Thank you for your interest in our “Doggy FUN-damentals Beginners Training Course. This comprehensive training programme with give you everything you need to know to ensure the best possible start for your pup or enable you to improve your older dog’s behaviour.
My name is Sarah and I’m the owner of Dogskool. I am a qualified Dog Trainer and Canine Behaviourist, with many years experience of working with dogs of all shapes and sizes!
I am, what they call nowadays, a “positive” dog trainer. That is, I like to find ways to reward a dog for something I want him to do, rather than punish him for something he probably hasn’t been taught how to do properly in the first place!
I have a University degree, an Advanced Diploma in Canine Psychology and I am a Gold standard Approved Instructor with the Academy of Dog Training and Behaviour. I am also a member National Register of Dog Trainers and Behaviourists and the Pet Professional Guild. I am a Kennel Club examiner for the Good Citizen Dog Scheme. I also hold the Expert Witness Certificate from Cardiff University which enables to work as a dog behaviourist for the Courts, assessing dogs and giving evidence in criminal and civil dog related cases.
In creating this online course, I am assisted by Dogskool Instructors, Michelle Caisley, Michelle Turnock and Courteney Garsden.
Dogskool‘s online “Doggy FUN-damentals!” Puppy/Beginners course offers you the chance to train your dog in the comfort of your own home. Using the most modern, effective, positive methods, you can train your dog quickly and easily. Involve the whole family and enjoy working with your dog to achieve great, long-lasting results!
Whether you have a new puppy or an older rescue dog, you can create a well-mannered and easy to handle pet!
The course is easy to follow. Every 5 days, we will give you access via email to your next lesson. Each lesson includes written instructions and video tutorials to make your learning as effective as possible. We will also offer email support throughout your course. There is also a Facebook group for all our online students where you can ask questions, post videos and share your success!
Your course will cover:
How to get your dog’s attention, even with distractions.
Basic positions – Sit, Down and Stand
Deal with jumping up
Coming back when called
Walking nicely on the lead
Sit Stay and Down Stay
Waiting politely at doorways or for food
How to play with your dog including Retrieve
A few fun tricks such as creep, round and twirl!
Testimonials
FAQ
The course is suitable for any dog whatever size, age or breed.
Not much, just nice, tasty treats and a favourite toy such as a ball or a tuggy. Also a collar, harness or headcollar and a normal lead. We would also recommend a Recall line.
Yes, the more you practice, the better your dog will be. We recommend short training sessions of about 10 minutes a couple of times a day if you can manage it and building your training into your normal, daily routines.
As a trainer, Dogskool can obviously deliver online training to help you continue to teach your puppy their basic lifeskills. But part of any training course, is the ability to have your dogs in the presence of other dogs, learning valuable social skills.
We have been told that we can still walk our dogs as long as we keep away from other people. That means that as long as we are careful, we can still enable our puppies to get used to other things that they will encounter outside in their adult life eg traffic, other animals such as horses, sheep, cows etc.
But we won’t be able to get close to other people which means we can’t approach any other dogs. Even in normal circumstances, that should be approached carefully anyway, allowing dogs to engage in short greetings and play, being observant of any puppies that might be nervous of such encounters.
As we are social distancing, we need to rely on conditioning our puppies to see other dogs as very positive things. We want them to learn that the presence of other dogs is a great thing! We can do that even if a dog is at a distance. We use a process called Classical Conditioning. Anyone remember Pavlov?? This involves linking one thing with another. If we link a trigger with something positive, that creates positive emotions. In practical terms, if you are out walking your pup and you see another dog, you immediately start with your “happy, jolly voice” and give a high value food treat such as sausage, cheese, chicken etc. You could equally produce a high value tug toy and have a game. If you repeat this enough, your pup will learn that the presence of a dog means that something fab is going to happen. This creates what we call a “Conditioned Emotional Response” – your dog will feel positive emotions when they see other dogs.
Hope that makes sense? Any questions, please ask!