101 REASONS THAT YOU DON’T THINK YOU NEED PUPPY CLASS
When people ask me what the most important thing they can do to get started on the right paw with their puppy I tell them to come to puppy class. The sad thing is that I hear 101 reasons why people don’t think they need puppy class.
Housetraining is going pretty well…he only makes mistakes once or twice a day!
He comes when he is called already-I don’t need to take a puppy class!
I have another dog at home-he doesn’t need more friends than that!
None of my other dogs went to puppy class and they were fine!
If you have thought it, I have probably heard it in answer to why you aren’t coming to puppy class. Why is it then that I am so insistent that your puppy, and my puppy and every puppy deserves puppy class? I have 101 reasons for you to come to puppy class and here are a few of them.
At one conference I attended, we heard that 80% of the dogs who die before the age of two die of preventable behaviour problems, and hundreds of thousands of dogs die before the age of two each year. You can do some simple things to ensure that your puppy won’t be one of those puppies who die of a preventable behaviour problem by coming to puppy class. Do we prevent 100% of the behaviour problems in puppy class? Of course not, but we have a pretty darned good track record, and puppy class is one of the things that has been shown to prevent a lot of behaviour problems.
Puppies are learning sponges and they are almost preprogrammed to absorb the important lessons that they will need to succeed in your home before they are about twenty weeks of age. Before a puppy is 20 weeks of age, he will learn what surfaces are legal to toilet upon, who he is permitted to greet, how to greet other dogs and people politely, what is legal to chew upon and who is the best bet in the house for fun and games. After twenty weeks, puppies are well prepared to learn to apply what they have learned in their first twenty weeks but they are not as proficient at learning the rules of your home. In puppy class you will get help and support you need to be successful. Could you teach this yourself without the support of a class? Sure, but in class you are going to learn what is new in the world of dog training and a lot of the new stuff will not have trickled down to me if I had not been taking continuing education credits all the way along-take advantage of the work your instructor does to keep current on dog training methods.
I often hear that puppies are going to the dog park to learn to interact with other dogs or that there is an adult dog in the home to teach the puppy what to do when meeting other dogs. There are a few problems with this logic. To start with, the dog park is a free for all where any dog can show up and go off leash. If you don’t have control over who your puppy meets, you have no idea if your pup is meeting the sweet older dog who is calm and confident or the bruiser who is looking to roll your puppy and take the stuffing out of him.
These dogs look like they are having a good time, but they are all large active breed dogs. If you insert your puppy into this play group, your pup could get hurt or become the target of a larger dog. Young puppies learn great play skills and acquire bite inhibition by playing with dogs who are their own age. Copyright: maratr / 123RF Stock Photo
Adult dogs have a lot to teach puppies, but one of the things they cannot do is be a puppy themselves. Normal puppy behaviour develops best when puppies have other puppies to play with. Pups have tiny needle sharp teeth and they use these on one another during play. If one pup bites another puppy too had, the second puppy will let out a big yelp and will stop playing with the first puppy. This process of rough and tumble is an important step in teaching young dogs to modulate their bites and acquire bite inhibition. Good bite inhibition is what allows dogs to grab things with their mouths and not do damage, and that skill is fine tuned between puppies, not between puppies and adults.
Waiting to go to puppy class until after the puppy has started showing problems is a common mistake people make all the time. Before a puppy is 16 weeks of age, he will follow you around almost all the time, and if you call him he will come. This is a normal developmental stage for pups. Sometime between 14 and 20 weeks though, your puppy is going to suddenly become quite a bit more independent and the cute little guy who followed you around will suddenly become a whole lot more active and a whole lot less interested in placidly following your lead. One of the things that you get out of puppy class is a chance to teach your pup to come when called not just when he is doing that because he doesn’t have a lot of confidence to explore yet, but to come when called all the time. The more work you put into that right off the bat, in a more formal setting, the more likely it is that your pup will know what to do when he is approaching puberty and beginning to become more independent.
In puppy class we can help you to trouble shoot too; we can help you to head problems off as they develop. From house soiling to inappropriate chewing to jumping up and manners, we are the ones who can help you to develop the best in your puppy before the problems start or as soon as you see them. If your pup has been doing really well with house training and suddenly starts to have trouble, we can usually tell if this is due to how you are approaching house training or if you should go to the vet, and we are really happy to talk to you about how to tell the difference. The same is true when a puppy suddenly develops a dietary issue or if they suddenly stop sleeping through the night. Often, when a pup comes to class with a sudden change we can figure out if the problem is training, developmental or if the pup needs to see the vet.
If your puppy’s behaviour suddenly changes, tell us. If we think it is a training issue, we can tell you what to do and if we think there is a medical issue we will send you to your vet! This is something we can help you with in puppy class! Copyright: photodeti / 123RF Stock Photo
We can also help you to see when your puppy’s behaviour is typical of his breeding or if it is something else. When families tell us that their retriever puppy is carrying shoes all over the house or that their terrier puppy is digging in the yard, we can tell you that this is pretty normal behaviour for those dogs. When a family comes in and tells us that the puppy is spinning endlessly until he falls over and then repeating that behaviour we can tell you that this is not normal and that there might be a problem. Puppy class is the chance for you to check in with a professional who can help you to understand more about your individual dog because we see so many puppies.
You may not ever have trouble with your puppy and you may in fact already know how to socialize and train a puppy, and I would still suggest puppy class. Heck, I go to puppy class with my own pups. Why? Because it is fun. Because I will get to meet the puppies who will become my dog’s friends when he is an adult. Because I will meet the people I will walk with when my pup is older. Because for 90 minutes each week, I can turn off my cell phone and just focus on everything puppy and watch my pup learn and change and grow. Because it is the first thing that my puppy and I will do as partners. For the rest of his life, what I do with my puppy before 16 weeks will impact the nature of the relationship we will have together, and it all starts in puppy class.
