we all know dog parks are bad, what about puppy classes??
 

paid $100/pup to go to a puppy class, trying to do all the right things. i know my pups are a little bit wild, i mentioned this to the trainer running it, she asked me if they have been socialised, :confused::confused: it's a puppy class???

after 30 minutes of listening all about products to buy for the pup and how all our pups should be on science diet becuase it is the best and then a lecture on why we should book our pups in for spay neueter like right now before we leave that day??? i said i had concerns about chronic incontinence spaying a 8/10wo pup, bad question to ask - i am causing my dog cancer by not spaying her at 10 weeks???

anyhoo when we finally got thru the product sell we were to let our puppies meet each other after they had all been tethered to our seats and gone thru the whole curiosity phase and were now all asleep from boredom - the deal was we all stand there with hands in pockets let the pups all loose and under no circumstances are we to pick up or pet or acknowledge any pup no matter what happens in order for them to gain confidence and not rely on the owner for comfort protection etc.

i did not think was a good idea knowing my pups - it went bad as my pups are like wolf-cubs, snarly gaurding horrible little things and the other pups were all gsd's, my pups have been around a large male gsd from since when they were born and are all over him playing tug, wrestling etc every day. the other pups had never seen another dog since they were taken from their litters from 5 - 8weeks old.

i could not stand what i was seeing so i picked my pups up and removed them and threw them in the truck - the trainer in the middle of it was just yelling "we need some calming energy....don't pick up yr pups...." over and over, what a mess.

i am sure some pups just developed some serious issues they will have permanetly imprinted on them.

is this normal for puppy classes?? should i have put my hands in my pockets and just let my pups traumatise and cruel other people's puppies??

My puppy class I go to has us ignore spats between the young pups too, but none get super intense, sometimes some get too bitey and another dog will yelp and that is all the correction they needed. If yours are being too mean I think it's understandable what you did, but I do think they will NOT learn how to play gently until you let them roughhouse and make mistakes upsetting other puppies and realizing too rough ends the game, and it's better to do that while young. If you continue to pull them away from dogs while young it will make it much worse when they're larger

I dont like the sound of the other aspects of your class though, also if you were concerned about your puppies being too rough the trainer shouldnt say "no matter what happens dont interfere" they should address your concerns and offer constructive help, maybe a different kind of socializing for your guys

To be honest, I think the first red flag was the class instructor letting one person bring two puppies to the same class.

Not all puppy classes are created equally. Puppy classes are, generally speaking, a good idea. But your class in particular does not sound like the best example. Rather than decide they are all bad news, try a different class with a better instructor.
Sheilah

my 2 cents on puppy socialization, they dont need it, it really does not do alot from my point of view, others will say it gets them used to greeting other dogs, I would rather train them to ignore other dogs, less problems, best way I can put it is how many people in your life time have you encountered that you instantly did not like? dogs would be the same, except hackles would go up, teeth shown, barking and growling, lunging, having trained both ways, i`m a firm believer now in training to ignore them, I can and have walked anyone of my 3 past a growling snarling dog, and no reaction from any of mine , but like I said, this is my experience

Well...the part about the food and spay/neuter has never happened to me. All of my trainers either feed really high end kibble or raw. They also wait to spay/neuter if at all. In the puppy class, my puppy was allowed to play at the end of the class, it was 5 minutes. My puppy was 13 weeks at the time and there was only one other other puppy that was like 6 months and GSD mix. My puppy did well with that puppy and held her own quite nicely. I think if there were smaller pups in the class I might have had the same problem, because GSD's play rough right out of the womb...I think:)

Oh and it might be a good idea to take your pups separately so they don't feed off of each other and gang up on other dogs.

most gov agencies and vets think science diet IS the highest end kibble you can get??

like the idea of taking one pup at a time, it is a 4 week course for $100/per pup that is two sessions ....just sayin. good idea tho

i have always found gsd pups to be the most timid and needy??? my new pups are not gsd's.

I think there are lots of vets out there that think that, but I have never ran into it. They are happy with my dogs eating Fromm and recommended I didn't switch the food. I know the training is expensive, but unless you belong to some kind of club that gives discounts I don't know if it will ever get much cheaper. What kind of pups are your new ones?

I think the window of socialization closes just as puppies get to start classes. I think they're a good idea for teaching people how to start training their puppies, and I think Ken is right about teaching them to ignore other dogs.

Personally it doesn't sound to me at all like a puppy class I would EVER want to take, and definitely not the way the puppy "kindergarten" I took mine to was run. We were definitely careful to match pups together and only if they seemed ok to introduce more, depending on age, and the instructors didn't even go into food or speutering. It was about teaching focus and starting basic things.

annoying ones....jk.

let me get some vids up to show you.