The Dog Training Classes We Take
On Friday, Mary over at Cowgirl by Proxy wondered about the dog training classes we take. I wrote a long, detailed response in the comments, which promptly got eaten by my blog software. I’ll do my best to recreate those thoughts here. For several years now, we have trained exclusively with Gigi Moss in Boulder, CO, who is the ONLY dog trainer who did not give up on us because of Lilly’s fears. We are very loyal clients and would be completely lost without her support, wisdom, and patience.
She calls the class we take level two. She also offers puppy kindergarten, level one classes, special Feisty Fido classes, and special small-dog classes, as well as loads of private consults each week. She is very busy.
I typically refer to the class we take as an Advanced Pet Dog Training Class to distinguish it in others’ minds from competitive obedience classes. The vast majority of our dogs friends are active in training do agility, herding, and other competitive dog sports. Lilly and I are like the little sisters who cannot keep up.
I didn’t used to get caught up in the semantics of calling it “obedience” training or referring to “commands,” but lately I purposefully choose not to use those words. They lean too much in the wrong direction (aka sound dominance-based).
So, just to be clear: I do not train Lilly to be obedient. I train her so that she can cope better in the world. I do not give her commands. I ask for behaviors or cue them. There are no corrections, only reinforcement for the behaviors we seek.
Class Format
Gigi offers the one-hour classes we take twice a week in a variety of public locations. Sometimes, we’re at parks, with or without dog parks. Sometimes, we’re in more open-space parks with hiking trails. Sometimes, we’re in outdoor malls or shopping districts, where many stores allow dogs inside.
It’s a drop-in class, so we can go anytime our schedule opens up.
Class Content
Because dogs go so many places in Boulder and because the parks and trail systems often allow specially licensed dogs off leash, we typically work on good manners in a variety of challenging situations:
- Concrete trails with runners, bikers, skateboarders, and strollers
- Single track or wildland trails with loads of hikers, mountain bikers, loose dogs, and wildlife
- More urban-like areas with car and pedestrian traffic, stairs, music, etc.
Lilly already knows things we train in class really well — loose leash walking (not quite heel, but not going wild either), leave it, whoa/wait, off trail, sits, downs, stays, etc. These classes simply give her practice doing it in tougher locations, including working around other dogs, noisy places and such.
When we first started taking these classes, Gigi’s intern referred to Lilly as “The Ringer” because she knew everything already.
Class Cost
We pay $90 for 7 classes, then simply keep track of how many we’ve used so that we can pay Gigi for another set of classes when it’s time. It’s actually $90 for 6 classes, with one free, but it’s all the same to me. About $12.85 per class.
We used to take one class per week, but our behaviorist asked me to skip class while we were doing serious behavior modification work last summer and fall. We had being going just once a month for a while, but then I got super busy with work and family obligations. I’d like to get back into a routine, where we go a couple times a month.
Class Benefits
I only wish we’d found Gigi when Lilly first came home. I think our lives would be pretty different, if she’d done her puppy work and initial training with Gigi. Maybe I’m kidding myself. The genetic and other predisposition factors (sickly & deprived puppyhood) were already in place when we adopted Lilly at six months old.
Still, we train with some families whose dogs have been with Gigi since they were tiny, and these dogs are spectacular. That’s why we enjoy training with them so much. They don’t scare Lilly because they are predictable and can usually be turned on a dime, if necessary to keep Lilly from flipping out.
There is a core group of longtime students who continue to train their adult dogs regularly with Gigi. Those two big dogs from Friday’s photos are some of them. It’s really nice to know exactly what the other dogs in class can and cannot do. It’s easier for me to manage Lilly’s fears that way.
There is also a constantly changing cast of characters as some families finish level one classes and join the level two class. A few of these families come regularly for a while, then disappear. Typically, these dogs are in the prime of big puppyhood or adolescence, so they can be wildcards. We usually stay a bit farther away from them until they learn better self control.
I was going to mention and link to other dog bloggers we know through Gigi, but I’ll let them speak up, if they’d like. Suffice it to say that the core group, as a whole, is made up of great people with amazing dogs.
Travel Distance and Time
For us, picking a dog trainer isn’t like finding the nearest dry cleaner. All are NOT created equal, and we’ve found that trainers who are good at marketing themselves are often quite bad at the work itself. After some early mistakes with not-good trainers, we found Gigi. So, even though it’s usually an hour’s drive each way to class — a three-hour minimum commitment — it’s worth it to us to work with a trainer and classmates we like and trust.