ADOLESCENT PUPPY / TRAINING & SUPPORT

Adolescent Puppy Classes 6-18 Months

To book your puppy onto a future course with us please head to our Online Bookings page.

This course has been created to provide owners that have puppies over the age of 6 months, to 18 months with a supportive class to help you and your adolescent puppies through development. Adolescence is a great time as older puppies can physically explore more of their environment, enjoy longer walks and enjoy fun training. However, there are also challenges with this time of development with once small puppies becoming overly exuberant and often interpreted as rude, increased frustration, fearful behaviour and unwanted behaviour in the home. This will also suit puppies that haven't been to a young puppy class.

During these fearful periods of puppy development, it is important to support our puppies by going back a few steps in socialisation and being careful not to 'flood' our puppies. Flooding means prolonged exposure to a stimulus until the puppy/dog eventually stops reacting. This is the opposite of the approach taken in desensitisation (exposing a dog slowly to a stimulus at a low level/distance). It causes increased stress (cortisol) and will cause further behaviour problems and an animal to shut down. The most common problem is increased fear. Protecting our puppy's from over stimulation, and ‘flooding’ by gently introducing them to the world with positive associations. In class helping puppies lower frustration with guided meets with well matched puppies within the class and training.

Our focus will be on enjoying your time with your adolescent puppy through training support with us.

A 6-Week Adolescent Class with Ongoing Support

Week One – Owners Only at our venue! Similar to our Puppy Class.

This takes place at the booked venue of choice without your puppy. A chance to meet Suzy and possibly her dogs for demonstrations, ask questions, discuss all things adolescence and training. We will talk through puppy behaviour, changes and development into adolescence with your dog and much more. Plus, watch demos and learn key foundations to behaviours we will cover over the following 5 weeks with us. If you have completed your puppy class with us, this course will be looking at building those puppy skills and foundations into reliable behaviours.

We find that our first meeting without dogs really bonds our puppy classes together, and is a great opportunity to talk through any concerns you may have with the group or training questions. We may not be able to cover everything but we will do our best. Plus each group will be set up, with permission, with a separate WhatsApp group for ongoing support.

We will discuss many topics and welcome questions:

Supporting our puppies through adolescence and beyond.
Polite meets and Avoiding Dog-Dog Conflict.
Dog Body Language and Understanding Stress Signals.
Unwanted behaviour in the home: mouthing, biting and jumping up.
Building engagement and focus through play.
Disengagement and Engagement.
Dog’s and Children. Calm behaviour around people and appropriate greetings.
Dog Law
Shaping behaviours: Using a clicker and marker word for communication.
Crate/Confinement Training: Settling video is available.
Harness, Lead and Collar Desensitisation and Equipment: a training video is available.

Week Two – Let's Recap on Puppy Training!

The 'Drop' Cue
Eye contact and how we use this to backchain a 'Leave' cue.
Spin and Twist! Teaching directions and your dog to wipe their own paws.
Settling and Capturing Calm with a small group of adolescent puppies and distraction. Beginning a 'Send to Place'.

Week Three – Let's Upskill Our Recall Skills

Reflex to your puppy’s name and recall practice.
Recall Games and Hand Target: building distance and around class distraction.
Whistle Training
Teaching a 'Send to Place'.

Week Four – Cues and Training for Walks

Training a 'Stay' with duration, distance and distraction.
Teaching disengagement from other dogs, people and squirrels.
Loose Lead Walking: Foundations, Follow Me and enjoying your on lead walk.
Teaching a 'Stop' cue. Adding a verbal and hand signal.

Week Five - Husbandry and Cool Downs

Teaching a 'Middle'.
Muzzle Training - using target training for our puppies to feel comfortable during vet visits.
Loose Lead Skills – Practising around each other in class, adding distraction.
Proprioception for building confidence in different environments.
Freework and Scent Activities for cool-downs

Week Six – Building and Using Learnt Skills

This week we will be focusing on incorporating all of the above skills and putting them into practice around each other and different distractions.

Polite and Relaxed Greetings with dogs and people.
Walking past other dogs and distractions.
Using our 'Stop' cue.
Recall from distraction.

Puppy Adolescent Class 6-week Course = £120.00

Including a worksheets with broken down behaviours to practise at home.

