Dog Trainers or Classes

I took my puppy to Lead Me On Dog in Murray for their puppy preschool and found it helpful. That is all of the commercial training I took him to because I was able to continue on with him just fine and we are satisfied with how is. You mentioned the "leader of the pack" idea. I found a website called kingdomofpets.com that had an online set of books called Sit, Stay, Fetch that helped considerably with at-home training and alpha dog techniques as well as answered a huge amount of trouble shooting problems. I highly recommend that online book.

I sent my dog to Anthonys Pets (whostrainingwho.com). They kept her full time for 7 weeks and we would go in weekly to meet with them and learn. It was amazing! We have a lab and a baby at the time. I was nursing and did not have the time to devote to my dog (she was newly acquired from the humane society at about 18 months old). She is a wonderful dog! In fact we just had a party at our house with kids going in and out of the backyard, we had told her to stay in the back and even though the gate was left open she stayed in the back yard. I would call her out occasionally if there was a kid back there who was afraid of dogs and had her sit on the grass behind my chair. I told her to stay and there she stayed. There is no price you can put on a well trained dog. I believe they also have a trained for life policy, the dog can go back and get some training free of charge if she starts slipping.
They also offer boarding and will train your dog while you are on vacation.

Good Luck!

I'm not sure where you live in Utah, but if you are in the SLC area, the dog training at the Humane society in Murray is fantastic. I think they even have classes specifically for smaller dogs. You can find out all of the information on the Humane Society's websight.

A good place I know about that isn't really expensive is The Great Salt Lake Dog Training Club. It is in west jordan at the armory. Their web address is www.gsldtc.com.

I have a cousin who does classes at Petsmart...I'm not sure if the local one offers classes but it might...