Blue Springs 'n Katydid

Wednesday conformation class: 5 stars She’s friendly, helpful, extremely patient, provides good ramp practice Saturday obedience: 3 stars There is quite a bit of sitting and listening in the beginning and I’m like my puppy and had a hard time with that. The acoustics aren’t good in the room but they did get a microphone so it became better halfway through. I’ve taken classes from here years ago and it is instructor dependent. I would come back and try something more advanced later but the early beginner class for 5 month and older is probably more for 8 month and older. My 6 month was the youngest and just wasn’t at the mentality level but we did learn somethings to continue at home. You can’t make up classes even though there’s usually 2 different times a week and they did change the schedule to go a week later for being closed for an event which we were aware of the week prior. Scent work: 2 stars. I’m very frustrated with this class. About a year into it and I don’t feel ready for a trial. I feel like we’re yelled at and not learning how to read our dog or how to fix anything. The room is very worn/dirty and full of distractions which it’s hard to teach when I’m not confident in a room without distractions. I’ve talked to students that have moved on and they say I’m missing out on hides that are on walls, up high and plus being in a more laid back environment so you’re less stressed. She continues to keep the people into paying for sessions in blocks of 6 without knowing what’s needed to go into drop in classes.

Negative/Forced Base Training Used Here. Bad experience in the puppy training class. They used negative reinforcement, specifically physical force to force my 6 month old puppy into a sit even when she was resisting the trainer's use of force. One of the trainers, Nancy Scott, was trying to physically force her into a sit even though my 6 month old puppy was resisting her pushing into her back and my puppy yelped in pain while she was doing this. I told her to stop, and she ignored what I said, and kept pushing her into the ground while she was resisting her. She later gaslight me in front of the class and other trainer saying it was because her collar was too tight that she yelped in pain, but she wasn't even wearing a collar; her harness was fit appropriately which I double checked after she said that, but she still blew off what I said claiming it was because her collar was too tight. It was clear she yelped in pain as a result of the trainer's use of physical force since she yelped the moment she was resisting the trainer's push, and was trying to run and get away from the trainer. The trainer was also scolding my puppy yelling at her to "stop" several times during this scene. I would not go here unless you are ok using negative reinforcement and physical force to train your dog; the American Veterinary Society of Animal Behavior recommends to not use any type of force for training a dog let alone a 6 month old puppy. They also use outdated training methods where their view is that you need to use a collar over a harness to control your dog; there is no empirical evidence suggesting that you can't train a dog with a harness using positive reinforcement.