Alex and Emma run Little Orchard puppy training and socialisation courses.
We always encourage owners to start socialising their puppy as early as possible with other puppies, well behaved adult dogs and people. Therefore, we advise you to book onto a Puppy Course after your puppy has had it's first vaccination. We aim to prevent future problems that are often related to incorrect socialisation.
During the course we ask you to think about how your puppy learns new things and what we can do to make learning situations as easy as possible. We encourage the use of praise, food and toy rewards. This will increase the bond between you and your puppy and make training both a lot easier and a lot more fun.
We start by teaching the puppies some basic commands and exercises, these include:
The course runs for 6 weeks with each lesson lasting an hour. Unlike many other courses, at Little Orchard the puppy stays at home for the first lesson and all the owners meet together for a talk on common behaviour, training and health issues. This is where owners have an opportunity to have any questions answered and iron out any problems that may be specific to their puppy. The puppies come along to the other 5 lessons and that's when they get to have their say and we take you both through the structured lessons of training and socialisation.
The play carried out is very controlled as too much off lead or rough play is proven to create behaviour problems in later development so this is discouraged on Little Orchards courses.
The Kennel Club approves these classes as we work to the Puppy Foundation award Good Citizen scheme and we have 'Listed Status'.
We can offer one-2-one home visits but would strongly reccomend that puppies attend the Puppy Course because they will have a greater network of support throughout the six weeks and will be able to socialize with other puppies and dogs.
