Canine Obedience Training Inc

We enrolled our puppy in the Puppy Training Beginners course when he was about 10-11 weeks old, hoping to start early with basic training and socialization in a structured setting. To start with positives: Marianne’s intentions seemed well-meaning, and her co-trainer Katie was phenomenal-we would gladly work with Katie again. The class helped us establish foundational commands like sit, stay, recall, and down. Unfortunately, our overall experience was negative enough that we chose not to attend the final two weeks of the eight-week course. The class included a wide range of puppy ages, from 3 months to nearly a year old. While that’s not inherently problematic, it led to unrealistic expectations being placed on our younger puppy. The older dogs could complete tasks our 3-month-old naturally struggled with, and we felt Marianne held our puppy to the same standards unfairly. Around weeks 4-6, Marianne’s handling and feedback became concerning. During one class, our 14-week-old puppy got overstimulated and began biting at his leash. Marianne offered to handle him, and when he became mouthy, she shouted, “Damnit dog, you bit me the last time too!” in front of the group. He did not bite her-he’s a teething puppy with sharp baby teeth. When I tried to explain, she dismissed it, saying, “That doesn’t matter.” The interaction felt unprofessional and unnecessarily harsh. Her advice following the incident-such as suggesting we crate him for timeouts-was inconsistent with the situation. Rather than recognizing overstimulation, she treated it as defiance. We later overheard her referring to our puppy as “that small white one” in a negative tone, which was disappointing. Other participants privately expressed that they also found her behavior inappropriate. After we withdrew, Marianne called to suggest we see a behavioral trainer, implying our puppy was aggressive-something completely misaligned with his temperament. She also veered into unsolicited commentary about dog vaccinations, which felt unprofessional and outside her expertise. While she offered a refund (which we declined), our main concern was the handling and judgment, not the cost. Our puppy is now six months old-friendly, playful, and well-behaved with other dogs and children. The progress he’s made has been thanks to other’s advice, not Marianne’s approach. In short: Katie was excellent, but our experience with Marianne was inappropriate, dismissive, and not developmentally attuned to young puppies. The classes themselves are helpful but get repetitive by week 5.

Marianne is very experienced and has a direct and easy to understand teaching style, but she needs to provide more encouragement and interaction. She provides plenty of useful materials and homework. We used her class for our 8 month old new Whoodle and only found five classes useful as much of the time was too repetitive. There are too many dogs in each class and there should be a scheduled break. She does enable you to ask about very specific issues you have with your own dog. Her assistant is very good and more effective with her positive teaching style. The location for training is very good and convenient.