good trainer hard to find??

[Joslyn]

Man i did not think that trying to find a trainer would be such a difficult thing.
i live in Torrance calif. not to far from LAX
i have been searching on the internet and calling ppl listed in the phone book and i cant believe how scarce trainers are out here and the ones that are available seem "flaky" or outrageously expensive to me.. did anyone else have this much trouble finding a place for training..I want to enroll mindy in a puppy class she will get her 3rd shot on the 24th of this month so i wanted to be ready to roll.. however iam at a huge stand still
does anyone on this forum live in the L.A. area and could recommend a good puppy class or training academy... ANY AND ALL IDEAS ARE MORE THAN WELCOME. hope you can help thanks
jos

[moondog]

Joslyn - Have you asked your vet for a recommendation? Here's a link to Rottweiler Clubs in California - one is right in Torrance. The list is all of California so you'll need to weed some out, but there's plenty to contact!

http://www.members.tripod.com/~rotth...htm#california

Hope that helps! :)

[Joslyn]

oh god thanks alot moondog.... i will go check it out right now... weeding it out...LOL i can handle that i feel like i have already been weeding things out for weeks..LOL and i thought about asking my vet.. i likely will.. but to be honest since he so highly recommended science diet i was kinda affraid to ask.. omg that sounds terrible!!!!! anyways thanks so much
jos

[moondog]

Hopefully his taste in trainers is better than his taste in dog food, huh? Give it a shot - :D

[Joslyn]

roflmaooooo yeah lets hope..
thanks for the link the only one that is remotely close to me is the torrance one.. but 1 is wayyyyyyyyyyyy better than none... so thank you again :)
and for anyone else reading.. if anyone else knows of any please pass them along...
moondog iam going off line iam gonna call them right now..
see yah in a few.. jos

[cinde33]

I have the same problem too. The last one we went to, the trainer had a lecture on biting. (She immediately looks at us, 1 of 2 rotties in the class.) So she goes on about aggressive dogs, blah, blah, balh, but offers no real solution on WHAT to do if your dog displays agressive and biting behavior. (Hmmm.) She asked the class, has your puppy ever bitten you? (YES!) And then went off on another topic!

The next class Maximus was craaaanky! And he tried to bite me. Embarrassing to say the least. I had to get on top of him to calm him down. She looked away and didn't address it, and I looked like savage owner trying to control my dog.

So I recently had a very delayed epifiny (sp?) and called my behavioralist, sure enough he had plenty of recommendations!

Let us know if you find anything, maybe we can offer other suggestions,

Cinde

[moondog]

When you go to class full of anxiety over the trainer's approach, it has to affect the result. None of our stress gets by our dogs. I wasn't crazy about the trainer in Luna's classes, either - although we did get alot of good stuff out of it. The one thing he did that REALLY bothered me was to have everyone go to the curb, send your dog (on lead) off the curb into the street and then yank them back as hard as you could.....to teach them to stay out of the street. Well, that makes no sense to me - we were SENDING them off the curb and then PUNISHING them for complying! I can't justify correcting a dog for doing something I ASKED for no matter how noble the cause. That just erodes the relationship. Needless to say, I didn't go back for another class with him. I do, however, have Luna sit and wait a moment EVERY single time we come to a street corner....the purpose of his lesson was worthy, it's just the method that sucked.

Rottie's are very special critters and I think they need very special consideration......in finding a class my first direction would be to contact Rottie people - Rottweiler Clubs and Rottweiler Breeders - for recommendations.....go to the horse's mouth, so to speak. ;) They don't necessarily need to be located in your neighborhood.....I'd start local and widen the search - someone even 300 miles away very well might know an excellent trainer that works right where you live! :)

Epiphany! :D

[Joslyn]

well i hit a brick wall... :(
moondog i used the link that you gave me which was great only problem is that the only one that was even close to me (torrance) i contacted kathy lelea this morning at the american rottweiler klub only to find out that it no longer exists the club shut down a few years ogo which totally sucks so iam back where i started from.. iam beginning to think i wont find anything and will have to go it alone... if thats the case i will rely heavily on the feed back that i get here.. thank god for this forum... anyways thanks for trying..
jos

[moondog]

As far as I know, the Pacific Coast Rottweiler Club in Agoura is still there and only 30 miles from you. C'mon, don't give up so easy! ;)

[CaptainBill]

Do you have a Petsmart near you? The local Humane Society, your breeder, or the rescue where you got your pup, these would all be good sources to find a puppy class. Hopefuly by this time you've already been giving some basic commands on you own. A good book on training wouldn't hurt either. Sometimes it's better to have more then one way available to train cause our pups can be pretty stubborn at times and using a different approach can sometimes get through to them when the way the trainer suggested doesn't.