Puppy Kindergarten is an exclusive 7-day overnight program for puppies transitioning from life as littermates to life in their new homes! This comprehensive program is focused on giving each puppy a head start to thrive in their new home by training fundamental core skills at an appropriate age and developmental level and setting the foundation for continued success. Our experienced CPDT-KA trainers work with all enrolled puppies during the 7-day program to lay the foundation for individual confidence, structure, crate training, potty training, and other essential skills in large and small group settings and with each puppy.
Curriculum and Key Skills
- Crate training – each puppy is given their own comfy crate space with a crate cover and soft crate liner. Crate training is essential in helping puppies learn to individuate, feel comfortable in their own safe space, prevent resource guarding, and will generally ease the transition to their new homes
- Potty training – during this program, puppies begin learning a structured schedule for sleeping, eating, potty time, and playtime. Pups will learn cues to potty outside and how to use a potty bell to alert for elimination.
- Meal Manners – puppy kindergarten introduces a schedule for pups eating meals independently while reinforcing calm and polite mealtime manners. Puppies are provided appropriate reinforcement to learn to receive food calmly and eat without excessive excitement at mealtime, making feeding at home much easier!
- Basic cooperative care for grooming and veterinary care – puppies are introduced to positively reinforced, fear-free techniques to ease grooming tasks and veterinary care visits such as desensitization to nail clippers, brushing, and allowing examination of ears, teeth and other areas of the body.
- Introduction to leash training- each puppy will receive a custom collar (that will go with them at the end of the week!) and will be introduced to the basics of leash training including tolerating the application of the collar and leash, reinforcing on leash “mini-walks” in pairs and individually
- Desensitization skills – throughout the week, reinforcement is provided through training games with puppies that help to desensitize to surfaces (such as walking over grates and door thresholds, walking in wet grass), sounds, and other distractions to improve confidence in everyday activities
- Basic command training– introducing the basic commands at an early developmental stage is critical for an excellent behavior foundation and successful learning of more complex skills at later stages.
- Safe socialization– Puppies are socialized to people and other animals in a safe and controlled environment under the supervision of our two CPDT-KA trainers
Follow up for families
Training doesn’t stop when your pup goes home, so we provide support!
Virtual support follow-up all puppy families will have ongoing virtual support for Q&A via email and will continue to receive monthly training tips emails in addition to three optional no-cost virtual (facetime or zoom) 20 minute follow up sessions to be used within the two months following puppy kindergarten.
Puppy Personality Profile – after the week, each puppy will have a personality profile completed by our trainers that will include an assessment of the pup’s general personality, including motivators, likes and dislikes, essential enrichment recommendations specific to each puppy, and additional personalized recommendations for transitioning puppy to their new home. Think of this profile like an advanced report card with a clear and personalized picture of each puppy’s current learning and personality drivers.