watch her training classes as a small child :)

Hi there

Not sure if i have you right, but please, if this is a member of the APDT, please please please report this!!! To the APDT.

John Fisher who founded the APDT would be turning in his grave if he knew. Don't be reticent about it for the sake of dogs and owners - this trainer should NOT be a member of this organisation. As with all organisations, there may be the odd bad apple, and for the sake of all the good apples ;) they must be weeded out.

Lindsay
X

Unfortunately the information i have is second hand, although very reliably second hand, but im not really in a position to report it. I will pass your message on though :)

Hi again :)

Yes, please do pass it on - i know one of the assessors for membership and she is very hot on members behaving accordign to the rules. Part of the trouble with assessment is that trainers applying for membership may "put on a show" rather than being genuinely themselves, which of course can make things difficult when assessing.

If this trainer is still recommending these methods, she needs to be "struck off" pronto!!!

Best wishes

Lindsay

ps. if you go to www.apdt.co.uk you can see their criteria for choosing a class, membership etc :)

LOL at tohme its all true ! Our class is run by volunteers who rely on their experience with dogs and use positive methods. The vet reccommends it. It costs £2 a week and is on going so people are starting the Beginners all the time. The drawback is its not KC registered as the organisers fear bureaucracy, no insurance ( this is made clear at the outset) and while the drop in has advantages of being accessible it can be distracting.

I found it good for socialising Morse, it helped me pick up the basics and there was a twisted comfort in seeing other people have difficulties and overcoming them.

I think the insurance situation is key here - insurance (public liability and professional indemnity) is unbelieavalby expensive - those who attend classes where there is no insurance must be taking a measured risk that there won't be an incident which may result in a large vets bill, or even worse injury to a human which means time off work........

Hello,
For our local puppy classes it cost us £3 a session (1 hour), we only stayed there until the dogs were about 6 months old because due to large numbers of dogs (about 20) we were getting hardly anything done.
Now we are going to ringcraft, our young dog is now really friendly and has met loads of non-agressive different breeds of dog and has also overcome her fear of men going over her. She's 18months old and we're still going there now, costs £1 and it is 1hour long.
Also going to a private obedience trainer who charges £15 an hour!
Char123

Its amazing how prices vary, but I think this is a case of you pay for what you get. The one I am looking into keeps puppy classes small - about 8 per class I think, so this is a bonus. I think I will go along this week and watch to see what it is like.

Thanks for all your replies

Claire :)

Our classes are £2 for 3/4 hour and an annual subscription of about £10 (can't remember) - for all levels. They were £1.50 until we persuaded them to put the price up :D We do the KCGC awards as well.

Daisy

Edited to say that sometimes the classes only have 4 in them - usually about 6-8

Not only is the instructor crucial in making a decision, but a good question to ask is how many in the class. If you have a couple of hours session with half a dozen dogs and a good instructor it is well worth £10 a week. A large class at a pound or two a week with a bad instructor can do more damage than not going to one at all IMO.

Sandra

ps Is there any chance of you going along to watch a class before you commit?

I think the big thing to consider is you may learn or be told certain procedures and then you MUST practice on your own.
I pay £1 for 1 and a half hours, i get shown different techniques (my dog gets to socialise too) then off i trot to concentrate on that till the next week. Very good value for money.

For over £10 a week i'd expect the instructor to take the dog home ;)

Sarah

I wonder if prices depend on which part of the country one is in, as well as insurance etc?

I have paid between £4 and £5 for one hour, and would expect to pay more for, for example, individual one to one training :)

Lindsay