What can you expect from your dog obedience class?  Most classes are offered in six or eight week sessions, meeting for an hour once a week.   Your instructor should have told you what sort of leash and collar to bring, and don't forget your dog's shot record. 

Basic obedience will teach sit, down, stay, stand, come,  and heel. 

Some of these commands you can get started on at home - see my puppy training at home tutorial.

Heel is a command that is very difficult for some dogs to learn, and is best learned in a class.  I think part of the reason it's difficult is that it is a continuing behavior, and also because what you want the dog to do depends on what  you're doing.  In heel, the dog is walking beside you, on the left.  He walks when you walk, turns when you turn, and stops when you stop.  So there's no one specific thing a dog knows to do when you tell him to heel - it's dependent on what you're doing.  And since it's a continuing behavior, it's easy for the dog to forget he's supposed to be walking beside you, and become distracted by a squirrel or another dog. 

Despite the difficulty, heel is an incredibly valuable behavior for your dog to learn, especially if he's going to be large and strong when full grown, or you plan to have him walked by small children.  (As an aside: children should never be sent out to walk a dog they can't control!  The number of times I've see small children trying to control a Rottweiller - !  If you own a large dog, or a dog that is going to be large, make sure it is quite well trained and well behaved before you send your kids out to walk it.)

If you want proof that your dog is well-trained, there are a number of certification programs you can work toward.  The basic certification is the AKC-sponsored Canine Good Citizenship (CGC) certification.  To get the CGC, you and your dog must pass a number of tests, which include:  sit and down on command and stay in place, walk on a loose leash, accept a friendly stranger, walk through a crowd, and reaction to another dog. 

For more details on the CGC progam, go here:

CGC Training/Testing

Beyond the CGC, there are a number of other certifications you can get for your dog, including Companion Dog (CD), Companion Dog Excellent (CDX), Utility Dog (UD), and many others.

But a caution about what you can expect:  it is very very very rare for a dog to be able to take and pass the CGC certification after a single eight week session of obedience school.  Most dogs will need two or three, some even more sessions.

So please don't think you'll only have to take one session and then you're done.  And please don't give up on your dog.  Dogs learn at different rates, some take to obedience training quite easily, and others are slower to catch on.  It varies by the individual dog and also varies by breed.  Some breeds are more trainable than others, and some breeds are known for their stubbornness.  (There's not much anyone can tell me about stubborn dogs that I don't already know!  I'm a Samoyed owner!)   Watch the agility trials on television sometime - there's a reason it's wall-to-wall Border Collies.

If you have a competitive nature or you want a very trainable dog, get a Border Collie, a Lab, a Golden, or a Poodle.  But if you prefer a different breed, just love your stubborn dog and be prepared to go back to class again.

In closing, I'd like to respond to the people I've heard over the years describe their dog as 'an obedience school dropout' - "Hey.  Did the dog write the check for the class?  Did the dog drive to the class?  The dog didn't drop out.  You did."