#dog classes

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For a lot of people, puppy school is all they know of, in terms of training opportunities, and once they are done and have a cute graduation certificate they will leave it at that. But, there are loads of great reasons to keep going into more advanced classes; so, below we’ve explored just a few of those reasons!

Puppy school is great but it’s just an intro: Consider puppy school the 101 of looking after your dog. You learn lots of fun things but there simply isn’t enough time to cover all the potential things you may need to know.

Learning in only one environment isn’t enough: Ever wonder why your dog is more attentive in some places over others? It’s because we tend to train at home (especially with puppies) as it’s an easy environment to work in. So, when we get out to the big wide world, with new smells and lots of fun things to do, what we are asking our dogs to do and where we are asking them to respond becomes more challenging. By continuing and expanding your training as your dog reaches adolescence and maturity we can overcome this issue and really solidify their understanding of behaviours.

Because you’re buddies: Training isn’t just to help our dogs fit into our world, it should also build our relationship with them. By training with them you will notice a very definite bond and that by itself is enough reason to do more training!

Because being proactive is better: People often wait until there is an issue and, even then, until the issue’s impact is significant before they call a trainer. But, us trainers love it when a doggy guardian calls early or even before a potential problem arises. Dog training classes can be a good part of this proactive solution. That isn’t to say classes will help you address all issues before they happen, but they definitely can help.

Trick training is yet another awesome activity you and your dog can share. You can keep the training simple and get your dog to practice cute, Instagram-worthy tricks or, you can add to and enhance their basic tricks to reach genius level. Think opening doors, covering themselves in a blanket or even tidying up after themselves!

There are tonnes of benefits that come with doing activities like trick training, so below are just a few of our favourites.

Teaching your dog different tricks will provide them with some much needed and very beneficial mental stimulation. Physical exercise is important but remember that their brains need a work out too.

When looking at dog behaviour you can often see two distinct categories. One is where the dog just reacts and chooses whatever seems like a good idea in that split second. The other is where they take a moment to think and make a conscious decision as to what is the best choice. Trick training will help them practise the thinking option more regularly which will set them up to start doing that more in day-to-day life.

Their basic obedience skills, focus and impulse control can improve as a result of trick training. They will start to see a huge benefit in paying attention, listening and responding in different scenarios as they will have a history already instilled in them for doing so.

For the shyer, more sensitive dogs or even the stressed and anxious dogs; trick training can help build their confidence and problem-solving skills. It is a well-known fact that dogs love to have a job to do, so why not get them doing something that is fun and exciting.