What is the purpose of a dog obedience class? 

If you said, "To train my dog," -  BZZZT! 

Wrong.

Think about it.  If the whole point was to train your dog, you could drop the dog off at class, run some errands, and then come back and pick him up.  "How was school today, dear?"  "Woof!"

No.  The true purpose of dog obedience class is to train you to train your dog.  That's why you have to be there.  You're the one the instructor is talking to, and you're the one who's doing the dog handling and dog training.

Is obedience school a necessity for dog training?  Well, not an absolute necessity.  If you can't find an obedience class that will fit into your schedule, don't use that as an excuse to not train your dog at all.  My own tutorial on puppy training at home will give you a good start, and there are plenty of books and videos available.

But it's a lot easier if you take a class.  Why?  Well, several reasons.

First is feedback.  You can read all the books and watch all the videos, but you can't see what you're doing while you're doing it.  And if you could, you probably couldn't evaluate your own performance objectively.  For example, the voice you're using, that you believe to be firm and commanding, might actually be too soft and wimpy, or too harsh and scary.   If you're not doing it right,  the instructor will let you know.  (Nicely, we hope!  If the instructor insults or embarrasses you, that's the wrong instructor - find another.)

The second reason is environment.  It's good to get your dog away from home and learning to obey in the midst of distractions.  The dog who sits and stays like a little angel in your living room might turn into a devil in a group of 12 dogs and owners.  Better to find out and learn to deal with it in a fenced training area than at the family reunion.

And the third reason is consistency.  You are a lot more likely to 'do your homework' and work on your dog training throughout the week if you know that you've got a class coming up, and the instructor and other students will sure notice if you haven't been training.   I know that I slack off with my dog during the 'off season', and I suspect that most people do.   And you are the one who needs the motivation.  Because if you're doing it right, your dog is going to love training and want to do it every day.

So although the purpose of obedience classes is training you to train your dog, that doesn't mean that you take a few classes and then you're 'through'.  You'll probably want to come back for more classes, with this dog or with your next one.   Because dog training is simply a fun activity you can do with your dog.  And if you don't want to do things with your dog, why even have a dog?

What can you expect from a training class?

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