Courses

PUPPY MANNERS & SOCIALIZATION

This six-week course is designed for puppies aged 9-16 weeks. It is a wonderful introduction to both puppies and their people into the world of, well, puppies and their people! There are three sections to the course: owner information, early obedience, and puppy socialization. All three are equally important, and we cover all three in each lesson.

Topics include, but are not limited to: teething, biting, chewing, barking, digging, jumping, pulling, housetraining, cratetraining, how to play with, groom, and trim the nails of your puppy, nutrition, exercise, playing with other puppies, and sit, down, leave it, come, and loose leash walking. Average class size is 6 dogs. Puppy Class is not a prerequisite for Foundations. More...

FOUNDATIONS

This six-week course provides the dog-person team with information and basic skills necessary to develop a fun working relationship. The focus is on focus! The dog's ability to focus on his person is critical to his ability to learn the basic skills. Skills include: sit, sit-stay, down, down-stay, come, leave it, stand, focus, and walking on a loose leash. The search for the best reinforcers for the dog is also a priority.

Class maximum is 6 dogs. Puppy class is not a prerequisite for BEYOND THE BASICS. Owners attend without their dogs the first week. Families are welcome (no children under 6 for group classes, please). More...

BEYOND THE BASICS

This six-week course takes the information and skills learned in Foundations and applies distractions of all sorts to the dog-person team in order to prepare the dog for the Big World of Distractions. Just as focus is paramount to Foundations, generalization and distraction-proofing are the catch-phrases for BEYOND THE BASICS. This means that we can take all of the skills so beautifully performed in the kitchen and apply them in the park! We also take a look at trick-training as a way to encourage people to problem-solve on their own.

Class maximum is 6 dogs. Foundations is prerequisite to BEYOND THE BASICS. More...

RALLY-O

Rally-Obedience is the most fun you can have with your dog. It's the activity in which you compete, show off your dog’s ability to heel, recall, sit, down, turn, spin, and negotiate some obstacles and still praise your dog, pet him, celebrate with him, and even treat him! Rather than having a judge directing what you do, you simply are told when to start, and you go do your thing, heeling your dog from one command sign to the next, doing what each sign tells you to do, at your own pace.

And everyone around you cheers you on! Sound like fun?? Learn More...

CONTROL FOR AGILITY

We have it all: tire jumps, teeters, dog walks, chutes, A-frames, tunnels, etc. But our goal is to get your dog to focus on you and take out the stress of competitive agility. So this is a great start for those who want to exercise their dog's bodies and brains and find out what positive motivational training methods for agility are all about.

Prerequisite: Foundations or a private lesson with an instructor to evaluate your dog's ability to work around canine distractions and respond to basic commands. Learn more...

CGC -- CANINE GOOD CITIZEN

This six-week course helps the dog-human team to prepare to take the CGC test, an AKC-sponsored certificate whose purpose is to promote responsible dog ownership. Each subtest is practiced individually and with the group in order to shape the skills necessary to go anywhere as a team! Foundations is a prerequisite for CANINE GOOD CITIZEN.

REACTIVE CLASS

This is an ongoing, rather unconventional class, designed for dogs who find things in their lives SCARY (other dogs, people, noises, etc.) Class is usually held outside in all weather, but moves indoors in winter.

Class maximum is 5 dogs. Prerequisite: minimum of 3 private consultations with the trainer. Daytime Reactive Class is currently available! Learn More!

RECALL & RETRIEVE

WHERE'S MY DOG?

Ever wonder how you can get better focus on your dog? Do you want to do rally, obedience, or agility? Do you have a dog who is so busy doing other things that he or she seems to forget that you're there? Then this is the class for you!

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