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Puppy Preschools


Guest donatella
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Guest donatella

As the topic states, are these worth going to?

Mine is 14 weeks old now so I think I may be cutting it fine as I believe the intake is before 16 weeks. The other thing I worry about is she weighs 1.4kgs, is it lots of puppies running around being puppies?

She is very social already, loves everything she comes across but I'd like to socialise her with other breeds large and small if its well controlled.

If all the above is suitable for an itty bitty bundle of energy, anyone in Brisbane Southside have recommendations (south east preferred)?

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Absolutely worth it. I have many dogs and family with dogs and how my puppy interacts at puppy school is very different as they are out of their confort zone.

Firstly your puppy needs to get use to puppies of all shapes and sizes, secondly she need to learn how to focus on you will all the distrctions.

The puppy school at my obedience club the puppies do play off lead in a contained area for the first 10-15 minutes. In the current class there is a small breed and she is less than 1kg - she is comping just fine!! There has also be in other classes where the small breed pup has been alittle unsure the first week - you should see how their confidence changes over just 4 weeks :-)

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Guest donatella

Most of the ones i've enquired about are run by vet nurses and i'd rather an actual trainer.

The only other option is an actual Obedience Club when she turns 16 weeks in 2 weeks which might be what I have to do as I know they start the young pups off separate before they do any obedience work.

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We didn't get Kyojin til about 14 weeks old, and we started puppy school right away. It was with a trainer. All dogs were on lead and not actually allowed to interact as such, so it wasn't just a puppy free for all. I wouldn't go through a vets.

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If you find a puppy preschool where all the puppies are allowed to have a free for all, run a mile. That is not a good puppy school. Interaction should be between two carefully matched pups at a time.

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As the topic states, are these worth going to?

What are you serious???

Didn't the breeders specify that you need to complete Puppy School, and at least one full session of Obedience?

As well as this continual socialisation, Vets, kennels, grooming, dog baths etc

As much handling and exposure as you can manage.

post-3970-0-47574000-1348661129_thumb.jpgpost-3970-0-31536900-1348661164_thumb.jpgpost-3970-0-54924600-1348661181_thumb.jpgpost-3970-0-79122200-1348661301_thumb.jpg

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I don't think they are worth it if you already have access to well behaved adult dogs (not your own) for the pup to socialise.

My last pup I took to classes but she spent 99% of the time ignoring the other dogs even when it was one on one, instead spent all her time sitting and focusing on me, and I didn't agree with what the lady was saying (never feed raw bones, about toilet training and training in general)

So for me it was a waste of time and money, next pup I won't be doing it.

That said I think they are a great idea if you find a really good one and don't have any set ideas of how you want to raise the pup or wanted someone to bounce ideas.

Edited by tollersowned
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As the topic states, are these worth going to?

What are you serious???

Didn't the breeders specify that you need to complete Puppy School, and at least one full session of Obedience?

As well as this continual socialisation, Vets, kennels, grooming, dog baths etc

As much handling and exposure as you can manage.

post-3970-0-47574000-1348661129_thumb.jpgpost-3970-0-31536900-1348661164_thumb.jpgpost-3970-0-54924600-1348661181_thumb.jpgpost-3970-0-79122200-1348661301_thumb.jpg

I think it can be very different when you are talking about a toy breed puppy rather than a large pup. If the pre-school is badly run it can do a small pup more harm than good as a tiny pup is at a large risk of being treated as a chew toy by much larger pups without the right care.

Also not all breeders specify you must complete what you have stated, everyone has different ideas on socilisation as i think tollersowned idea is a fantastic option if you know dogs like that for a pup. I am soon getting a puppy and my breeder while giving ideas on soclisation has not demanded that i have to do anything he says to do as its not a case of one shoe fits all type of thing.

Edited to add, the photo of your pup Tralee, that is a huge pup, im not sure a 1kg pom pup would get much out of a play session with a large pup like that bouncing on it in play except that other dogs are scary.

Edited by Alibi
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You don't need to go to puppy school to make sure your pup is socialised, and a bad puppy school will do far more harm then good. Certainly if you have access to a good, safe puppy school run by a knowledgeable trainer then it would be worthwhile going but it's not something I would consider if I didn't have access to a puppy school that met my criteria.

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You don't need to go to puppy school to make sure your pup is socialised, and a bad puppy school will do far more harm then good. Certainly if you have access to a good, safe puppy school run by a knowledgeable trainer then it would be worthwhile going but it's not something I would consider if I didn't have access to a puppy school that met my criteria.

I agree. As long as you understand what socialisation is and how to do it then you can do it on your own. Lots of people think that socialisation only means exposure to other dogs though.

In my puppy classes we talk about how to socialise safely with a range of things, teach puppies to focus on the handler amongst distraction and only have short controlled play sessions between 2 pups at a time on leash, and only for those who want to. We don't force pups to intereact and take it slow and carefully for any shy pups. We don't push products like some vet schools do, and we learn how to start training obedience as well.

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the good thing about urban is they have play groups on weekends divided into large breed and small breed groups and at urban they teach you how to support your nervous puppy or how to discipline your naughty puppy all without using harsh techniques

they are great! def recommend them

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Myself: I dont think they are worth it, in our case. We never took Maui to them, hes very well behaved, we have spent a lot of time training him ourselves.

BUT, if someone didnt have that time or access to other doggles (as we did) it might be worth it...

Guess its really up to the individuals.

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I agree with the previous poster who wrote that if there is any off leash play, run a mile. Not appropriate for young puppies who don't knkow each other, of different breeds and ages, to be playing with each other. As other posters have said, a good puppy school will have a dog trainer, or even a knowledgeable vet nurse, who lets the puppies have closely supervised, one-on-one, on-leash interactions with one another. It depends what your training goals are too.

I did the K9Pro puppy training course with my last pup, as well as a carefully chosen puppy school, and although most of the info was not at all new, the practice of training with distraction, and having pleasant associations with the vet clinic was helpful.

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I'm on the other side of town to you, so can't help with recommendations, but the preschool we went to kept dogs on lead except for short (well-supervised!) play periods where a couple of pups of similar size and temperament were let off to interact together. If you find something like that, it would be useful to you. Exposure to all sizes (we had everything from some tiny fluff ball that could practically fit in your palm to my boofy lab in my class) with controlled interaction.

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