Puppy ‘Head Start’ Program

Not really. Puppy kindergartens can be helpful from a socialization perspective. However, most puppy kindergartens don’t allow puppies younger than 16 weeks of age as this is the typical age when a puppy has completed their vaccination schedule. This is one of the main reasons we developed this “Head start” program. As you may be finding out, there is a lot that happens between 8 and 16 weeks of age and it’s often helpful to take advantage of those two months to get your puppy going in the right direction. This preliminary work also maximizes any future experience you may have at a puppy kindergarten group class because your puppy has the fundamental understanding to perform in the higher distraction environment of any group class.

We use a regular 6-foot leash and a martingale collar. We also use food as a lure and a primary reinforcer of behaviors.

Our general philosophy of training is more naturalistic. Meaning that when you observe dogs interacting with one another, they use balanced positive and negative feedback in social interactions to encourage behaviors they like and discourage behaviors they don’t like. For dogs over 7 months old, food isn’t a primary training tool for basic training. However, since puppies have a different association with food and the rest of the “pack” when they’re young, we can take advantage of all the benefits of food-based conditioning in our puppy programs.

I often give people a human analogy to illustrate the notion that different developmental stages require different training techniques. Imagine a thought experiment where you saw a parent in a grocery store telling a toddler aged child to stop doing something they’re not supposed to; you may hear the famous parent counting technique. “Little Johnny, put that down … 1, 2 … 3!” You may like or not like that particular parenting technique, but you likely wouldn’t think that parent was crazy for attempting that technique with their two-year-old kid. However, imagine the scenario where you saw that parent at the grocery store with their 17-year-old kid … still using the same parenting technique, “Jonathon, put that back … 1,2 … 3!” Without being a developmental psychologist, you’d probably, rightly, think that parent was a bit nuts in their choice of parenting technique with their nearly adult aged child.