Puppy Pre-School

We recommend all puppies attend our highly informative and tremendously enjoyable classes run by Senior Veterinary Nurse and Animal Behaviourist Susan O'Hare. A well trained and well-socialised dog who responds to basic commands is a happy dog!

Next Class commences:

1. Thursday, 13th January

2. Monday, 17th January

Places limited to 6 puppies per class - enrol now!

Please print out and return completed enrolment forms with your deposit to Springfield District Vets.

Puppy Pre-school Enrolment form 1
Puppy Pre-school Enrolment form 2

 

Susan trained in the UK as a veterinary nurse and qualified in 1988. She also holds a Certificate IV in Companion Animal Services, which is a nationally recognised qualification in dog behavioural training and has been at SDVC since 2007.

Susan is an accredited Delta Canine Good Citizen™ Instructor with the Delta Society Australia. The Society's mission is to promote and facilitate positive interaction between people and companion animals. All Delta Instructors are qualified dog trainers and use scientifically proven positive reinforcement training methods. Instructors run small class sizes which ensure individual attention for you and your dog. Delta Puppy and Adult training is about more than just teaching commands. Delta is about helping people and dogs live together harmoniously. For further information on the Delta Society visit www.deltasociety.com.au.

Positive reinforcement training involves rewarding your puppy for doing behaviour that you find desirable and ignoring and redirecting behaviour that you find undesirable. We believe that there is no such thing as a bad puppy, but that it is our job as dog owners to kindly guide the puppy into doing what we humans find socially acceptable.

Positive reinforcement methods are kinder and less stressful on the dog, and therefore a superior learning environment is created. Both you and your puppy can have fun at our classes.

Susan runs adult dog training at Springfield Lakes State School on a weekend. For information on these courses and private lessons for problem behaviours email Susan at info@happyhounds.com.au

Susan is a professional member of both the Association of Pet Dog Trainers Australia and the Delta Professional Dog Trainers Association. She is a member of the Veterinary Nurses Council Australia and regularly attends seminars and training workshops to ensure that she is up to date in all aspects of positive reinforcement training and veterinary nursing.

Susan and her Golden Retriever Barney are also an Accredited Delta Pet Partner Team whereby they have undergone strict assessment to be deemed suitable to visit nursing homes and hospital wards.

Testimonials

Here are some testimonials from satisfied puppy owners who have attended our puppy preschool:

“Sue’s teaching methods were brilliant and easy to understand.”

“This course helped me and my family a lot. Thankyou so much.”

“Learnt a better way to train a puppy. Positive reinforcement works! Thankyou so much!”

“I’m really sad it’s over but have gained great knowledge to apply in mine

and my pets wonderful relationship.”

“I have had a great time and have learned a lot. I am glad that we came.”

“I hope that a lot more people get to experience your professionalism and outstanding customer service like we did”.

“We looked forward to it every week!”

Why is Puppy Pre-School Important?

- Early socialising of your puppy.

- Advice on dealing with common puppy issues such as house-training, biting, mouthing and jumping up. Teaching good manners and civilised behaviour is best accomplished at a young age before unwelcome habits have a chance to become established.

- Advice on how to teach your puppy a few basic exercises such as sit, lie down and come. These form the basis for self control of your puppy, start teaching the pup to look to you for leadership, and begin the process of teaching self-control. Puppy Pre-school is NOT an obedience class, and we will do very little work on lead.

- An opportunity for your puppy to meet and be gently handled by a range of people: men, women and children. This is the foundation for a good attitude toward people, and is essential to raising a safe and well-adjusted dog. A well-behaved child is welcome to attend class with you - other people’s puppies will benefit from meeting your child.

- An opportunity for your puppy to play with other healthy puppies under supervision. It is essential for puppies to have plenty of contact with others of their species before age 14 weeks. This is when they learn to behave like dogs and communicate with other dogs. Puppies who miss out on this experience may grow up to be antisocial, fearful or aggressive in their interactions with other dogs.

- Information on being a responsible owner, including advice on the nutrition, health, desexing, mental and physical exercise requirements of dogs.

- A fundamental understanding of how dogs work: how they learn and how to teach them, what kinds of behaviours are perfectly natural to the species.

- The opportunity to ask questions about anything you may be wondering about regarding your pup’s behaviour or your care of it.

Our Puppy Pre-school runs for 6 weeks. Each lesson is 1 and a half hour’s long, from 6.30pm until 8.00pm. The first lesson is puppy free, where we cover in theory all you need to know about positive reinforcement training, toilet training and bite inhibition.

Puppy classes are held indoors on a disinfectable surface - ie the waiting room of the clinic. Puppies are old enough for preschool from the age of 7 weeks old provided that they have had their 1^st vaccination at least 7 days prior to the first class. Contrary to popular belief the puppies do not need to have finished the full course of vaccinations. Indeed, it could be detrimental to you puppy to leave socialisation until this time. This is because the most important time for puppy socialisation is during the first 3 months of life, after which the puppy enters a more fearful stage. At our puppy classes, your puppy will meet a range of humans and dogs, closely supervised by Susan, with your puppy’s well being of paramount importance. This is the best way to introduce the new member of your family to the ways of the human world. Susan is passionate about strengthening the human-animal bond. You may be surprised to learn that it is behavioural issues, not infectious diseases, that is the number one cause of death in dogs under 3 years of age (as published by the American Veterinary Society of Animal Behaviour).

The maximum age for puppies to start preschool is 14-16 weeks of age. If your puppy is older than this, Susan does training classes for older dogs. Please contact her on info@happyhounds.com.au

Contact us on 32881574 for more information and book your puppy a place.

Information reproduced with kind permission from Happy Hounds Springfield Lakes and Gold Coast Dog Obedience & Training Club.