Anyone Ever use PetCo Puppy Training?

FerraioloMiller

I work with my 4 month old puppy on training every day and he is an excellent dog.  I recently spoke with a dog trainer at PetCo and he seemed very enthusiastic about training and got me interested.  Has anyone ever done it before?  Positive or negative reviews welcome!! Thanks in advance everyone 

aaf10

Take this with a grain of salt. Before we went with Petco for our first puppy class, I googled and got mixed reviews though there were more positives than negatives. So we went with them because they were close to our house and their hours worked with our schedules. Our trainer read through her manual every single day all the time. She clearly has not been doing this a long time. There were good things about her but I just thought we did not get what we paid for. For the next level we went with the local Kennel Club and our experience was 10X better (and the class was actually cheaper, though the site was much further away), we learned so much more and you can tell that the years upon years of experience made a lot of difference. Their training was geared with the thought of eventually getting the CGC exam.

I guess what I am saying is it may depend your local Petco so if you know anyone who went there that may be the best way to find out. They do their training in the store so if you know when classes are you can always stop by and see. I kinda with I did that.  

J+R

We didn't do PetCo, but did PetsMart...

I really really liked the trainer at PetsMart, but I wish it would have been more in depth. We spent a lot of time chatting, etc. instead of actual training. For the $$ we spent, although my pup learned - when he was at home - he didnt really follow the training, at class - he was a rockstar. 

 

For our second pup, we did a private trainer (with about 8 other pups - not a 1:1) and she did great too... It also eventually ended up being cheaper. 

Shadow2641

I don't believe my local PetCo has puppy training, but we did do PetsMart for our dog when she was puppy. She did awesome and I really enjoyed the information gained. Our trainer was awesome and very thorough, our dog followed all the rules and she came home and followed through at home too. I recommend my trainer to anyone who asks. But we have thought about bringing her to private training for more advanced work, especially now that she is older. [&]

hboo2011

Ok I have worked at Petsmart and taken both dogs to a Petsmartclass, so I'll give my opinion based on assuming they'd be similar. It was 'ok'. I agree, there seemed to be a little more playtime/talking than formal training, but to start out, you may really like the socialization w a young pup. I would recommed the big chain stores as a starter. Like a PP said, we too, ended up taking our dogs to a formal AKC certified trainer after Petsmart and you could def notice a difference. More formal, no play time, and the space itself was bigger. (big chains, like Petco, have small areas in the store, trainingtakes place during store hours. My dogs have ADD, and would get way too distracted by passerbys. So we liked the AKC training setting more bc it was a private boarding facility that had a big open warehouse for training. You'll find a bigger variety of training times available at petco. Inall, it's completely fine to start. Get the pup in any training class asap. If you wish to procees further than basic training and socializtion, you may want to look elsewhere after.

Jessy336

My husband & I just finished puppy class at Petsmart.  We met the trainer ahead of time, and he was definitely enthusiastic about working with our puppy.  We had already been working on some commands at home, but found the class informational.  The other places in our area are very expensive, so Petsmart was definitely the most economical option.  Our class only had 2 other puppies, and one week we were the only ones there, so we got lots of attention.  

 We found it great for socializing our puppy, but it was definitely a lot of talking with some playtime for the pups.  I thought it was a good introductory class, and gave some good information.   

RedheadBaker

hboo2011:

Ok I have worked at Petsmart and taken both dogs to a Petsmartclass, so I'll give my opinion based on assuming they'd be similar. It was 'ok'. I agree, there seemed to be a little more playtime/talking than formal training, but to start out, you may really like the socialization w a young pup. I would recommed the big chain stores as a starter. Like a PP said, we too, ended up taking our dogs to a formal AKC certified trainer after Petsmart and you could def notice a difference. More formal, no play time, and the space itself was bigger. (big chains, like Petco, have small areas in the store, trainingtakes place during store hours. My dogs have ADD, and would get way too distracted by passerbys. So we liked the AKC training setting more bc it was a private boarding facility that had a big open warehouse for training. You'll find a bigger variety of training times available at petco. Inall, it's completely fine to start. Get the pup in any training class asap. If you wish to procees further than basic training and socializtion, you may want to look elsewhere after.

The AKC doesn't certify dog trainers. Are you sure the trainer didn't have "APDT" after their name?  

Meagan0528

We used it for our Golden.  He loved it and did very well with the program.  His trainer was a very sweet guy and was very dedicated to what he was doing.  I think that makes all the difference.  

nital

I thought you were an experienced dog owner who knew about training?