Description
Puppy Optimists is a dynamic group class designed specifically to help prepare your older puppy to see the glass half full. The word optimist means someone who is hopeful, cheerful, positive, and confident about the future – they expect to be successful. This is how we want your puppy to feel about the world around them!
By now your puppy is past their socialization window, but we still want to help ensure their world view continues to come from a place of optimism! “Uh oh! That vacuum is making a weird noise”, “I’m not too sure about other dogs”, “I have a lot of energy and I have trouble settling down”, “I’m bored maybe I should chew up this shoe!” – do these sound like things your puppy thinks about? Then this is the perfect class for you! Each week, you will learn to work as a team and help your pup feel more confident through a series of games, exercises, tips, and tricks. You will finesse old habits and teach them new skills to get them through their adolescence. Do you get bored easily? Not a fan of lecture-style learning? Not to worry because each week is something different – one week we may be working on how to behave on-leash or how to say hi to another dog, next week we may work on building fundamental agility skills, next week we may practice grooming and handling. The list goes on and on! This is the class that will help you build a wonderful bond with your pup, while giving them the confidence to handle all the things life throws their way!
– This class is for any puppy six months to twelve months of age (up to eighteen months if your puppy will be under 25 pounds when fully grown), who have graduated from our Puppy STARters or Foundations classes. Any puppies under six months of age are welcome to sign up for our Successful Socialization or Puppy STARters classes to socialize with the low-impact equipment in an age-appropriate way. If you have taken training classes from another trainer in the past, please email – [email protected] – to see if you can jump right into Puppy Confidence.
– Since spots go quickly, we require both pre-registration and non-refundable pre-payment to reserve a spot. This helps you (and other interested owners) know exactly which sessions are still available.
– This class meets weekly, at the designated time. Weekly attendance is not required and there are no makeup lessons necessary for missed weeks. This is a much more flexible class that accommodates busy lives and schedules. You have ten business weeks to attend six classes. We do not require you to know which six dates you will attend ahead of time. We only ask that if you are going to miss a class, you email your instructor beforehand to let them know.
– Puppy Optimists classes do not have lecture time – it is an hour of activity each week, and no more trying to keep them occupied during lecture time! We also like to keep our class size small – so we limited it to four so that each team gets individual teacher attention and assistance. This allows you more one on one time with an instructor so that you get more specific attention to your personal goals and more time for questions, advice, assistance, and critiques.
– Since this class focuses primarily on puppy confidence-building and building positive associations with the world around them, it does not cover manners and obedience (such as potty training, crate training, destructive chewing, sit, down, focus, wait, etc). If you’re interested in manners and obedience training, please check out our Foundations options.
– We’re sorry, but this class does not cover behavior challenges such as severe on-leash reactivity (barking, growling, and/or lunging at others while on leash), excessive barking, separation anxiety, confinement distress, extreme fearfulness of people or dogs, or aggression as these cannot be covered in a group class setting. If you are experiencing this behavior, please check out our private training options, especially our Private Activities package, so you can have the training center (and your instructor) all to yourself.
