Is walking your dog a difficult and tiresome chore?  

• Are you fighting your dog every time that you take him for a walk?  
• Is your dog winning each time that you try to hold him back because he's stronger or more determined?  
• Are you hurting your back, shoulder, arm, wrist, or fingers when you resist being taken where your dog wants to go?  

If you answered yes to any of those questions, you would benefit by having your dog pay attention to you, stop pulling you, and stop taking you where you don't want to follow him.  

If you would like to have your dog turn when you turn, stop when you stop, and start walking when you start walking without any effort on your part, you'd be surprised how easy it is to teach a dog to walk beside your knee.  

The way to do that is by teaching your dog to heel, and you can learn how to do that by taking a class in dog training. We can teach you how to elicit desired behavior from your dog such as heel, sit, down, stay, stand, and front (which is the word we use for a special kind of come), etc.  

Dog training classes

The Town and Country Dog Training Club conducts rally and obedience classes in Union, NJ, on Monday nights, and our classes are open to any breed of dog and to both the general public and Club members.  

Our Club's classes are both for dog owners who want to learn how to handle their pets better and for those who want to compete in rally and obedience trials.  

The Town and Country Dog Training Club is a member club of the New Jersey Federation of Dog Clubs.  

The classes that we teach

We teach classes in Rally (Rally Obedience or Rally O) and Obedience for dogs.  

What we teach

The photo collages on this page illustrate the simple exercises that are the basis of all dog training:   heel, sit, stay, down, stand, and front.   Those exercises, along with turns and circles to the right and to the left, figure eights, recalls, and halts, etc., are taught in both rally and obedience classes.  

In rally classes, handlers encourage and urge their dogs by talking to them while the dog and handler perform the exercises, because that is allowed and expected in rally competitions.  

The difference in obedience classes is that handlers do not talk to their dogs or encourage them in any way during the performance of exercises, because that is not allowed during obedience competitions.  In advanced obedience classes, dogs are required to perform both directed and scent retrievals, and to jump over high or broad obstacles on command.  

In our Beginner obedience class, the basic exercises are done initially only on lead and accompanied by voice commands; later, in our Intermediate class, as both the handler and the dog progress, those same exercises are performed silently and off lead with hand signals.  

We won't teach obedience to your dog. Instead, we will show you how to teach your dog.  

Beginner and Intermediate classes

In the Beginner class, all exercises are conducted on lead, but they are accompanied by hand gestures to lay a foundation for the silent hand signals that will be taught in more advanced classes.  

The Intermediate class repeats all the exercises learned in the Beginner class except that the goal is to do them all off lead and eventually silently.  

Handlers and dogs who graduate from the Beginner class will be eligible to register for more advanced classes.  

Training methods

Our training method uses positive reinforcement, and as we observe the ideas of positive reinforcement and humane treatment of animals, no harsh training methods are ever used in any of our classes.  

Dogs have individual personalities, just as people do; they learn at different rates, and they require different kinds of positive reinforcement, such as praise, food, or being allowed to play with a favorite toy.   We will work with you to help you select the method that works best for you and your dog.  

What you learn in class will be the stepping stones that you will use to elicit the kind of behavior that you want from your dog.  

Successful dog training

Our Club has an old mnemonic, the three Ps:   Practice, Praise, and Patience.   Those three words succintly summarize precisely what it takes to be successful at dog training.  

Successful dog training is simply learning how to explain something to your dog, and we can teach you that, but you are already on the road to success because dogs want to please their masters.  

Practice with your dog between classes will hone the skills that you will learn in class, but be sure not to tire your dog:   Practicing for just fifteen minutes a day will meet your goal.   The keys to successful training are practice and establishing a fair partnership with your dog.  

Praise is a reward that's easy to give at any time, and you won't need to prepare anything ahead of time to put in your pockets or fanny pack. Praise is the currency with which you will pay your dog for doing what you ask him to do.  

Patience allows you to find better ways to explain to your dog what you want. If your dog doesn't understand you, it's probably because you are not explaining what you want in a way that your dog can understand.  Remember that your dog wants to please you.  

With time and the three Ps, you and your dog will achieve competence, but nothing that's good is ever easy. If you enjoy our classes, you may pursue further training by participating in our point show.   Training is fun for both people and dogs, and that's why we do it.