Two slots left!

My spring obedience class is filling up fast. At this writing, I have just two slots left before I’ll have to close registration. If you’re on the fence about training but aren’t sure whether it will work for your dog, ask yourself two questions:

1. Am I willing to spend one week with my dog tethered to my belt whenever I’m awake and in the house?
2. Am I willing to spend 15 minutes a day working with my dog?

If the answer to both questions is “yes,” do yourself a favor and sign up for the spring class.

Here are some common myths about training:

MYTH 1: My dog is too old to learn. Dogs are never too old to learn. I started training Dashy when she was 9. Last summer, she joined us on a cross-country road trip, charming everybody she met by performing a series of commands: sit, stay, down, up, mine, gimme four, jump, hind, spin, and probably some others I’ve forgotten.

MYTH 2: My dog is too stubborn to learn. People love to tell me that their dogs are so extraordinarily hardheaded that I’ll never get through to them. True story: Twenty-four years ago, the man who taught me to train dogs — a retired USAF K9 handler — stood in the middle of class, pointed at my late rat terrier, and said: “I have trained over 10,000 dogs, and pound for pound, that is the toughest little dog I have ever seen.” Your dog is not more stubborn than Scout was. I trained her. You can train your dog. You just need to know what you’re doing.

MYTH 3: My dog is too reactive for a group class. Whoever told you that needs to stop pretending to be a dog trainer. A group class is the best place to train a reactive dog, because it forces them to work amid distractions. If there’s a genuine safety issue, I might ask you to muzzle your dog, but that’s it. Reactivity is almost always caused by fear and/or poor socialization, and a group class is the ideal place to address those issues.

MYTH 4: My dog can’t take an obedience class because he has a disability. Dogs are remarkably resilient, and I have experience accommodating a variety of disabilities, so unless your dog’s condition severely compromises his mobility or cognitive function, he can probably handle obedience class just fine. If you’re not sure, let’s talk.

MYTH 5: I can’t afford training. My upcoming group class is free if you adopted your dog from a local shelter and $50 if you didn’t. That’s not $50 a week; that’s $50 for the entire six-week class. If you don’t have $50, hit me up. I have never turned anyone away for inability to pay. That would go against my whole mission.