Why I don’t teach puppy classes 

For many first time dog owners raising a puppy for the first time, one of the most common expectations is that their puppy should be going to puppy obedience or puppy socialisation classes. It may seem like a right of passage or a necessary requirement – but in reality one of the number one pieces of advice that I give to my clients is to stay away from these environments when raising a young puppy. So what is it about these classes that I’m so keen to stay away from?

When we look at what we want to teach our puppies, the key word that you’ll hear me mentioning again and again is calmness. That means calmness with people, calmness with other dogs, and calmness in the wider environment. Taking a puppy to a class where it will be running around off lead with a group of other excited and boisterous young dogs is a sure fire way to create overwhelming experiences and bad habits with other dogs. Whether that means that they are learning to practice overly physical and intense behaviour, or become apprehensive and fearful due to this behaviour from other puppies, it’s a poor imprint to teach young dogs that they can expect to jump, or be jumped on by other dogs. As owners, it also means that we start to have unreasonable expectations on what our young dogs can handle.

Many classes these days hinge on using excessive amounts of food, excitement, toys, high pitched noises and other forms of stimulation to encourage ‘engagement’ with young dogs – and this trend is becoming increasingly extreme with every year that passes. The phase you will hear again and again is that we should ‘reward good behaviour’, but in behaviour terms, what we are doing Is stimulating and exciting the dogs every time they practice something we want, meaning that the puppies get more excited and frustrated as the sessions continue, and these habits become more deeply ingrained as the days and weeks go on.  This is a guaranteed way to teach overstimulation, and ends up working against everything that many owners ae trying to achieve – a relaxed, calm dog.

What do I do with young dogs?

From an obedience perspective, a puppy is generally very limited in their capacity to practice obedient behaviours prior to 6 months old. Puppies are highly impulsive, and there is a huge amount of novelty in their environments which needs to be processed – so teaching puppies how to handle new experiences in the right way is essential. Lots of regular practice in a controlled manner, going into new environments and switching off. Sitting down and lying down as the world goes by is a much better imprint than encouraging puppies excitement around new people, places and things.

Many of my clients will spent a long time trying to teach their puppy formal obedience – sits, downs, stays, rollover, paw, etc – which is almost impossible to replicate in a new and stimulating environment. Once puppies are over six months old, and their working memories begin to develop, it becomes significantly easier to teach the same skills. So I would much rather take a young puppy out with a limited expectation of obedience, but a high level of competence at practicing calmness, than the other way around.

When it comes to socialisation, quality over quantity is a great rule for behaviour around other dogs, which means getting your puppy to spend time with calm, well behaved adults dogs that are capable of teaching gentle and polite behaviour with puppies. As the story of Lord of the Flies alludes, children cant teach children – and puppies cant teach puppies. A role model adult dog will do far more than a room full of teething, hyperactive little terrors!