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

Weekly Pet Obedience Classes

Pre-requisite: Healthy dog, aged 6 months or older.

Dogs will be leashed when attending and working in this group class. Dogs who have a foundation from Puppy K will ease right in to learning the more advanced skills older dogs should master. However, dogs who have not yet taken any other puppy or obedience classes are also welcomed and will benefit from taking this training class.

Again, as in Weekly Puppy Kindergarten classes, we teach the “7 Training Samurai + 2” as our foundation obedience behaviors, but dogs and owners are taught with a higher level of detail in the instructions, with longer durations of behavior required of the dogs, and with greater distractions introduced than the training experienced in Puppy K class. Heeling on- and off-leash and for longer durations is practiced so that you can experience pleasant walks in public with your dog. Teaching dogs how to stay alone comfortably for increasingly longer durations of time will help prevent and cure canine separation anxiety.

Dogs who master the training taught in Weekly Pet Obedience Classes can then go onto being successful, happily-adjusted, well-behaved pet dogs.

Dogs that successfully complete our Weekly Pet Obedience classes also can go on to more advanced training options such as Herding, Rally Obedience, Competition Obedience, Agility, Nosework, Tracking, Search and Rescue, Freestyle, Earthdog, Barndog, Trick Dog, Therapy Dog Work, CGC, FDC— in other words, your dog can go on to participate in any endeavor where willing partnership and understanding between dog and human is valued.

Reactive to Relaxed

How to Help Your Reactive Dog Become a Relaxed Dog

This class is open to dogs who struggle around other dogs and people. In this 6-week class we focus on establishing both   command control and voluntary, relaxed self-control that the dog can use in arousing distractions.   We will practice various foundation exercises for the dogs to teach them to respond with their calm, focused attention ("doggy zen") when encountering exciting situations. 

Handlers will learn to:

• Recognize  5 basic causes of  undesirable canine behaviors (and what to do about them)
• Use more effective operant and associative conditioning training principles
• Sort dog behavior into 4 basic categories useful for dog training
• Recognize 5 keys for evaluating a dog’s emotional state
• Use the rules of the flight zone for more effective desensitization
• Set up and use the editing-out-fear protocol for more rapid desensitization training results

In addition, dogs will learn fun and useful training exercises such as the airplane and hangar game, and the sacred doggy rock game, and will learn to lie down on a target mat (and stay there), as well as how to perform a chin down behavior on either your command or as a voluntary self-controlled response to an arousing cue.

Dogs will be given a private assessment in the first class of 6 in the session to identify any of the fundamental "7 training samurai" foundation training exercises we use here at Raspberry Ridge Sheep Farm that need further practice.

Any dog is welcome!

Competition Rally Obedience Classes

Try this relatively young dog sport which allows you to talk to and praise your dog as you work together!

Pre-requisite: Healthy dog, aged 6 months or older with normal eyesight, hearing, and gait. Evaluation by Instructor.

Dog must have fairly reliable loose-leash heeling behavior and an automatic (or an immediate sit on a verbal command) sit while informal heel position on left side of owner, and a “down” on command mastered before being allowed to participate in this class.

Other suggested alternatives to this class might be attendance at Weekly Obedience Class or a series of private lessons.

Practice Rally

Rally Practice is an opportunity for you and your dog to practice rally obedience courses. Your instructor will set up a full, AKC regulation course. Dog-human teams will be able to practice with positive reinforcement, to re-try signs (until you get them right!), and to get performance feedback! You will have a trial-like setting with distractions to prepare for the ring, or and have the opportunity to take video for feedback or virtual submissions. Prerequisite:  Dog and owner must have attended prior dog obedience classes (or equivalent).  This is not a beginner obedience class, and there is no formal obedience instruction provided. Please contact Sierra Keiper when registering or if you have further questions: email sierrakeiper@gmail.com or text/call (484) 544-1723

Beginner Herding Concepts

All novice herding dogs need to master fundamental obedience skills before the dogs can be trained off-leash around livestock. Owners of pet herding breeds, as well as owners with non-herding breeds—and anyone who wishes to gain control over their dog’s instinctual predatory or herding behaviors-- should want to join this class!

Training exercises in this class will be practiced off livestock, near penned livestock, on leash, and off leash. Our aim is to help you develop your dog’s fast, reliable responsiveness to auditory signals (voice or whistle) for recall, stop, and stay commands despite highly distracting circumstances. Positive reinforcement training techniques are emphasized.

The learned skill of split-attention focus is introduced to you and your dog because usually when pet dogs are behaving badly, they are focused on something else, not their owners. Split-attention focus is a learned attention skill that teaches dogs to notice and assess distractions while they simultaneously obey their owners.

Prerequisites: The class is open to all dogs and handlers. To take full advantage of this training opportunity, dogs and owners should have completed the equivalent of one or two sessions of: 1.) Best Buddies Puppy Kindergarten and 2.) Best Buddies Pet Obedience.

Please bring us a hungry dog, food rewards, toy rewards, a long leash, and gloves if desired.

Puppy Hikes

A series of 6 half-hour hikes. Designed for pups aged 6 months or under. Individual hike can be attended for an additional fee with approval from instructor.

Hikes are off-leash, in a 12 acre fenced-in field, and we use a lot of food reinforcement! We often have instructor-owned, very stable, friendly adult dogs who also participate. Maximum of 6 pups. Dress for the weather!

Pre-requisite: Healthy dog. Only people and dogs who are participating in other Raspberry Ridge Sheep Farm training activities are eligible to participate. Must be approved by instructor.

Adult Dog Field Hike

Saturday afternoon Field Hikes are for friendly adult dogs and well-trained handlers. You will  have access to a 10-12 acre field somewhere on our 77 acre sheep farm to let your dog exercise off-leash, for recreation and training. The field will be shared with other field hike clients. If you require a more private setting for your dog, please let us know. The timing of this Field Hike is intended to allow Rally Practice clients to exercise and warm up their dogs, but anyone wishing to take a leisurely, half-hour, off-leash walk with their well-behaved dog is also welcome to join.  Please contact Sierra Keiper when registering or if you have further questions: email sierrakeiper@gmail.com or text/call (484) 544-1723