Puppy Kindergarten at Mountain View

There's so much to learn!

What's most important? -- come, sit, stay?

Not necessarily ...

These are the things that most people think of when they think of puppy training, but because of breakthroughs in our understanding of dog behavior, we know that several other things are more important for puppies to learn in their early months:

• Bite inhibition... learning not to bite people or dogs

• Getting along with other dogs and with people

• Getting accustomed to strange places and noises

• Being "yardtrained"

• Learning to do something other than jump on people, bark too much, pull on the leash, etc.

There is a short window of opportunity for this essential puppy training. After that time, it becomes far more difficult for dogs to learn some of these things. Many of the dogs who end up euthanized in animal shelters do so because they didn't learn some essential lessons while they were puppies.

And those are the real reasons for your puppy to attend puppy kindergarten!

At Mountain View, our goal in Puppy Kindergarten is to teach your puppies the social skills that will enable them to cope with the stresses they will encounter in our society. These skills do include come - sit - stay, and they address the issues of socialization with humans and other dogs. Here they learn to interact with other puppies -- which goes a long way in teaching them how to get along with people.

• Our supervised puppy-puppy activity provides interaction with other puppies, which helps them learn appropriate behavior with both other dogs and humans.

• "Pass the puppy" sessions give your pup the opportunity to meet other humans and to discover that they are a good source of treats and other good stuff.

• We provide lectures and handouts concerning your responsibility in managing your puppy so he can learn where it is appropriate to eliminate, what is appropriate to chew (and what is not), how to act when meeting people, and how to cope with new, sometimes frightening situations.

• We teach you how to "clicker train," thus providing you with a tool you can utilize to teach new behaviors for the lifetime of your dog.

It is our opinion that Puppy Kindergarten is the most important class your dog will ever participate in. He is only eligible to enter this class from age 9 to 22 weeks -- so don't wait! Check our schedule to see when our next puppy kindergarten will take place!

Go to our Schedule page for information on our next Puppy Kindergarten class.
Call or write for information on classes and other events at Mountain View

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