better to enroll her in class or train from home? - Page 1

Howdy everyone! I'm getting a 7 week old working prospect GSD puppy who will be trained in IPO sport and Conformation. My game plan is to work on basic obedience (come, sit, down, attention, and name) and drive work (biting with a rag and ball) right away from home and attend Handling class (stack and gaiting) once a week. When the puppy is 10 weeks old she will start Tracking from home, and when 4 months (15/16 weeks) will begin attending regular IPO classes (which will cover Obed, Protection, and Tracking). Intermittently she will be socialized with walks/visits to parks, downtown, traffic etc etc.

Naturally I want to get the most out of her and make sure she is a well rounded puppy. I've trained dogs on my own before and am currently training our cat (who can now sit and beg) so I'm not new to training. However, I've been wondering if it would be best to enroll her in an obedience class (normal pet obed class) if only for the extra socialization aspect, or if having her in an obedience class will inhibit all the drive/bite work since its not designed for sport. Is it worthwhile to enroll her if I am capable of training her at home? Would it be better or worse? Or will it not matter at all?

Like I said, she will be attending a handling class (that has lots of people/dogs I know personally as well as interesting distractions like mirrors and obstacles) and will be socialized on the side so I dont want that to be a deciding factor. I'm just curious if other people have enrolled working puppies in normal obedience classes (when I say normal I mean not designed for sport) and how that experience went for them. Any opinions/experiences appreciated. THANKS!

I think an obedience class is probably unnecessary and potentially counter-productive.  You'd probably be doing better to start working with a club.

Just out of curiousity, why is the breeder letting the pup go at 7 weeks rather than the more customary 8?

Howdy and thanks for the input! Also sorry if I ramble, I tend to do that.

I was thinking about starting with the club right away, but after looking around and speaking with other owners and the trainer, the popular age to begin group/class work and serious training seems to be closer to 3 or 4 months old. A lot of people have been advising me to just concentrate on foundation work while she is young and then get into more serious work when she is a little older. I do plan on visiting the club a few times a month just to get some good advice and get her paws wet so-to-speak, but like I said most people advise to hold off on more serious club work til she's older. I dont have a problem with that though, mostly because I'm not planning on her being a serious top competator. I'm in no rush.

For the 8 week thing it was up in the air for a while actually. The breeder wanted to see when they would be ready (via puppy development, mothers involvement, and his knowledge of his own dogs) and we didnt know for a while. I spoke with him again yesterday and he feels that they will be ready a couple days shy of 8 weeks. I was also nervous about taking her that early, but he's confident in my abilities (we've known each other for a couple years) and I took a look around at other breeders and working people, and a surprising amount of people I spoke with took puppies home between 6 and 7 weeks for working. Even a couple Lab breeders who use their dogs primarilly for hunting will let puppies go that early. After speaking with all these people I'm not too worried about the age. And its only 3 days shy of 8 weeks too. But thanks for your concern!