What Is Puppy Class?

In their first year of life, puppies go through a series of major developmental periods that effectively shape how they see the world forever. Arguably the most important one; the critical period of socialization spans from about 3-16wks of age.

In that time, puppies learn how to communicate with, and relate to other dogs, humans and their environment. It is the most influential period of a dog's life, forming the foundation of all future learning. Lack of exposure and positive experiences in this time will prevent the puppy from reaching its full potential.

When we learnt about the critical periods of development in the1960s, some trainers developed classes that aimed to safely socialize puppies, while educating owners on exactly how, what, why and when it should be done.

Recent studies have even shown that puppies which attend a well-run puppy class are less prone to developing behaviour and training problems later in life. This ultimately leads to a happier household, and a much happier dog!

Contrary to popular belief, puppy classes are not free-for-all puppy play parties. This used to be how they were run, butwe've since learnt this isn't ideal.

Puppy classes divide time between socialization and environmental habituation, training, and conditioned relaxation exercises.

Socialization and Environmental Habituation exercises aim to show new puppy parents how to effectively create a positive or neutral association with other living things, as well as potentially scary environmental stimulus. All puppies will have one or more things that they need extra work on, and a good puppy class instructor can identify that early and provide you with steps to overcome it before it becomes a problem.

Training exercises will provide owners an understanding of how, why and when they can use luring, free shaping and pressure to teach the common obedience behaviours. Our goal is to teach a man to fish vs. give a man a fish, so extra attention is paid to those broad handler skills, with the actual teaching of skills being incidental.

Conditioned Relaxation exercises are short rest periods between the intense former steps. This is where we teach our puppies to chill out on cue, while the instructor has a chance to talk and answer questions.

Handouts and ongoing email/phone support are used to help new owners between classes. Follow-on classes and additional training programs can also available.