Children in your obedience class?!!

[sourjayne]

I know this isn't exactly what you asked, but if it's a puppy socialization class, I say the more kids the better. A lot of us don't get many opportunities to socialize our puppies to children. I wish there were more kids in the puppy class Louie and I went to! He is terrified of children.

[IliamnasQuest]

We have a variety of classes - kids are welcome at some as active participants, but at others they need to chill out and sit on the sidelines quietly.

By "kids" I mean younger ones (not teens).

Puppy classes and our "family dog" class - these are good places for kids. Dogs need to learn how to behave around children, too, and kids need to learn to behave around dogs. As an instructor, I always take it upon myself to teach the kids too (and I started out teaching in the school district, so I have a background with kids .. *L*).

But if it's a competition class or an advanced class where they're working on more specific things, then a noisy child is a detriment to the class.

My dogs love it when kids come to class. The faces are low enough to be kissed a lot, and kids tend to drop goodies.

Melanie and the gang in Alaska

[Ashlea]

I hated having kids come to my training class. The amount of time that I had to stop a class to wait for some parent indulgin Johnnys out burst was infuriating. The kids would also ask their parent what I had just said, why I said it etc. The parents would actually stop the class and explain. It was then that I banned children under 14 from all my classes.

[GSDlover_4ever]

YES!!! YES!!! YES!!! All trained kids are welcome to pet training, they have to live with the dog as well. If your dog cant focus with little kids then your dog is not fully trained. At Schutzhund training the age limit is 14 and they have to be MATURE. Too many things can happen if there are kids running around acting stupid when these dogs are in prey, and defense drive.

[Roxy's CD]

I have never been in a group class where children were allowed to be in the building at all.

There are classes though, more like, "Family Pet classes" where the whole family is involved with training though at my school.

One of Roxy's group lessons was after one of these classes. The children were very loud, all over the place. I know this is how children are, but I for one, would not be pleased AT ALL if children came to either Roxy or Hades obedience classes.

Both of them are far beyond "pet family training" and while I do think, that children would be a great distraction, while practicing, every lesson, I wouldn't want our training time to be interrupted.

So, personally, NO, I would be very upset if dog owners brought their children to class. BUT it has never happened, and I doubt that it ever would. THe type of classes my dogs are in, are with "serious" dog trainers/show people.

I do think that trainers should have a variety of classes though as my trainer does.

Classes that do involve the whole family, for "family pets".

[StillandSilent]

I was Lilly's primary trainer for both basic and advanced obedienceat 11. I attended all classes and handled her for the entire time. However, I was mature enough to listin to the trainer. There was another girl there the same age who spent her time running around distracting the dogs and the trainer. Depends more on the kid I guess.

[Zoom]

Well-behaved, focused children I welcome. Children that need leashes and harnesses of their own are urged to stay at home with a babysitter. I haven't set an age limit on classes yet, because there was one 6 year old who was all about the classes, and did better than her mother did at following directions. Plus I was training my first dog at the age of 10.

There is a huge difference between distraction for the dog and distraction for the rest of the class.

[~Tucker&Me~]

I think kids that are there to get the job done and understand are fine! Heck, I started training at 9 years old, and we beat everyone in the class in the final round .
It really depends on the kid.

~Tucker

[Brattina88]

I love seeing children learn and interact with their dogs in a happy, learning, appropriate way. However it is frustrating and distracting when parents bring their 3/4yr olds (and younger) to class... because it's not developmentally appropriate to expect a child of this age to sit still and be quiet for an hour. Some children are more 'mature' and can do it, but most this age simply don't have the attention span. That's when they get bored, and find something to do that is either distracting to the dog, getting underfoot of the handlers, or downright annoying. It irritates me when parents are training the dog and yelling at they're children for messing around or complaining they're bored, tired, hungry, want to go home (lol). This is when the kids are brought simply because there's no one else to watch them, because no one is encouraging them to learn/work with the dogs. It's pointless

On the other hand, older children are often very good handlers; they don't have to be 'un-learned' of training methods adults have grown up used to using. You probably won't see more enthusiastic, open minded handler than an older child who's totally into what their doing

[Vylula]

I don't think young children should be allowed in the training class. I think my puppy would have done much better if the distraction of children wasn't there. It is up to the parents of these kids to "train" the kids at home with what they have learned in class. One thing that really bothered me during Obedience class is during play time, the kids would always want to hold my puppy and wouldn't let her down to play. I felt like I spent more time telling the kids to let the puppy down to play than monitoring my dog with the other dogs. Just my opinion.....

Vy