I am asked all the time about what I am up to and when my next training session will begin, so I wanted to share with you all what great things are coming up. In about two weeks I will be beginning my next session of classes, Basic Obedience, Intermediate Obedience and a brand new, exciting and fun Drop-In Puppy Play/Obedience Workshop. All will be starting June 25th in the Pasadena space that currently is hosting my group classes.
I think most people look at class names and decide what is right for their dog based on not necessarily the right things. So I want to take a moment to explain some reasons each class might be right for you.
Basic Obedience: This may seem straight forward, but there is more than one reason why you may want to take this class. Besides the obvious that you would take this if your dog has no understanding of obedience, there are two other reasons that this class could make a powerful impact in you and your dog's life. First, I concentrate on building a relationship between you and your pooch. If there has been a fracture in the relationship or maybe you just adopted or started to foster your dog, this is the perfect class to just build your relationship. If the dog is solid on basic obedience, that is even better, you will consistently be able to set your dog up to succeed and therefore gain so much confidence and allow you to just focus on the relationship, so obedience is a tool, not a task. Second, if you have a dog that is completely distracted by other people and/or dogs, this is the perfect place to work on that. We would again be setting your dog up to succeed because they already know the basics, your work with them would be in getting them to focus on you while complying with your commands. In the course of the class, they would learn that they are to focus on you, not other people and/or dogs. This class is 5 weeks long and $150.
Intermediate Obedience: For this class, you must have completed Basic Obedience or Puppy Class, with me or any other trainer. This class is more of a challenge, we continue to generalize our basic obedience by adding distractions and continue to learn a few new commands as well. This class is great for working on distraction training with your dog, continuing to build a relationship and to have fun with your dog while still working on obedience. This is another class you can use to work on having your dog focus on you, not the other dogs and/or people. If your dog has a strong reaction to other people and/or dogs, it is best to ease into this with the Basic Obedience class first, but this is a great continuation. This class becomes intense with all the movement of people and dogs, so any dogs that cannot handle that must start in Basic to build up their tolerance. This class is 5 weeks long and $150.
Drop-In Puppy Play/Obedience Workshop: I am most excited to launch this class. I simply love being around puppies and adore watching them play, but not everyone understands good play vs. hazardous play. This Drop-In session will run through the whole summer and is limited to the number of puppies allowed. The class will of course have a play session for all the pups that is heavily monitored to make sure all the pups are playing nice. It will also include some fun games to play with your pup to keep them engaged during training but will work the commands you badly need to teach them. It is so much fun! The best part is that these are drop-in classes, so you can come as often or as infrequently as you wish. You pay $15, $20 or $25 per session depending on if you are currently in a class, an alumni or new to us.
Beyond these classes, please keep your eyes on my website for more summer fun drop-in classes in and around Downtown, focused for the people and dogs of Downtown! This includes a Pooch Parade, we are getting all barked up about it! I also can always do private training sessions if you need special one on one attention.
