Any good herding/agility clubs in San Jose, CA?

Lucky you! You live in the same city as two of the best and most well-renowned trainers in the sport of agility. They are Nancy Gyes and Jim Basic of Power Paws Agility:

http://www.powerpawsagility.com/

For competitive obedience and rally obedience, try the Santa Clara Dog Training Club:

http://www.santaclaradog.org/

For herding, contact WagnTrain:

http://www.wagntrain.com/herding.htm

To join, all you have to do is call or e-mail them and let them know what you're interested in. However, I'd recommend waiting until your pup is at least 6 months old so that he's mentally capable of handling the situations.

Santa Clara Dog Training Club

Hi, I understand that you are looking for some advice or resources to help fully train your dog or fix behavior problems. If a professional dog trainer is not an option at this time, or if you want to trt training your dog on your own (a great way to bond), I'd suggest you https://bitly.im/aOewE

A friend recommened it to me a few years ago, and I was amazed how quickly it worked, which is why I recommend it to others. The dog training academy also has as an excellent home training course.

As a professional dog trainer for over 16 years, I have to tell you my strong opinion that you need these group classes for obedience training. http://onlinedogtraining.enle.info/?tvA1

Other pet warehouses are there to get you to buy their products and hang around their strore. And their trainers are their employees...never forget they have an agenda. Most of the trainers have very little education--if they had actual training and skills they wouldn't be there making just over minimum wage--trust me on this. But even if they did have experience and talent...a group setting is a terrible place for learning to take place. It's distraction training and it is the LAST phase of training not the first. You wouldn't have your child try to do their homework in a toy store, would you? Of course not...the level of distraction would be too high! It's the same with dogs. Having said that, these classes can be an excellent way to socialize dogs...but not to train them. And while they appear to be cheaper than a professional trainer...you have to attend many more sessions to get the same results because of the poor learning environment--so you wind up spending MORE money for less training than you would with a professional. Save your money and go to someone who actually knows how to train dogs. OR, read books and try to train your dog yourself. There is nothing they train at a Petsmart or Petco that you can't do yourself with a couple of hours of reading.