we brought our akita to petsmart, and it was great, even though axle was the only big paw and outweighed everyone by the time he was 5 months old! we had a medium sized class, about 7 or 8 dogs, and it was enough to socialize, but then small enough we were very close! i still miss all the friends i made, even though it was 3 years ago! our trainer there was really great, she made every effort to help me, and even PERSONALLY trained axle the last few weeks because i was pregnant. because of this i was able to make every class, even the one that was the same week i went into delivery. i really liked the way they did it, and we had the plus of being at the store, and having outside distractions that helped us learn to pay attention to each other. this also benefited, because we could work on our manners and had people right there, with us and our trainer by our side! it was awesome, and also very cost efficient!