Houston Obedience Training (HOT) Dog Club

The facility has everything you might need-- except space. It's a TINY venue. My dog and I have been coming for conformation classes and even our small classes fill up parking-- and I hope your dog is good with other dogs in his face. I can't imagine how competitions hosted here go, BUT they've been doing it for years so they must have some method. Also... what the heck is going on with this mirror? 😆 Impossible to use it to check my dog's position, but pretty good for a laugh.

I attended a puppy class where the instructor asked us to hold our dogs up under their armpits and away from our bodies, like you would pick up a child. The exercise was to get them to relax in that position; when my puppy got too wiggly I put him down. At that point, the instructor stepped in to demonstrate and my pup again got wiggly, whiny and eventually mouthed at her arms. The instructor continued to hold him in that position, even though he was clearly communicating discomfort by yelping and mouthing at her to let go. When she bent down towards the ground, he was still trying to get out of her grip and mouthed towards her face. She roughly grabbed him by the mouth, shoved him to the ground and yelled at him to not bite while she held the inside of his mouth with her hand and he screamed and yelped. At this point I was in shock and told her to stop and that it wasn't ok to do that. She justified this behavior saying that it teaches him that the human is in charge. She denied teaching dominance/alpha style training, but reiterated that this teaches the dog that the human is in charge and can be trusted. I responded that she was a stranger to my dog, and that there was no trust established between them and that it was not effective. This isn't my first dog or first puppy, and my breed is considered a primitive breed, which requires gentler approach and a true partnership in training. Her method was inappropriately rough, and I am withdrawing from the class and requesting a refund. If you have a docile, people-pleasing dog like a lab this method might work, but if you have an independent breed do not come here.