About the Animal Humane Society Training School

Looking for a training class for your pet that is flexible, pet-oriented, family-friendly, and can meet the needs of your busy schedule? The Animal Humane Society’s Training School is designed to help you fit pet training into your life, instead of the other way around. Our format is a progressive, go-at-your own pace Levels Program.

We’re Family Friendly: Our Training School is one of the few that encourages full participation by all family members, including your children.

We’re Dog Friendly: Our program teaches Real Life Skills you can use with your pet, rather than stylized obedience drills. We use a combination of lure/reward and clicker training.

We Care for Animals: Your class fees support homeless animals at our five locations and help support the programs of the Animal Humane Society.

Our Flexible Schedule Program

We offer a Levels Program with a 2- or 4-month Training Pass that pays for weekly classes that best fit your schedule. Each week we offer more than 40 classes at our Coon Rapids, Golden Valley and Woodbury locations and at our new Now Boarding location near the Minneapolis/St. Paul airport.

Students can miss a week or move into a different class time if they have schedule conflicts without worrying about falling behind.

All the dogs in each level are working on the same skills, and you’ll know what you need to master before moving up.

Move at your own pace as you master the skills.

What are the Levels?

Each Level is a module with specific skills that will be mastered before the student moves up. Each level is designed to take 2 to 4 weeks. Students may progress at their own pace without feeling rushed. Our free Introduction to Pet Dog Training class gives you a chance to visit us and see if our program meets your needs.

Puppy Kindergarten: Puppies under 5 months.  Puppy basics, socialization, and beginning skills.
Level 1: Dogs/puppies 5 months or older.  Management skills, attention, jumping up, pulling, and more.
Level 2: L1 and Puppy K grads only.  Install basic skills, address behavior issues.
Level 3: L2 grads only.  Increasing distance, duration, and distractions.
Level 4: L3 grads only.  Reliability.  AKC Canine Good Citizen Test offered monthly.
Level 5: L4 grads only.  Off leash reliability.

Class fees:
2-Month Training Pass $150.00 ($75.00/month)
4-Month Training Pass $250.00 ($62.50/month)

There are discounts available if your dog was adopted from the Animal Humane Society, if the dog was part of our Oh Behave! Program and if the dog was part of Project Pit Bull.

Other classes offered by Animal Humane Society

AKC Canine Good Citizen test 

Wallflower Class

If your dog is shy/fearful, you can go from the Intro to this class, which was specially designed for dogs that are afraid of new people, places, objects and sudden movements. Dogs in this class must not be aggressive toward other dogs or people.

Therapy Dog Class

This class is an advanced class for those wishing to do therapy work with their dog. This class will prepare you and your dog to take a national certification test. Pre-requisites include: Canine Good Citizen Certificate and the dog must enjoy being handled by many unfamiliar people.

Private Training and Behavior Lessons

We offer private lessons either at one of our locations or at your home.
Private in-home lessons cost $90 per hour
Private lessons at the shelter cost $75 per hour
3-lesson package available, which includes:

• Three in-home lessons for $250.
• Gentle Leader™ Headcollar System ($25.00 value)
• Professional training and behavior staff works with both canine and feline behavior issues.