So Tyler and I decided to enroll our crazy fur-child into puppy training classes at pet smart. Last week was orientation and we talked with the trainer for a good hour and a half, she is very awesome I must say. She was telling us about her 3 goldens she has, her boy she said is just wild no matter what she does and she said the vet diagnosed him with something like the equivalent to ADD. Which was Interesting to me because I didn't know dogs could get things like that. But anyways tonight was our first class and there are 5 dogs including sapphira. Three of them were rescues,bless there hearts =) the one rescue named parker was a German Sheppard mix, the biggest dog I've ever seen there had to be some mastiff or great Dane in his mix and to my surprise his owner was a very petite woman who looked to have the same weight of the dog.... Uhmm yeah he walked her she didn't walk him lol our trainer gave us clickers and I bought bil-jac training bites which sapphira just loves. She learned very quickly how to relate the treats and clicker :-D I'm so proud. So far we've learned sit and down. Now we're working on watch me. I'm amazed at how fast she's learning everything. Her downfalls are she didn't like any of the other dogs near me and she howled/woo-wooed alot. My questions for those of you who train and have had training are, are the bil-jacs good to use and how can I make her feel more comfortable around the other dogs besides stuffing treats down her throat every 5 seconds.
Thanks Ashley n Feara

If your PetSmart is like mine, be prepared to go through several different treats in the program. I started out with a mixture of treats that worked well for me at home -- I had been training for about 2 weeks on my own before we started class. Every class, our trainer uses different kinds in her pouch. Not sure if it is a way to sell new things or not. But one class she used Kodi to demo the next technique -- and after that he wouldn't even look at me. He turned his nose up at what used to be our high-value treats and only wanted what she had. I didn't mind trying something new, but if you do... I wouldn't hesitate to ask the trainer to use your treats when helping out Sapphira. They are usually very understanding.

As for the environment and the other dogs, here is what helped me. I trained Kodi with a lot of "quiet" and "calm" commands on my own at home. Since I work from home, it was important that I could keep Kodi quiet when I was on the phone for business. I put him into a down positon and then treat him after a while of calm & quiet. We did the clicker, which seemed to help... but we also use the "yes" marker they teach in class. Both seem effective for us. When class starts (after some brief socialization), I put him in a down and do the same -- treat for calm & quiet. Overall, he does pretty well. But he also does the typical Husky woo-woo. He loves the attention it gets him from everyone in the store. I have trained him with a loud snap (from my fingers) to be equivalent to "watch me" and that helps some times. Others, I just accept the fact that Huskys are known to be mouthy/loud dogs.

Pick you battles. The key is consistency. And no matter what, have fun! The more fun you have, the more fun Sapphira will have too!

wow thanks that was very helpful!
the trainer had the same treats we have and then she had some organic dried chicken and sweet potato jerky, she also had these little salmon treats and they smelled aweful lol yes i smelled them XD but really she only had 3 types of treats, but im sure the same treats will get old after a while so i suppose ill switch it up every now and then.

as for the environment there was alot to be distracted by, she kept paying attention to parker and oscar bc she wanted there treats to lol but she just got bored after she understood the command. when we came home we practiced and she did just fine, were just going to really have to work on the distraction part.

sapphira definately got everyones attention with her woo-woos and what not, i agree its really cute and she talks to me all the time at home but people kept encouraging her to bark. which is exactly what i dont want her to do, especially in public. id do one on one training but shew thats to expensive! lol plus i want her to get socialized with other dogs bc she was very badly traumatized as a pup and is scared of most dogs.

theres a long road ahead but im willing and patient with every step!