Puppy School

Sophiedoodle

Sophiedoodle

Location
Fife, Scotland
I have been waiting a long time to share this news of my new venture (through work), and it is now come to the time to share it.
As most of you know, at the end of last year, I completed an advanced canine behaviour diploma. My boss paid for me to do this course so we could start up a Puppy School programme!
Here is the extract taken from the description on our website:
"Your puppy will spend an extra week with us beyond the litter collection date and will follow the "A Paw Up" training programme during this time: He’ll get started with important early training where the primary focus will be on getting familiar with the crate and doing the toilet outside! During the daytime, your puppy’s crate door will be open so that he can come and go as he pleases and start to get comfortable with it. He will have access to the outdoor turf toileting area via our ‘doggie door’ during the daytime which fast-tracks toilet training. The vet bed, blanket, toys and bowls he uses will be his to take home and the familiarity of these items will aid with the transition period.
Then, your puppy will spend either 2, 4 or 6 weeks with one of our trainers in their home. (this is where i come in!!)

He’ll build on everything he has learned so far – getting more comfortable with crate training and improving reliability in toilet training. He’ll also learn to sit in his crate at mealtimes. Socialisation with people and other dogs will continue – the longer he is enrolled for, the more people and dogs of different breeds and sizes he’ll meet. Your puppy will gradually get used to spending a little more time alone so that he will be ready to adjust to busy family life when you will need to leave him home-alone for a few hours.
The trainer will continue to work on grooming, and if he’s with us for 4 weeks or more, he’ll be introduced to bathing. He’ll learn to recognise and respond to his name. The trainer will dedicate a lot of time to working on basic manners and commands, such as not jumping up and not mouthing, and ‘sit’, ‘lie down’ and ‘stay’.
He will commence lead walking training and will learn to come when called. If he is with us at 10 weeks old, he’ll get his final puppy vaccination and from 11 weeks old, he’ll be able to explore public places on the ground which will be great for his continued socialisation in the “big bad world”. Prior to 11 weeks, this will be limited to being in the trainer’s arms.
Your puppy will experience lots of short car journeys and will become increasingly comfortable with car travel. The longer he is enrolled in puppy school for, the more he will achieve and the more reliable each element of his training will be, particularly in distracting environments.
When you come to collect your puppy at the end of the training, we’ll provide a written progress report and a comprehensive handover which will include time with the breeder and the trainer. This will allow you build on and reinforce his training."

I thought i would start this thread so i could post updates on my work and show what i have achieved in the number of weeks i will have the puppy. Also, if anybody has any hints or tips then i would love to hear them to make it easier on both me and the puppy :)

My first puppy has officially started puppy school and i will be bringing her home on Friday for 6 weeks! I am so so excited to start this! :nod::happy:
 
Jen

Jen

I don’t really know how I feel about the idea of that being honest 😬 like it’s obviously good for you and your development, Sophie which is brill.

But I think if you’re not willing to put the initial ground work in are you really ready for a puppy? And I think people will expect to receive a fully trained dog, and have issues when they still have a little terror that causes mischief.
 
Sophiedoodle

Sophiedoodle

Location
Fife, Scotland
Jen said:
I don’t really know how I feel about the idea of that being honest
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I do tend to agree with you on this but I will be showing them the progress and they’ll get videos etc each week to prove that the puppy can do it. Then I’ll be showing them how they should do with the puppy, so basically if the puppy is still a little sh*t at home, then they can’t put blame on anyone other than themselves. They will also get ongoing support from me and my bosses if they ever do have any issues.
We are surprised it’s been so popular actually but we started it up as we did occasionally get emails from people asking if we had any trained puppies available. It’s difficult to know how it will work out until it’s been trialled. :)
 
Charlie

Charlie

Location
Argyll & Bute, Scotland
Congratulations Sophie, another string to your bow. I do feel the same as @Jen Half the pleasure of having a puppy is training and bonding with it. Won't this be lost? I bet it's expensive too on top of the price of the puppy. I can imagine those owners that can't be bothered to train their puppy will sign up. I can see problems further down the line too. 12 1/2 years on I still have support from Hattie's breeder and any good breeder would offer this regardless. It wouldn't be for me. I do wish you luck Sophie. xx
 
Atemas

Atemas

UK Tour Guide
Location
North Cambridgeshire
I am happy for you @Sophiedoodle but yes my first thought was of the buyer/owner of the dog and where they feature in all this. I as you know had masses of problems adjusting to Red as a little puppy and managing an older dog who reacted badly to the newcomer. It was a terrible time but one I strangely don’t regret as it made me stronger and my bond with Red more special. Presumably the new owners will be able to bond quickly and take over successfully. I’ll will follow with interest 😃
 
Jacqui-S

Jacqui-S

Moderator
Location
Fife, Scotland
I think it's all part of the bonding process too. I think it's a shame people are missing out on this.
The odd puppy yes, I get that, but if people think it's a short cut, they are going to be disappointed.
I'm keeping my fingers firmly crossed this works out okay for Sophie.
 
