Anyone have any experience with professional dog training services in Houston or surrounding areas? We recently adopted a 1 year old Lab Mix that needs some more training to survive in our home. He's crate trained, and house broken but doesn't come or stay on command. He does walk well on a leash until he sees other dogs and then he just wants to go play. He doesn't have an aggressive bone in his body and doesn't jump or have any other real bad habits. I'm considering sending him to Shelmar Kennels in Katy. Anyone have any experience with them or anyone else? Thanks
I've taken (3) dogs to Man's Best Friend, and they are the most obedient and well-trained dogs you'll ever meet.
I got the Obedience with Life Time training for my Pitbull and Min-Pin. I got the Obedience & Protection with Life Time training for my German Shepard/Rottweiler. As of 8 months ago, Obedience was $1100. It is worth every penny though, as my Pit never takes her eyes off me and I can call her to me in the middle of a crowd.
I don't live in Houston but from my experience, whatever you do, don't try PetSmart dog training classes which are waste of time and money. Our five-and-half-month-old female golden retriever has all the problems your lab mix has PLUS all the aggressive behavioral problems you said you dog doesn't have. We got her from a breeder when she was 7 and half weeks old and took her to a PetSmart puppy class at around 12 weeks for 8 x 1hour/week training. Needless to say the results were very unsatisfactory. Recently we accidentally found a local non-profit organization that is specialized in assistant dog training. Before I committed to enroll our puppy into their Basic Obedience class I went there in person to see how they were doing. I came back very impressed. We started our first class last Saturday. I would suggest you go the place of your choice to observe and experience their training session to see if you like it before you decide. While the fee for our training class is fairly minimum ($75 for 7 1hr/wk classes), yours is quite expensive. Another thing is that you seem to be content to have others (the professionals, of course) to train your dog full time. It sure would be effortless on your part, but wouldn't it also be less fun if you miss all the joys of witnessing your pet dog to grow and learn to obey you? They say dog training is first and foremost dog owner training. I couldn't agree more.
waterdog by richard wolters - every lab owner should read this. its geared for hunting dogs, but the things he talks about apply to non-hunting dogs too. its as much about training the dog as training yourself - helps you to think like a dog and realize what we inadvertently do that confuses them. dogs need consistency from their owner - feeding time, walk time, discipline. fortunately, at 1 year old your dog is still young enough to be "broken", so to speak. if you are willing to spend some time working with him i think its better to train him yourself - its YOUR dog, right? he needs to know who the boss is. i got my labrador retriever at 2 months old and my brother in law, who duck hunts w/ his lab gave me this book. read it and trained him myself based off it. like the title says, it is a very "rapid" training method - not as difficult as you might think. i never use a leash for my dog - he is 100% obedient to voice commands. sits and lays down when i tell him too. never tears stuff up or goes to the bathroom in the house. goes on family trips and goes camping whenever i go. he really never does anything wrong. i honestly think this book was key in getting him to be such a good dog.
I'm going to pick up a copy of this book and read it. I already work with the dog daily but I was thinking of getting professional help to streamline the whole process. Thanks for the suggestions.
Thanks for the tip! We got a Lab pup about two months ago, but I haven't had the time to work with him yet due to an insanely busy remodeling schedule, so he's been either in the kennel or yard because he's so hyper. I grew up with labs so I know what they are all about. I just haven't had time until this month to work with him. I really wanted to train him myself because I feel like it will be an enriching experience for both of us. I'm going to get this book today! Thanks again!
Houston SPCA Training & Behavior classes. $100 for the 6 week course (1 hour each week). $85 if your dog happens to be adopted from there. Sounds like Basic Training Level One is what you're looking for. http://www.spcahouston.org/SPCAHouston/Obedience_Classes1.asp?SnID=1899486050
I've got the worksheets to the Bark Busters (www.barkbusters.com) program I can email you. I paid $600 for 2 trainers to come out to my house and train my dogs, but they only came out for 1 day and basically went through some exercises on how to train the dogs ourselves. We didn't do as much as we should have, but we did see a big difference in the dogs behavior. Let me know.
train it yourself. another good book is How to be your dogs best friend (or something like that). Its written by these monks in NY that raise German Shepherds.