Our classes are small ensuring we have the time to focus on making sure your puppy has a fun time learning. Throughout our work and services, we pride ourselves on being a safe and happy place for your pet to visit. This is additionally so for Puppy School. Undertaking Puppy School at your vet has many advantages. Firstly, this commonly leads to an incredibly positive association between your puppy and the clinic. With the majority of past puppy schooler graduates being excited about future visits and consultations. Your trainer, Michaela, will look out for any obvious health and emotional elements that may benefit from being brought to your vet’s attention. What a great advantage of having a qualified nurse proficient in training to be your facilitator! Michaela has a strong focus on identifying and addressing the individual puppy’s needs during puppy classes to create a safe and fun space for them to learn and grow.

Learn more about Michaela, your Puppy School Facilitator.

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

What is Puppy School?

Puppy School is where a lot of our dogs start their training adventure with their new family. The aim of puppy school is to provide a safe space for early socialisation and training. An important focus of puppy training is “training the owners”. We want to arm you with information and skills needed for successful, psychologically safe, training you can integrate in your home and into the big wide world. Puppy School can also be a wonderful place to ask questions and get to know correct information on what makes dogs, dogs. We focus on working with the normal behaviours and developmental stages of our dogs to get the best results for everyone.

How many puppies are in the class?

Our classes host 3 to 6 puppies to balance the benefits of socialisation, time, and attention from the trainer, and reduce the risk of overwhelm for our puppies and families with a larger group.

How long is the puppy school course?

We provide a 5-week course held on Wednesday evenings between 6.30pm – 7.30pm at our clinic. See below for more details about the schedule and what to expect during each week.

What does puppy school cost?

The full course costs $160 payable at the time of booking to secure your spot, as
places are limited.

How old does my puppy have to be to go to puppy school?

All puppies need to be between 8 and 12 weeks of age when starting puppy training classes. This way the oldest puppies will be 17 weeks old at graduation. The important reason for this is to capture the crucial learning and socialisation phase of the developing puppy mind.

Does my puppy need to be fully vaccinated to attend puppy school?

All puppies will need to have had their first 6 – 8 week vaccination and be up to date with their worming and flea preventatives. If your puppy is 10-12 weeks of age they will also need to have had their 10-12 week puppy vaccination and preventatives. Most importantly, we want you puppy to be healthy and happy and ready to learn and play. If you puppy is sick (or if the family member attending is sick) we ask you to let us know that you cannot attend. In certain circumstances we will do our best to offer a catch-up session with our trainer, Michaela (availability pending).

Do I need to be a current client of Pet Society Vet to attend puppy classes?

No. You can most certainly join our class if you are not a Pet Society Vet client. Of course, many of the attendants are patients and clients already. Once you experience the Pet Society Vet space and meet our team we will not be surprised if you choose to join our community beyond Puppy School.

Who can come to puppy classes?

Week one on Puppy School is an information session where no puppies attend, but we encourage up to four members of the household family to join. As this is an information session, we would expect younger humans to lose attention but will leave it to you to make this choice. Weeks two to five include your puppy’s attendance and we invite one or two family members to attend. If you have other family who want to be involved, we recommend swapping the attendance around between weeks, which is done often in families with children who are wanting to learn and be involved in the puppy’s training.

What do I need to bring to puppy class?

Week one – just yourselves and an eager mind to learn. We will provide you with resources to refer back to after the session as we know it is a lot to take in.

Week two to five – bring your puppy, a mat or small bed for them to use as their resting place, and their lead. We will provide treats and some activities to occupy their attention.

If your puppy or any humans attending have dietary requirements please let us know at the time of booking. We often use Peanut Butter as treat rewards – please make sure you inform us if this is not safe for you or anyone else attending.