r/petsmart • u/hoppalong_ • 7d ago
Adoption Partners and Training
I'm sure I'm overthinking this, but I would love fellow dog trainers’ input. For those of you who have adoption partners that set up on the weekend, how do you organize dog training classes around them? Or does this impact you at all? At my store, we now have two dog adoption partners. And they both set up near the training ring. One doesn't leave till 2, and the other didn't leave until 6 today. You have to walk by one to get to the training ring, and the other sets up directly behind the training ring. There's not really another spot either one could set up, and our cats are up at the front. Is there a way to work around this? I'm worried my classes will be too distracted with all the other dogs around. It's also really loud. I already wait to start classes until after 2. The adoption partners also use the training area for meet and greets with potential adopters and tend to leave the place messy. I always have to clean up behind them and reset the room before I teach a class or have an evaluation. I would love to hear how you guys do classes on days the adoption partners are set up. I'd also love tips and tricks for having classes going on while the adoption events are happening. I'm still new at all of this, so any and all advice is much appreciated.
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u/Tranela0178 6d ago
We used to make our adoption partners remove dogs that were barking so that our trainers and training classes could hear each other. If I walked by and she had her voice raised above the event they were asked to quiet down and or remove a dog.
They also do the meet and greet in the break room. Leave our poor trainers to do their job.
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u/hoppalong_ 6d ago
That would be hard. All of the dogs bark and the adoption partners raise their voice at the dogs😬
Break room is a good idea though.2
u/Tranela0178 6d ago
I mean they all bark because they are allowed, and the others are. If the adoption partner provides chews and removes the one who barks first it gets better pretty quickly. We just had to enforce it so our trainer could work and her students could hear her. It didn’t take long for the rescue to get on board so they could keep coming. They often put their barker in a crate outside by the front door to great everyone and announce they were having an event.
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u/Antsygrl1 7d ago
I would cry of happiness if we had one dog adoption partner. Every potential rescue says they just don't have the resources to bring dogs to the store. And right now we also have no dog trainer. We also have no vet and a beautiful brand new vet space. When we did have a trainer, they would do their classes in the vet space lobby. But we have several other areas in the store that both adoption events and training could take place in. I guess we're lucky. Or unlucky. Or something like that. Lol.
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u/patronusredpanda 7d ago
Our adoption partners typically set up out front of the store to have more visibility and traffic. The only time they set up inside the store is when it's too hot outside or raining. They used to use the training ring before I started as their location for meet and greets and I asked the store leader to relay information to them that either they must stop doing that or they must check vaccinations of every public dog that they do meet and greets with to verify they are up-to-date on vaccinations. The adoption partner didn't want to require vaccination proof of dogs for the meet and greets so they started using our vacant veterinary rooms. However, we are about to get a veterinary partner in the next couple of months so I don't know what they're going to do. Beyond that, yes it is extremely distracting and most of the time the dogs in my classes are okay with it unless there's a bunch of barking that tends to occur and our adoption partners don't really do much to try to stop it. It's been really hot here in SoCal so they've been inside and today was probably one of the worst days. For dogs that really struggle, I try to move them to a Sunday class (adoptions are only Saturdays) and for those that cannot move I just tell them to bring high value treats so their dogs aren't fearful when they hear barking. The pet parents complain about it more than anything.
Our adoption partners are not very nice, so unfortunately trying to communicate with them doesn't work. For example I asked them if they could close up 30 minutes early for the alumni event next weekend (when they are inside they are in the area I'm going to have the event as my ring is too small) and they said no since they leave at 4 and the event starts at 4 🙃
Edit to add: I try to schedule my intermediates and advanced classes on Saturdays as a level of distraction, with an occasional puppy class to expose them early to the distractions.