Weekly Puppy Kindergarten Classes
Pre-requisite: All healthy puppies 2 months to 6 months of age can attend. Completed vaccination schedules are not necessary.
Puppy K is a great starting point to begin the socialization process so important in creating a balanced adult dog.
We allow for a lot of appropriate puppy play which is necessary to build the pup’s dog-dog tolerance and socialization skills.
We conduct these classes with pups off-leash so that pups can learn how to socialize with other pups and so that they do not have to unlearn leash aggression and bad emotions caused by straining against their own leashes. We will also be teaching your pups how to follow you willingly, on or off leash.
Puppy Kindergarten helps to prevent food aggression, dog aggression, and fear issues, and encourages the puppy to pay attention to its human family (instead of everything else!). We also teach human family members how to gain their pup’s willing attention and what to do when pup is not behaving like a perfect angel. We cover housebreaking and puppy management. Instructors will answer any question you might have about puppy behavior.
By the end of a session, we hope that you and your pup have learned the basics of how to pay attention to YOU by learning: a positive marker, pup’s name recognition & response, how to make voluntary calm eye contact between you and pup, how to follow your hand signals and directional signals (without biting you), how to follow your body as you move (without pup jumping up on you or running past you), how to follow sit & lie down hand signals, how to come when you call (or whoop!), how to accept gentle human touch without biting or shying away, how to play with toys and with you (play with rules and structure), how to politely allow other dogs to get food or attention from others, how to introduce “new” situations and things, how to recognize pup’s limits and what to do when pup signals his/her unease or tiredness.
We cannot overemphasize the importance of Puppy Kindergarten. It is extremely important for pups to attend a class at very young ages because, just like human children, learning important developmental skills cannot be postponed.
For those puppies starting Weekly Puppy Kindergarten at an early age, we encourage attending a second Kindergarten session before moving onto Weekly Pet Obedience Classes. Especially if you want your pup to become a therapy dog, we encourage you and your pup to take two Puppy Kindergarten sessions before graduating onto one or two sessions of pet obedience classes
PUPPY KINDERGARTEN
We highly recommend our Puppy Kindergarten session for puppies under six months
of age—any healthy puppy from two to six months of age can attend. It is a
great starting point to begin the socialization process so important in
creating a well-grounded puppy - one ready for life’s adventures and
misadventures. Puppy Kindergarten also helps prevent food and dog aggression,
fear issues, and encourages the puppy to pay attention to its family rather
than everything but. Puppy Kindergarten skills cannot be “made up” down the
road, and it is important that the puppy attend a Kindergarten class at the
right age (just like our human children).
Occasionally, we will make an exception to the six-months of age cut off point.
Some smaller breed puppies that haven’t had Kindergarten are best placed into
that class but must first be qualified by the training professional.
For those puppies starting Puppy Kindergarten at an early age we encourage
attending a second Kindergarten session before moving on to Obedience. For
those dogs looking to become Therapy Dogs we especially recommend starting
early and having two Kindergarten sessions (12 classes), then moving on to the
Obedience level.
For the first class (orientation), we have the puppies stay at home. Only the
Puppy Parents attend. Orientation is extremely important. You need to
understand why your puppy is doing what it is doing and the reasoning behind
the training methods we recommend.
Puppy Kindergarten group classes taught by Diane Thompson at Raspberry Ridge Sheep Farm