Ask Professor Boo is our recurring, positive reinforcement dog training and behavior question and answer column. If you have a question that you would like to ask Professor Boo, please feel free to contact him.
[dropcap]Q[/dropcap]: What’s so important about training classes???
[dropcap]A[/dropcap]: I have mentioned in previous posts that dogs don’t generalize well. I think there may have also been some mention about socialization being very important with both people and dogs even if you have many people and dogs in your home. We also know that when we teach our dogs we are building a communication system that allows us to prevent some behavioral issues that might crop up later in your dog’s life.
Classes allow us to do a little of all of this –
While…
Teaching good behaviors and manners
You…
Build good communication skills between you and your dog
Which Can…
Prevent a good chunk of behavioral problems
And…
Socialize your dogs to other people and other dogs
So you can…
Help your dog to generalize behaviors to a variety of places
And in the end…
Your dog is happier, you are happier, and life is Good!
In short, while classes may not seem like a good idea in times of economic troubles they are usually the most cost-effective way to a happy doggie household since prevention is much cheaper than damage control.
Take a look at the upcoming classes and see if you and your dog might fit into one of these!