Puppy training

[shane_c]

So our puppy (Inuk) is 4 months old now and we want to put her in puppy school for some training but mainly for socialization. I know that Petsmart has one but are there any others around that you have gone to and recommend? Thanks!

[White Doors]

Take her to the dog run for socialization

[shane_c]

Is that one of those off leash areas? I'm afraid I'd never see her again because she would keep running away from us.

[SpitFire40]

Originally Posted by shane_c

Is that one of those off leash areas? I'm afraid I'd never see her again because she would keep running away from us.

I'm pretty sure it's an event where people go on a run/walk with their dogs.

[shane_c]

Yeah you're right I was just having a brain fart for a second. Wasn't that back in June though. Are they more often than once a year? She's always out walking with us and at parks and meeting the odd dog there but gets WAY too excited and is hopping along on her back legs as we try to get her to calm down.

[Kybosh]

I would recommend doing the puppy training course at Canine Country near the superstore on Country Hills Blvd. I had a pretty good experience there. It cost something like $150 for one class a week for four weeks. The dog will learn some things and so will you (mostly basic commands like sit, down, stay etc.). The person that runs it trains and breeds a pretty wide variety of dogs so she seems to know what she's doing.

[Khel]

Sit Happens... they have a website http://www.sithappens.org, you can take your puppy to "puppy playtime" until they are 5 months of age...

Apparently the period of socialization of puppies is until they are 20 weeks old, so as many positive experiences before that is a good thing for a happy dog...

Our 5 month old pup went to about 6 of the playtimes and 3 of their "bright puppy" classes, it was a good experience for him, and now he's going through the training up there as well...

[shane_c]

Originally Posted by Khel

Sit Happens... they have a website http://www.sithappens.org, you can take your puppy to "puppy playtime" until they are 5 months of age...

Apparently the period of socialization of puppies is until they are 20 weeks old, so as many positive experiences before that is a good thing for a happy dog...

Our 5 month old pup went to about 6 of the playtimes and 3 of their "bright puppy" classes, it was a good experience for him, and now he's going through the training up there as well...

Thanks Khel, that one looks interesting. I have also left a voicemail with the Humane Society because they have a class coming up in October.

[octothorp]

Originally Posted by Khel

Sit Happens... they have a website http://www.sithappens.org, you can take your puppy to "puppy playtime" until they are 5 months of age...

Apparently the period of socialization of puppies is until they are 20 weeks old, so as many positive experiences before that is a good thing for a happy dog...

Our 5 month old pup went to about 6 of the playtimes and 3 of their "bright puppy" classes, it was a good experience for him, and now he's going through the training up there as well...

Sit Happens is pretty good; we took our puppy there for puppy playtime and later for training. They've got puppy playtime on Fridays, and then other puppy classes (bright puppy, I think) that have a mix of playtime and basic training exercises. Those ones were particularly good. The emphasis with the playtime is on letting the dogs interact under supervision but without human intervention, and it did wonders for our initially shy puppy who really became a lot more outgoing over the two months we took him to those classes.