Description
In our Basic Obedience Level 1 class you will learn the foundation behaviors needed to make your dog a good companion, enjoy sports, hiking and be the envy of everyone you know – sit, stay, down, come when called, polite greetings, leave it, impulse control and loose leash walking and more.
We’ll cover basic problem solving and share easy-to-implement training techniques that can be used to teach your dog any behavior.
Your Dog will learn:
- Reliable Name Response: A reliable name response is crucial to training any dog manners, getting and keeping attention under distraction, and overall safety. It’s not good enough that your dog knows her name, the reliable response of looking at you when hearing the name is the goal!
- Reliable Recall: A reliable recall is important for every dog in every situation. For maximum safety, for maximum enrichment and for some off-leash freedom a reliable recall is needed.
- Sit & Stay, Down & Stay: The positions of Sit and Down and getting your dog to stay in that position.
- Calm & Polite Greetings: Your dog will learn to sit or stand calmly to be greeted, or while you greet another person.
- Loose Leash Walking: Teaching your dog to walk next to you in any situation ensures a lovely walk in the park, around the neighborhood or even a great experience at events or field trips.
- Hand Target: Your dog will learn to put his nose on your hand on cue. This behavior can be used for many outcomes including preventing your dog from jumping or even keeping your dog in your personal space.
- Leave It: Your dog will learn to not touch things that you ask him not to touch such as your dinner, your slippers or that porcupine on a walk.
- No Jumping: Your dog will learn to Stand with 4 paws on the floor or Sit instead of jumping when excited.
- Doggie Zen: Teach your dog impulse control to prevent door bolting, stealing and more
- Remaining calm for distractions: Teach your dog right from the start that she doesn’t need to bark or pull toward distractions such as other dogs, people, squirrels, etc.
You will learn:
- How to develop your training plan for the day or situation.
- How to manage rewards and reinforcement and not end up with a dog who “won’t perform until he sees the treat first”.
- How to lure with food.
- Leash Handling.
- Foundation Training Techniques including Games and Reward Strategies that will keep your dog WANTING to learn.
- How to use what you and your dog learn outside of the classroom.
- How to recognize what your dog’s learning needs are. If you have said “my dog is stubborn” or “my dog isn’t food motivated” or other reasons your dog may be difficult to train, you will learn how to solve those puzzles to promote great training experiences.
- How to teach a physical gesture for a cue and how to teach a verbal cue.
⭐ Basic Obedience Level 1 requires an orientation lesson, which you will select from the calendar below. Please bring your dog with you to orientation.
If you have already taken our puppy kindergarten class and attended orientation, you do not need to attend orientation again and can go straight to your first class.
After orientation, you will attend 5 consecutive weekly lessons on your chosen day and time. If you miss a class, you can reserve a spot in class to make it up for a small fee. WE DO NOT OFFER FREE MAKE-UP CLASSES.
No Reactive or Aggressive dogs. We have an entire series of courses for those dogs who bark and lunge at other dogs and/or people. If you know that your dog barks or lunges at people or other dogs, please call us to inquire about what class to start with. Dogs who struggle around other dogs or people can’t learn in an environment where there are at least 6 other dogs and their family. At Pack of Paws we are absolutely the area experts for working with reactive and aggressive dogs. Being in the right class to begin with is crucial for your learning experience as well as the experience of the dog. Even the friendliest dog who is barking “just to say hello” will struggle unnecessarily in a busy classroom.