Selina27

Selina27

Location
Herefordshire, UK
@Sophiedoodle , this sounds great for you and I hope it will be successful.

Like others, on first reading about the project I felt that people would be missing out by not learning to do these things themselves and therefore the bond would take longer to form, and that there would be a risk of producing a potential "off the shelf puppy". But thinking about it I can see that there are positives, in that there maybe less likelihood of puppies being returned to the breeders or going for rehoming. I think the idea of keeping the breeder/owner contact going is a good one, just to help folk through the wobbly times. After all, speaking for myself, this is what TLF did for me, I found it by searching for help with Cassie's biting. Not that I would have parted with her, I'm old enough and experienced enough with animals and knew that I just had to stick it out, difficult adolescence included. But it definitely helped having internet friends!

As far as the bond is concerned, people take on older puppies and adult dogs all the time, and form good relationships, so I don't see puppy days as essential. I feel a sense of acheivement myself for Cassie having become the lovely dog she is now, but I'm not sure she loves me any the more for sticking out her wildchild days :)
 
Beanwood

Beanwood

Administrator
I think this is such an exciting prospect and right up your street @Sophiedoodle :). In essence I really like this idea. So long as the focus is on working with life skills to help develop a more self-assured puppy, as apposed to, sit, down and paw.
I would like to understand more how the organisation is going about immersing the new owners into the "hows" and "whys" of their "Paws Up" package. For example, does it look at how puppies/ dogs communicate, learn and develop? Touching on classical and operant learning for example?
The more confident and resilient puppies that leave breeders with owners, briefed in the latest science -based training methods, the better.
 
Sophiedoodle

Sophiedoodle

Location
Fife, Scotland
Beanwood said:
I would like to understand more how the organisation is going about immersing the new owners into the "hows" and "whys" of their "Paws Up" package.
Click to expand...
Everything that is mentioned in the descriptions is in more detail in a specific part of the website. Why we do things a certain way is explained and the “hows” are explained on paperwork we give to the owners on collection.
 
A

Aitch

Location
Buckinghamshire UK
Selina27 said:
@Sophiedoodle , this sounds great for you and I hope it will be successful.

Like others, on first reading about the project I felt that people would be missing out by not learning to do these things themselves and therefore the bond would take longer to form, and that there would be a risk of producing a potential "off the shelf puppy". But thinking about it I can see that there are positives, in that there maybe less likelihood of puppies being returned to the breeders or going for rehoming. I think the idea of keeping the breeder/owner contact going is a good one, just to help folk through the wobbly times. After all, speaking for myself, this is what TLF did for me, I found it by searching for help with Cassie's biting. Not that I would have parted with her, I'm old enough and experienced enough with animals and knew that I just had to stick it out, difficult adolescence included. But it definitely helped having internet friends!

As far as the bond is concerned, people take on older puppies and adult dogs all the time, and form good relationships, so I don't see puppy days as essential. I feel a sense of acheivement myself for Cassie having become the lovely dog she is now, but I'm not sure she loves me any the more for sticking out her wildchild days :)
Click to expand...
Exactly this. Sadly I necer had any part in Poppy's, Alex's or Toby's puppy time so I've just made up for it since. Now they are MY dogs (or I am their mum). I am training them, caring for them, paying their vet bills and investing emotionally in them.
 
Sophiedoodle

Sophiedoodle

Location
Fife, Scotland
Anyhow, time for the first puppy picture!

Meet..... Windsor!
(Ok, I don’t choose the names....)
10AB56E2-24FC-48E7-B4F5-ACF170B52FF1.jpeg

Windsor is staying with me for 6 weeks from Friday and she is headed off to Bermuda once she’s “graduated”!
Puppies going abroad to Rabies affected countries have to wait until at least 15 weeks old before travelling. This is due to them not being allowed the rabies vaccine until 12 weeks old, then having to wait at least 3 weeks before travelling. So.... they decided to enrol her into puppy school. She is such a lovely puppy and I think that’s why I’m so excited to bring her home, she’s just a sweetheart :inlove:
 
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