THE PUPPY PROGRAM!
THE Puppy Program! is meant as “preventive medicine” for puppy raisers. Many common behavior problems can be either prevented or minimized by starting a puppy with good foundation training from the beginning.
This program will help you create a puppy that is ready for sport-specific training at the appropriate age — a puppy with the ability to focus on whatever you want, for as long as you want, whenever you want.
Puppies must have at least 2 rounds of vaccinations.
For puppies up to 1 year old. 6-1 hour sessions @ $150.
NOTE: Floors are cleaned per EPA-registered protocol, before and after each class.
PUPPY PLAY & AGILITY
Through the tunnel, over the jumps, and around the weave poles – the canine obstacle course known as dog agility is fun to watch and even more fun to do. However, although both pure-bred and mixed breed dogs are welcome, they must be at least 15 months of age to compete. Should you wait until your dog is that age before introducing him to the sport? No way! Even our young puppies can benefit from age-appropriate agility training and preparation.
It is a huge advantage to introduce puppies to foundation exercises and low-level equipment. By the time they are mature enough to try the full-height obstacles, they are like, ‘This is no big deal. I already know this!’.
Introducing any puppy to new surfaces is an important part of socialization, but for the agility dog to-be, it’s critical. In agility they will be executing teeters that move and bang, as well as running across dog walks, through tunnels that may have a strange feel to their feet and lying down on a table that can have various surfaces.
Prepare your puppy for agility while playing with other puppies! They will get their start on body awareness exercises, moving surfaces, confidence building puppy appropriate obstacles and socialization.
Puppies must have at least 2 rounds of vaccinations.
Puppy Play & Agility sessions are held every Saturday @ Noon.
For puppies up to 6 months. $15 for 1 hour.
NOTE: Floors are cleaned per EPA-registered protocol, before and after each puppy playgroup.
What Makes a Good Puppy Class? By Dr Ian Dunbar
Puppy classes should be taught off-leash for the entire session, (except, of course, when pups are learning to walk on leash). Puppies are off-leash at home and at the park, so you need to learn how to control your puppy off-leash, which obviously you cannot do if the pups are on-leash in class.
Also, puppies need as much time as possible to play with other dogs (and so acquire solid bite inhibition and develop soft mouths) and to interact with every person in the room, especially men, children and strangers. They cannot do this if they are on-leash. Anytime spent sitting with your puppy on-leash and listening to a trainer talk is wasting precious socialization and training time.
The ongoing play session should frequently be interrupted (every minute or so) by numerous short training interludes, so that the puppy learns to respond quickly, reliably and happily to their owners’ requests. Every time the play session is interrupted, e.g., by a Sit-Down-Sit sequence, or a ten-second Down-Stay, the puppy may be told “Go Play” again as a reward. Thus, playing-with-other-dogs may be used over and over as a reward for training, rather than becoming a distraction that works against training.
If, on the other hand, play sessions are uninterrupted and separate from the training session, the puppy will soon learn that training and playing are mutually exclusive and to prefer play to training. Puppies will learn to ignore owners’ requests, the play session will become out of control, some pups will become too pushy and others will become fearful. Having a short play session (at the beginning, end, or during the middle of class) that is distinct and separate from a training session can be extremely detrimental for puppy obedience. Your pup will never learn to listen and respond to you when distracted and your pup will become out of control before he reaches adolescence. It is essential that the play session lasts for the entire class and is frequently interrupted with numerous short training interludes.
Classes should include puppies of all sizes and all play-styles. Small dogs need to develop confidence and learn how to act around larger and more active dogs, and larger, more active dogs must learn to be gentle around smaller and less active dogs. Sessions with only large and active dogs produce over-the-top play styles and dogs that are likely to annoy or bully other dogs in the real world.
Sessions limited to small dogs only are a potential disaster. Certainly, they may quickly gain confidence around other small dogs, but some small dogs quickly become too big for their boots and none of them are given the opportunity to develop confidence around larger dogs. In the real world, small bossy dogs may get into trouble and small fearful dogs are attack-bait for other marginally-socialized dogs.
