Puppy and Basic
Manners Classes

To see our current class schedule or to register for class…

Puppy Kindergarten

Appropriate for puppies 8-20 wks old

This is our foundation Puppy class and is 7 weeks long (1 class per week)! It is a balanced mix of puppy problem solving, puppy socialization, and puppy manners!

Each week we have a new socialization theme to help the puppies have a plethora of good experiences in puppihood and we work on teaching our puppy to offer plenty of desirable behaviors like focus, four paws on the floor, sit, and more!

While we often have a few minutes of puppy play at the end of class, this is a small portion of our curriculum. We find it more important for them to learn to work around other dogs calmly.

Classes wrap up with the AKC Star Puppy Test

Puppies will learn:

♦ Offer Sit and Down

♦ Attention/Name

♦ Greeting people nicely

♦ Settle on a mat

♦ Beginning of Come

♦ Foundation Leash Manners

♦ Impulse Control with food

♦ And more!

Humans Learn:

Strategies for socialization, house training, and common puppy problems. How to effectively use positive reinforcement, environmental management, and redirecting unwanted behaviors to builld up really good behavior and avoid all of those annoying unwanted behaviors.

Elementary Manners

For dogs 5 months old or older

This is our foundation basic manners class and is 7 weeks long (1 class per week)! This class teaches a broad swath of basic manners skills to an introductory level. This can be used as a first class or a refresher. Dogs must be comfortable in a group class environment.

Humans Learn:

♦ Solid clicker training mechanics (or using a verbal marker like, ‘yes’)

♦ How to capture, shape, and lure

♦ How to implement a management routine while training is taking place

Dogs will learn:

♦ Sit and Down

♦ Attention/Name

♦ Greeting people nicely

♦ Settle on a mat

♦ Beginning of Come

♦ Loose leash walking

♦ Impulse Control with food

♦ Hand target

♦ Sit or Down until released

Middle School
Manners

For dogs over 6 months old

This is our Intermediate level basic manners class. It is 7 weeks long (1 class per week) and focuses on taking all of the skills learned in elementary school and making them more harder by increasing criteria for distance, duration, and distractoins.

Dogs must have taken our elementary manners or can get permission if they’ve successfully passed a similar class.

Humans learn:

♦ How to add a verbal cue (like “leave it”) to a behavior that either has a hand signal or no signal at all

♦ When and how to increase criteria, when to hold, or when it might need to be decreased

♦ How to start reducing the rate of reinforcement

Dogs will learn:

♦ Sit and Down Stay with duration, distance, and distractions

♦ Attention under more exciting conditions

♦ Greeting people nicely (starting to work towards a C.G.C. type greeting)

♦ Recall with more distance and distractions

♦ Leash walking through distractions

♦ Reliable “Leave it” cue

♦ Reliability of behaviors in closer proximity to other dogs and people

Class Structure

We aim for the first few weeks to be skill strenghtening and acquisition and the last few to be playing challenging games to increase the pressure for the handlers and the dogs! Fun, Fun, Fun!