I will be one of the first people to advocate taking a dog to obedience class. However, I always try to guide the owners to a training class that is run by people who do obedience on a regular basis and get titles on their dogs rather than a country wide chain that does not always hire the best teacher for the job. Having just completed a course at my local kennel club, I am reluctant to say that I am not always sure that if the person is not a member of the club, I can refer them to their nearest all breed club. I just spent the past seven Monday’s at my local all breed club for an obedience class. Some of the people who were members of the club were there with their large herding dogs who were very dominant and not well under control. A friend of mine who just has 2 pet dogs, one of which is part great dane and some other large breed like mastif, attended the same class. One night she left in tears because the herding dog was staring at her dog and her dog snarled at this herding dog. I would have said that it was both dogs and owners faults, but the next week, the same herding dog caused the same reaction in another dog! The breeder of this herding dog was also at the class and told the substitute teacher that we had the week of this incident, she had told the owner to keep the dog away from my friends dog. Needless to say, my friend, who keeps fearing her large breed dog be considered aggressive because of some of her neighbors comments about her dog and how vicious he sounds when he barks. My dog was also upset by the way this herding dog was staring at him, but I have better control of my dog than most owners who don’t have show dogs. The teacher just moved the dogs to opposite sides of the room. She also called my friend to discuss the incident, but she never said she would talk to the herding dog owners. Needless to say, my friend dropped out of class because she felt her dog was being picked on. I kept on with class and continued to see the same behavior from the herding dog. At the end of class, at graduation, we got to try some agility and I noticed that the herding dog owners were very cozy with the teacher and her helpers. The dog learned little about how to act around other dogs, and his owners learned nothing about how to control their dog. I suspect that in two years, this dog will be extremely aggressive and the owners will have no idea why. My revenge for my friend was to buy the loudest most obnoxious screaming monkey toy, and contrived to get the owner to have her dog pick that as their graduation gift. The owner is now stuck with a screaming monkey toy that the dog is obsessed with. However, if a person asks me where I would suggest they go to obedience class, I am not sure I can recommend an all breed club where the club members will get special attention and consideration. I will instead have to suggest an obedience training club or perhaps one of those large chain stores where I know all people will be treated the same. I am going to look into another all breed club to see if I can find one that will be more objective and not so member friendly.