Good dog training classes in the area?

My dog and I both loved our training class w/ Dawn Prentiss at Semper Fido - www.semperfidony.com. Dawn is absolutely great, and has just moved to a new location in the Slope. My dog passed her Canine Good Citizen test no problem, and she always obeys commands during off-leash hours in the park. I credit most of this to the techniques I learned from Dawn.

How much training do good dogs need?

Chaplin's mom, it's like you're describing a totally different dog trainer than the Barbara Giella I met! I was incredibly disappointed with "The Educated Puppy." Barbara has lots of glowing recommendations on her website and I'm sure they're all real...but maybe a couple years old. No question that she knows all the book info, but at the class I took, she literally never got out of the chair. She was recovering from a foot injury at the time, but it was irresponsible for her to run a class like that - she should have cancelled it. Moreover, she repeated the same lesson three weeks in a row, seemingly without realizing it, and recommended that every owner pay extra for private sessions (at $100 a pop) and buy leather leashes (through her), and so forth.

I found her to be worse than mediocre and ultimately dropped out of the class after 5 of the 8 weeks. I talked with some other doggie "parents" in the class wen I ran to them in the park, to see if maybe my experience was an anomaly, but others had had the same experience as me. It's totally possible that it was an "off" group all in all, but you should really check whomever you go with out by talking with a bunch of people.

On the other hand, I ran into a couple last week who had a new puppy and were RAVING about Semper Fido - and I think that Dawn Prentiss' class may be less expensive than Barbara's (they're both expensive).

Bottom line is, you should totally do more research than I did before you sign up for anything. Talk to people walking their dogs on the streets. Stuff like that.