Life Skills for Puppies: Begins 7/11/09

Class Dates and Time: Saturdays, July 11th - Aug 15th, 10.00 - aa.00 am

Class Details:

• Class runs for six (6) consecutive weeks. The first week is informational and is without pups.
• Classes are limited to 7 puppies, allowing the teacher to spend more time with each pup and on individual family puppy issues.
• Instructors are professional trainers and behaviorists.
• You probably help your kids with homework; you'll be given homework assignments to do with your pup.
• To control the spread of infectious diseases, puppies need to be residing in your home a minimum of 10 days prior to the start of class.
• Please bring your pup's vaccination certificate or equivalent to the first class.

Is There An Age Limit? Puppies up to the age of 18 weeks may enroll. Exceptions may be made on a case-by-case basis.

Why Should We Go? At the age of 8 weeks, your pup’s brain is fully-formed and ready to learn – the best time of her life for training. Positive, fun training methods are especially important at this time, because coercive teaching methods used during critical periods of development (3-16 weeks), can set the stage for fearful or aggressive behaviors later in life. The gentleness of our methods, plus lots of food and fun, minimizes the potential for later onset of behavioral issues.

What Will We Do? Any good puppy class will have three main goals:

• Shaping appropriate social behavior with other dogs and people, including children. Activities include:
  • Off-leash play. Our class is entirely off-leash.
  • How to redirect mouthing, biting and jumping
• Shaping temperament. Activities include:
  • Exercises to promote the pup's calm acceptance of touch anywhere on its body
  • Developing the pup's ability to settle into a calm physical and emotional state on command
  • Exercises to prevent resource guarding
• Teaching basic manners. Activities includes:
  • Sit, stay, down, come, and let’s go (heel) using the lure-reward method of training.
  • Proofing behaviors against distractions.
• Confidence Course

Cost: $125 • Includes the Puppy Portfolio and the booklet Way to Go.