Supervised Playgroups
Every puppy's day starts with a supervised playgroup. We carefully match puppies by size, age, and temperment to ensure this is a positive, confidence building experience for every puppy.
Large groups of unknown dogs, such as what is commonly found in many daycares, can be very overwhelming and even traumatizing for many puppies. We avoid this with careful introductions and keeping our playgroups to 3-4 dogs at a time. The playgroups are supervised by dog behavior experts who are able to spot subtle behaviors and intervene before any problems occur. We have a proven track record at helping scared/shy puppies come out of their shells while also teaching dogs who lack "social skills" to be more appropriate around their dog friends.
While playing, our staff are careful to only reinforce appropriate behaviors from the puppies. This means your puppy will spend the whole day practicing greeting people without jumping, not biting or mouthing, waiting at doors, and perfecting housetraining.
Socialization Walks
Socialization is about more than just playing with other dogs! We want your puppy to be confident and relaxed everywhere. Our day school clients tend to be the type who take their dogs with them wherever they go; maybe the local festival, on vacation at the beach, or even just for a jaunt around the neighboorhood.
With that in mind, every puppy gets an on-leash walk with one of our trainers every day. We go to one of the several awesome socialization locations within walking distance of our facility.
During these walks your puppy is learning how to be polite in public. We train skills such as loose leash walking, polite greetings, and waiting patiently in addition to socializing your puppy around a wide variety of people, traffic, noises, surfaces, and much more.
Personalized Training Sessions
Our certified, professional dogs trainers want to make sure that your puppy is the perfect puppy for YOU. That's why we ask questions about your lifestyle and goals during your initial evaluation. Do you want your dog to greet guests politely during your dinner parties or would you rather have a dog who can enjoy a quiet romp with you in the woods? We want to help you meet your goals.
Our curriculum starts with the basics all dogs need to know. Skills like sit, down, stay, come when called, relax on a mat, and loose leash walking. From there we work on perfecting the skills you need the most.
Not only do these training sessions teach the puppies valuable obedience skills, but they also challenge their brains in a way that physical exercise never will. Because of the addition of training sessions to your puppy's day, you can be sure you will take home a puppy that is both mentally and physically satisfied. This makes them much less likely to demonstrate those annoying puppy behaviors like barking, whining, chewing, jumping, and biting.
Many of our puppies attend school for multiple months at a time. For these puppies, we are able to customize their training sessions teaching them fun skills such as agility, flyball, parkour, and tricks. If you want a dog who knows it all, plan on having him stay for a while :-)
Naptimes
Overtired puppies are no fun! Just like children (and adults if we are honest with ourselves), puppies often are the worst behaved when they are too tired. This usually is manifested with unwanted behaviors such as biting, mouthing, tugging on clothes, and chewing. By ensuring your puppy gets age appropriate naptimes throughout the day, we can avoid a lot of those unwanted behaviors and send you home with a satisfied, but not ill-behaved, puppy.
Self Control
We want your puppy to be well-behaved without you having to nag her all the time. This means that she needs have self control (as opposed to control imposed by the human).
We teach puppies to offer the behaviors we want (sit, down, eye contact, etc) in order to get the things they want (food, toys, the friendly squirrel on your walk). This means that instead of stealing food off your counter or stealing your clothes to get attention your puppy lays down quietly in the hopes that it will get her what she wants.
There's no need to use a harsh technique or piece of equipment to teach your puppy how to be polite! With some skill and prior planning, your puppy can be a self control master!
Safe Facility
We take the safety of your puppy as our first priority. Our entire facility is desgined with safety in mind.
We have foam padded flooring to protect growing joints, a double gate system to prevent escaping, a climate controlled napping area, and more.
We take disease prevention seriously. In addtion to our strict vaccination protocols, we regularly sanitize the floors, toys, bowls, and crates to prevent any potential disease transmission. In addition, we have a state-of-the-art air filtration system to reduce the risk of any airborne disease transmission.
If you have more questions about how we keep your puppy safe, be sure to ask during your evaluation!
Qualified Staff
Our staff really know their stuff! You can rest assured your puppy is getting the best care and training possible.
We have a veterinarian and two trainers certfied through the Certification Council for Professional Dog Trainers on staff. This body is the only independent dog trainer certification examination (i.e. not associated with a for-profit training school) and demonstrates a high level of knowledge about dog training, behavior, and health.
We spend the time, energy, and resources to continually stay up to date on the most progressive knowledge in dog training. We do the hard work so you don't have to! Dog owners shouldn't have to be dog TRAINERS too!
Follow-Up Lessons
We want to make sure your puppy will listen to you too!
If you are pretty confident you'll be able to implement our instructions in your home, a simple building follow-up lesson might be perfect.
If, on the other hand, you are feeling a little overwhelmed by the thought of training your puppy, upgrading into in-home lessons would be a better fit. This is common for families with their first puppy or for one who has difficulty with a few things around the house.
If you decide part of the ay through the month you'd like more help at home, we can upgrade your package at any time. This is the most economical way to get some in-home instruction as it is a significant discount over buying the lessons on their own.
Crate Training
We take pride in teaching all of our puppies to enjoy their crates and to relax quietly and comfortably when it isn't their turn to play. We often have a whole room full of crated puppies who are all resting quietly.
We use a variety of positive reinforcement based solutions to crate issues. If you know your puppy will struggle in a crate, please let us know in your evaluation so that we can be sure to set your puppy up for success in the best way possible!
Basic Overview
Your puppy will attend school 2 days per week on Tuesdays+Thursdays. Drop-off is 7-8:30a and pick up is 4:30-6p. You only need to supply a cute puppy and a gallon bag of their food for lunch time.
Very often, owners start to see some improvements at home within a week or two even without additional work. By implementing a few practice sessions a week and some simple management, you'll see dramatic improvements.
The cost is $500 for your first 4 weeks, and is then $450 for each additional 4 week session. Included in this cost is a short follow-up lesson at our facility. If you'd like additional help (this is a common feeling!) you can upgrade this into two in-home lessons for a highly discounted rate of $175.
If cost is a MAJOR barrier to access for training, please see our financial aid program here: https://www.adventureunleashed.org/financial-aid
Once enrolled, your puppy may continue to attend school as long as you'd like. As your puppy masters basic manners skills, we will work with them on more advanced skills and with additional distractions.
To become enrolled in school, first schedule a puppy eval so we can meet your puppy, discuss your goals, and come up with a good plan to get you a wonderful puppy. You'll also have an additional lesson at our facillity (unless you upgrade into in-home lessons) so we can show you what your puppy knows and how to use those behaviors.
