...Helping your best friend to be even better...
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COURSES CURRENTLY NOT RUNNING
Puppy classes (also called Puppy Kindergarden or Puppy Socialisation classes) and beginners dog training classes help owners of new puppies or adolescents to train and socialise their pups, thereby helping to prevent problems with fear-based aggression in adult life and ensuring the new family member grows into a happy, confident and well-behaved adult.
Many puppy "problems" are, in fact, normal puppy behaviour that owners do not yet know how to handle or cope with. These problems often seem insurmountable especially for owners who have not had a puppy for some time, or ever! A great many owners choose to have a "Start Right" home visit in the first few weeks of their puppies time with them, so that they can "start as they mean to go on" and prevent small problems becoming big issues.
Properly run and supervised puppy classes are an important part of every owner's puppy training. Puppy parties held at vet's offices usually focus just on puppy free play with little training being introduced. If they are well run (and not a free-for-all), such events may be worth attending for the puppy socialisation that they provide, but owners should follow this up with attendance at well-run puppy classes. Aimed at young puppies less than 5-6 months old, puppy classes (also often called puppy socialisation classes, puppy school, puppy kindergarden or puppy classes) should provide a mixture of puppy socialisation and basic puppy training.
Attendance at a poorly run puppy socialisation classes or puppy parties with unsupervised off-lead free play can be significantly worse than not attending at all, and can result in some puppies learning to be bullies, while others become fearful of other dogs and may resort to defensive aggression (and this can happen in a very short space of time). Helen Taylor Dog Training & Behaviour puppy classes provides expert training and carefully supervised socialisation for young puppies up to the age of around 5 1/2 months. Interactions with the other puppies are carefully controlled so that all puppies benefit from the experience and learn good social skills.
Besides puppy classes, I also run dog training classes for slightly older dogs:
For puppies and young dogs that have missed out on Puppy Classes, I also run a Beginners course. It follows the same format as the Puppy Course, but is open to dogs up to the ages of 12 to 15 months of age.
For Puppies or young dogs who have completed a previous Puppy Class or Beginners class (it need not have been immediately before) and wish to take training to the next level with me, I also run a "Junior Intermediates" class.
Puppy Training Tip: Did you know that dogs that have attended a properly-run puppy class are less likely to show aggressive behaviour or to develop aggression problems with people or other dogs as adults?
Classes are run in six-week courses, one hour per week. Numbers are normally limited to 8 (occasionally 9 in puppy class) and classes are held at an indoor venue near Sturminster Newton.
Looking for Puppy Classes in Sturminster Newton? Looking for Puppy Classes in Shaftesbury or Gillingham?
Looking for Training classes in Sturminster Newton?
..Helping your best friend to be even better..