Investing in a happy dog
By Melanie Chambers • Bankrate.com

He would bark constantly, chew the furniture and never come when called. Then, he got rejected from a dog kennel for bad behavior. Shepherd-husky mix Jake was a menace to himself and was costing his owners their money and their sanity.

"He's destroyed so much valuable stuff," says Patty Swartzman, who lives in London, Ont., with Jake and her well-behaved Labrador retriever, Chico. At four months old, Jake was sent to obedience classes, but to no avail. 

Jake was well-behaved in class, "but when we got him home, unless you had food in your hand, he didn't want to have anything to do with you," says Swartzman. At the end of her rope, she a found dog behaviourist who was able to diagnose the behaviours that contributed to Jake's delinquency.

Jake is no Lassie today, but he's improved by leaps and bounds, says Swartzman. Every dog can benefit from some type of training, so to find the appropriate training for your dog, read on.

Types of training
Trying to save your furniture isn't the only reason to sign your dog up for an obedience class. Teaching your dog to come immediately when called could save his life if he darts out into the street.

There are lots of options when it comes to teaching obedience. At Pets Plus Obedience Training School Ltd., in London, Pup-Ease-Preschool offers puppies 12 weeks of age and older the chance to socialize with other puppies and people; they also learn some basic commands. The course lasts five weeks and costs $89, though prices for classes vary from school to school.

The next level, a 10-week basic obedience course that lasts one hour a week, incorporates basic commands such as sit, stay, come and heel. "It lays the foundation for dogs," says Linda Hamilton, owner and trainer at Pets Plus. "It's also a stepping stone for those that want to go further." And learning in a group setting, surrounded by barking and sniffing, is good preparation for dogs to face real life, which is full of distractions.

From there, dogs can graduate to a pre-novice course that builds on the basics including heeling off the lead and playing games. "We can play and have fun now because the dogs have some focus and we're able to expand on that," sayns Hamilton. Finally, the novice course builds on those basics. All 10-week courses cost $189 at Pets Plus.

Considered the first course toward creating a title dog (one that competes professionally), the open course is like high school for dogs. In it, owners learn advanced techniques such as directing commands to a dog in another room and dogs learn to heel off and on the lead.

The utility course is considered the university of dog obedience training. In it, dogs learn skills such as scent discrimination (spotting their owner's smell on a different materials) and jumping over obstacles according to the owner's hand signals.

But a one-hour class won't improve your dog's behaviour if you don't practice what you learn at home. It may be frustrating at the beginning, but it pays off dramatically in the long run.