What do people think of the Jan Ferrell and the Amichien training technique?

Any opinions? Have people heard it or used it?

I am looking into training classes for my new labradoodle who is a year old and this one has come up locally. This is done 1-2-1 for several hours as opposed to lots of short sessions.

Advice on this or alternative training would be greatly received. Just want to make sure I do the right thing for Vinnie really, choose the right approach for him as well as myself and OH.

Thanks

For me a big value of puppy classes is socialisation - getting the dog to do something in a new enviroment, meeting lots of dogs, behaving in front of them And I admit, I have a new question to ask the trainer each week that I hadn't thought of the day before.

If it were me I'd read her book and implement it for a couple of weeks before I hired the trainer - if you think your dogs improving, but not enough I'd get the trainer in

It's not the most popular technique nowadays but I did find it an interesting book.

Just read your post in your first thread wondering how to chose a course. In my opinion I wouldn't go with any one who promised wonders

If you can I would go with a Kennel Club registered course, they seem to be the standard and if I could that's what I'd do. (There are none local to me though.)

I personally would make sure I went with a 100% positive reward training.

At my local class they do a "mixed beginners" - currently 4 puppies and 2 older dogs. If you do decide to go with Amichen I'd still go to a once a week puppy class, it's wonderful bonding and help keeps you in check - I reckon Barney was able to do everything the class teaches before his first lesson, but I am getting useful tips!

Don't know anything about Amichien

Ben had clicker training with an APDT (Assoc. of Pet Dog Trainers) approved trainer and I found it very good.

I would worry about only 1-2-1, especially in long sessions..........training is VERY tiring for the dog ............ especially mentally ..............and an hour's class along with other dogs usually gets them shattered.

Remember ............. the trainer should really be training YOU how to work with your dog and giving you lots to go away and practise .............. they don't actually train your dog ....you do.

Ann & Ben

I an one of her trainers come here once - she cost me £100 and was a total waste of money. They come equipped with a standard plan, and if your dog doesn't fit in to it then they have no alternative. Basically they perceveiseem to most behavioural issues as being becuase the dog is worried and feels it is in charge, and they work towards getting your dog to be relaxed in your home. I contacted them because of Poppy's chase issues. They came here and were dumbstruck by the fact that all three of my dogs lay down and went to sleep after greeting them . They sent me the standard blurb about how to get your dogs to greet people calmly (we don't do this because we like them getting excited when we get home ) - total waste of money in my experience (which admittedly was only with one of the Jan Fennel trainers).

I think that before you look into arranging a 1-2-1 you need to decide if you have a training issue or a behaviour problem. If it is more training than anything else (recall not good, and so on) then I agree that classes are the best approach. If you are dealing with a behavioural thing - aggression/nerves/inappropriate fouling/destruction etc etc, then perhaps a 1-2-1 with a behaviourist is the way to go.

Just to note, we decided against the Amichein training. Read too many negative reviews about it online. We are working with a local trainer now who has suggested the simple reward based clicker training. We had an initial one-to-one which I requested and was directed more towards myself and OH rather than Vinnie. I did warn the trainer that Vinnie was the easy bit and training the owners would be his real battle! I'm very new to all of this.

Next week we'll then go along to a group session. I felt, as most of you said, that the socialisation of young dogs in a controlled environment was invaluable. We'll see how things go. Fingers crossed!

Thanks, once again, for all the advice and opinions.

Paddy went to standard reward based puppy classes starting at about 12 weeks. Before that I had read up on clicker training and found it so simple to train him in the basics that he was way ahead of the other puppies and was top of the class throughout. (Boy was I smug).
Once I got my head round when to click I found it so easy to get Paddy to do what I wanted. I now use it for tricks and as soon as he sees me reach for the clicker he sits expectantly waiting for training to begin.
There's loads of useful videos on YouTube, one of my favourites is Tab289.