Most local dog trainers, offer a group of lessons starting on a specific date and finishing may 6 or 8 weeks later when it comes to puppy classes.
Breckland Dog Training on the other hand dont, and we dont for a number of reasons which we will explain for you.
First off, when you collect your puppy, normally at 8 weeks you are coming in to the most important part of your puppies life, the Socialisation Period, during this time we have to get our pup in front of as many different things and experiences as we can, creating a positive association with them as we go.
When your vets talk to you about vaccinations, you may be told you need 3 lots of injections over a 4+ week period, which means your dog might be 12 - 14 weeks old before you get it out and about. Its at this time you have to hope that a puppy class place is available. If not you could have to wait for the next classes to start, which if you catch it wrong, could be another few weeks.
Here at Breckland Dog Training, we suggest that once your dog has been given its first jabs that you contact us and get pup along to a class ASAP. We will then invite you along, with pup, to watch whats going on, and also for pup to get to know the environment we train in.
Pup wont be put on the floor, pup will be on your lap taking all the information in as they do. This will help socialisation, and also help you get to know how we train and also what you should be doing at home between our training sessions.
Secondly, if all pups were to start at the same time in the class, they all ' grow up' together, whereas with Open Enrollment or Rolling Enrollment, you will have puppies of varying ages in the class (up to a maximum of normally 8). So again your pups socialisation will be helped having a few older dogs (all be it normally a matter of weeks) around.
If you would like further information about our puppy classes feel free to email steve@brecklanddogtraining.co.uk
