Puppy Training Classes
A dog loves to obey its owner so you’ll be encouraging a happy relationship by going through the training process with a puppy. If you don’t want to undergo puppy obedience training yourself, then organised classes are a good option.
As well as teaching your puppy obedience, puppy training classes are good for other things like social skills and support.
A class should cover teaching the basic commands for a puppy like sit, stay and fetch. After these have been mastered many classes will teach more advanced obedience training, for example getting your puppy to shake hands or roll over.
At puppy training classes you’ll find a wide mix of people and dogs. This will help your puppy learn to socialise; a task that gets harder as they age if they’re not used to the company of other dogs. As a bonus, you’ll be meeting new people too!
Puppy training classes are a good place to spot any potential problems with your puppy’s behaviour as you have the support there to help fix it.
Puppies learn well between the ages of one and four months old so this is the best time to enrol them in a class. You will need to do some research before choosing the best place. Word of mouth recommendation is generally the best way to find out good classes, but if that’s not possible then try asking local pet shops or vets and then check out their suggestions.
You should visit a puppy training class before enrolling your pet, preferably while a session is underway. Check on the numbers of trainers to each puppy – ideally one for every three – and how many puppies in total are accepted in a class. Preferably, it should be no more than ten.
Watch how the trainers interact with the puppies and owners, and get a feel of how the general atmosphere is. Ask about hygiene as it’s important that the venue is disinfected after classes. If something doesn’t feel right then go elsewhere. After all, you want puppy training classes to be a positive experience for both of you.