Current Venue for Classes

Grammar Rooms – Chipping Sodbury – Broad Street

The Grammar Rooms in Chipping Sodbury offers a lovely space for Puppy Club training in a warm hall environment and outside space for practicing all of our learnt puppy skills. We invite 2 people per puppy from the same household to join us. The limit is to accommodate everyone and puppies comfortably.

Improvers Adolescent Puppy Class - Next class September 21st 2024

A 6-Week Course for puppies that have finished puppy training and want to further upskill and learn new behaviours, adding in some tricks and introductions to a few fun sports. Suzy has combined her Adolescent and Improvers course for this adolescent puppy focused class. Each adolescent class receives a booklet and access to a private WhatsApp group just for this specific class, where we add videos to support your learning.

For adolescent puppies, 6 to 18 months, looking at upskills and building upon those foundation behaviours cover in puppy class and 121 training. This class will also be suitable for puppies who have done other puppy training. We will look at being able to recall past distractions in class and building reliable behaviours in different environments.

Wolf and Whippet have built a improvers training class that is run in small groups of up to 4 dogs for 6 weeks and priced the same at £120.00. Included in the price are handouts where needed, group challenges with prizes for motivation, and ongoing training support via a private WhatsApp group. This class is focused on Adolescent Puppies that would like to continue practice, upskill training and continue building skills as a partnership.

In class, we teach many behaviours using shaping, a process whereby you slowly teach your dog a new behaviour by marking and rewarding each small step. This method reduces frustration during learning, plus effective and fun to watch your dog learn and think for themselves. This course will look at key training skills along with using clicker training to teach tricks. Trick training is a great mental activity for busy adolescent puppies to focus on, that is fun for both owner and dog.

As with all my support with dogs, my work is focused on teaching you, the owner, and the handler how to train these skills. All success comes down to you and your wins as a partnership with your puppy. A 1 hour puppy class per week will not train your puppy these skills, it is all down to your practise. What I will give you are the techniques, the how, why, and skill to have fun training with your puppy.

We also set weekly challenges to keep you and your dog motivated and enjoying training in partnership together.

Week 1: Introduction to the course and discussion of individual group needs.
• Using a Clicker/Marker Word.
• Building Engagement and value to be near you.
• Teach a Down with duration, around distraction.
• Send to Place.

Week 2: Let's upskill recall together
• Recall Skills. Using games, using a check-in and anchor cue.
• Disengagement and Engagement practice.
• Forming wanted habits on walks.
• Teaching a Stop Cue

Week 3: Loose Lead skills focus.
• Loose Lead Walking: drunk dog walking and lead skills.
• Polite Greetings around People and Dogs.
• Teaching a Stay around distraction.
• Practice Send to Place: adding distance.

Week 4: Let's add a Trick.
• Foot Targeting on a place board. Starting with front feet.
• Stay Cue: Build distance, duration and distraction.
• Loose Lead slalom games to practice skills.
• Teaching a Middle. (Or leg weaves.)

Week 5: The Power of Play.
• Warm Ups: Sit to Greet practice and racing recalls.
• Introduction to Whistle Training.
• Around a pole/cone.
• Practice a Middle.

Week 6: Dog Led Training Fun.
• Practice a stop cue, mid recall.
• Our last week is led by you and your dogs. Covering skills you would like further support with.
• Demo your favourite trick or skill!

We also set weekly challenges to keep you and dog motivated and enjoying training in partnership together.

More about your trainer...

Suzy is a fully certified dog trainer by The Association of INTODogs (https://www.intodogs.org) and ICAN. Suzy is also an accredited Hoopers Instructor with Canine Hoopers UK and a ScentworkUK instructor, which she incorporates into her work with puppies and dogs. She is also passionate about animal rescue, consulting and advising for rescues as well as fostering and volunteering.

Please visit our CPD page for more information about our qualifications and certifications.

INTODogs are under the UK Dog Behaviour and Training Charter. Please visit the charter website to see what assurances this symbol brings to dog owners and other canine professionals.

https://ukdogcharter.org/

Making sure that your puppy or dogs welfare and wellbeing is priority

Please note that not all behaviours listed on services may be able to be covered in a remote or practical session. Puppies and dogs often need breaks in learning and rest, which we have to be aware of for their well being. Therefore, we offer ongoing support and have videos demonstrating behaviours for ongoing support.