Puppy Preschool

Limited puppy preschool places are now available at our clinic on Wednesday and Thursday nights.

The Walkerville Vet Puppy Pre School Program is Based on the Delta Canine Good CitizenTM Lifetime Manners Manual©. Classes conducted by Susanne Eckert,  AABP Professional Dog Trainer Pet Professional Guild

(That’s Jack, one of our graduates- Photography by Julie Wilson)

What Is Puppy Preschool For?

A great way to give your puppy the best start to life

  1. Safe socialisation in the critical ages from 9 to 16 weeks.
  2. Theory & practice of modern training methods.
  3. Owner education on puppy care
  4. Positive memories of the clinic.
  5. Reward-based training as the most scientifically validated method (read the evidence here)
puppy preschool review
an online review of our puppy school

Not only is it fun for your puppy but gives you, as owners, the opportunity to ask questions and know you are not alone with the common puppy problems you may face.

Puppy preschool is not going to give you a trained dog, but it will give you the tools and skills to set your pup on the path to becoming a canine good citizen.

Why Go To Puppy Preschool?

  • To learn positive, reward-based training methods
  • To learn about the use of rewards in training puppies and to learn of the variety of rewards that can be used (verbal, food, toys, life rewards)
  • To be instructed on the use of these methods to teach puppies basic manners (sit, drop, walk on a loose lead)
  • To learn ways to settle puppies, including massage
  • To develop strategies for managing and teaching toilet training to puppies
  • To gain strategies to eliminate undesirable behaviours such as mouthing, chewing on inappropriate items, jumping up
  • To allow puppies to socialise with other puppies and people in a safe environment and become accustomed to different surroundings, sights and sounds
  • To get information about aspects of routine pet health care such as nutrition, desexing, grooming, internal and external parasite control and how to handle puppies to make it easier for veterinary examination.

By the end of this program, puppies will be able to:

  • Sit on cue (with or without a prompt)
  • Drop on cue (with or without a prompt)
  • Accept handling of all parts of the body
  • Respond to name and come to guardian when called (short distance)
  • Start to come away from play with another puppy when called
  • Walk on a loose lead (short distance)

By the end of this program, the puppies’ guardians will be able to:

  • Understand the benefits of using a reward based training method
  • Understand the importance of resource guarding in puppies and how to prevent/manage it
  • Successfully prompt their pup into the sit and drop positions (with or without food)
  • Settle their puppy through the use of massage
  • Understand the importance of rewarding calm behaviour in puppies
  • Obtain their puppy’s attention (using the ‘look’ or ‘watch’ cue) and hold it for 3 seconds
  • Walk their pup on a loose lead for a short distance and demonstrate methods of encouraging this behaviour
  • Correctly handle their puppies to enable examination by the vet
  • Understand the principles of positive reinforcement training and why it is a useful tool for training their puppy.

Puppy Preschool is run on Thursday nights from 6pm-7pm for 5 weeks all year round. For detailed information, visit Puppy Preschool Class Program and Is Puppy Preschool Worth The Effort & Cost?