Puppy Schools Sydney – Why Is Puppy School So Important?

Puppy Schools Sydney

Why Is Puppy School So Important?

Puppies go through a very important, formative development phase within the first 16 weeks of age. This means that they need to be around different people, dogs, animals, situations and environments within that time frame to learn that they are normal every day things, not something to be scared of. This is because our human world is very different from their own canine world. We have many new and potentially scary things for them to get used to such as cars, loud noises, strange dogs, people and animals etc. I have been running puppy schools in Sydney for years now there will be timid and shy pups in every class. This is completely normal, early socialisation is what makes the difference!

For example, it’s not enough that the breeder had other dogs around when the pups were under 8 weeks of age.

Why? Because they were all pack members. Everyone gets used to their own family unit, it’s the strange dogs that pups need to learn to accept. All the dogs in the world do not unite and form one super pack, unfortunately, this often seems to be the thinking: my puppy saw other dogs at the breeder’s so he must be fine with all other dogs. This is not the case, they need to be around different dogs early on to learn that there’s nothing scary about it. And not just being around them but having positive experiences around them is crucial.

Puppy school is one of those rare opportunities we can offer for early positive socialisation.

The ideal time would be 8-12 weeks of age, which is the most important socialisation period in a dog’s life. But puppy school must be done before 16 weeks of age, that’s when the socialisation window closes. What we need to understand is that most aggression issues are fear-based, and very often the reason for reactivity isn’t bad experiences but rather the lack of experiences early on. So don’t wait for too long, book a puppy school early!

Eazy Dog Training runs puppy schools in Sydney, check out start dates here!