About Glens Falls Kennel Club

Who they are

The Glens Falls Kennel Club is a non-profit member club, incorporated and running since 1963 — it marked its sixtieth anniversary in 2023 — with a training center of its own at 474 Corinth Road in Queensbury. It describes itself as dedicated to the betterment of all dogs, both purebred and mixed breed, and reports roughly 76 active members drawn from around the region, whose interests run from pet ownership to competing in dog sports. The training director listed on the site is Melissa Willey. It is the oldest continuously operating dog training organization in this metro by a wide margin, and it is structurally different from the commercial trainers around it: you join, and the instructors are members.

What they offer

The class list is the widest in the area and it runs on a published weekly calendar. Obedience classes go from Pre-Novice and Beginner through to the Basics of AKC Competition Obedience. AKC STAR Puppy runs as its own class. Beyond obedience there is agility, Speedway, rally, conformation and a full scent-work ladder — Intro to Scent, Intermediate, Intermediate/Advanced — plus therapy dog testing. The club also hosts its own trials: two all-breed conformation shows a year, four rally trials, three agility trials and a growing Speedway program, and it holds educational seminars and health clinics alongside the classes.

How they train

The club does not sell a branded method. Its stated goal is to engage members and the wider community in events for the advancement of companion animals, and it encourages good sportsmanship in competition. Practically, that means the instruction is sport-and-title shaped — a foundation class leads toward a certificate, a title or a trial entry rather than toward a behavior consult. Among the membership are AKC Canine Good Citizen evaluators and a Therapy Dog International evaluator, and the club says it supports members' dogs working in therapy dog programs.

Practical details

Classes run at the Corinth Road training center on a fixed calendar published on the site, and they are canceled any day the Queensbury School District cancels or closes early for weather — a genuinely useful detail in a place that gets Adirondack winters. The site carries a members' area, a blog and an events calendar, and lists the training director's email as the contact point. Because it is a club rather than a business, this is the right first call for a sport, title or certification goal, and the wrong one for an urgent behavior problem.