Manners Classes

This is an excellent class to follow on from Puppy Class, but is often a great setting to teach your adult dog to behave better around other dogs and people.

Living with an adolescent dog is probably the busiest and most difficult phase of owning a dog. Between the ages of 4 months and 1 year when even the most docile puppy will start to push the boundaries, be distracted and often jumpy. This is a great time to introduce further positive reinforcement training. This prevents unwanted “learned behaviour” and also ensures that the coming months are more enjoyable for both you and your dog. It is at this time that the dog learns what behaviours you like and what you expect from them.

These classes initially involve learning to manage, control, and channel the dogs’ energy, enthusiasm and exuberance by teaching impulse control, calmness and attention, whereupon teaching basic obedience becomes a much easier endeavour. In this class we focus on:

Settling and paying attention to you as an owner around distractions (exciting places, other dogs and people)
Coming back when off lead and in the park
Staying in one place
Walking politely on lead
Greeting strangers politely

This class is a 6 week course and we like to keep our classes small personalized, so we never have more than 4 dogs in a class.

Classes are mainly held outdoors and we practice lead walking on the local pavements, teaching you how to deal with `real-world´ distractions.

Usually one of the classes will be held in a local off lead dog park, helping you teach your dog to come back reliably. For the final class you will practice polite lead walking and graduating while having a coffee at a coffee shop with four dogs happily settling underneath the table.