About Companion Dog Obedience Services

Companion Dog Obedience & Services runs group obedience classes out of its own training room on Daansen Road in Walworth, roughly twenty minutes east of Rochester. Every class is an eight-week course, and the site prices them openly: $140 for eight weeks, or $230 for two dogs from the same household.

The class ladder

Four levels are published. Beginner is basic obedience for puppies and dogs with a concentration on house manners. Intermediate continues from Beginner with a focus on earning a Therapy Dog and Canine Good Citizen title. Advance moves to more formal work aimed at other titles, and requires a completed basic obedience course first. Alongside those sit an Agility class described as a fun class for all, and a Conformation class for adults and juniors learning to handle and show purebred dogs.

How the room works

The site says the training room is heated, air-conditioned and has a bathroom on site. Owners are asked to bring a flat snap collar and a six-foot cotton lead, and the school explains that cotton is softer on the hands. Proof of rabies must be left on file, with distemper-parvo and bordetella schedules spelled out class by class. Former students help the instructor during class time so that everyone gets individual attention.

Who runs it

The classes are taught by Glenna Godown, who signs the welcome letter and the class correspondence. The site lists continuing education she has attended, including Solving Canine Behavior Problems in 2008 and 2011, a Companion Animal Behavior Seminar at Cornell University in 2010, obedience judging seminars in 2017 and 2019, and Canine Animal Behavior in 2021. It describes her as a certified Therapy Dog and Canine Good Citizen evaluator, insured, with over twenty-five years of dog experience including five years of guide dog training.

Private work

Private lessons are offered at home or at the training center, and the site says an experienced trainer of twenty-five years will come to the house to help with training problems.