Group puppy school currently takes place across six locations in the City, Eastern Suburbs, Inner West and Lower North Shore. If you know a good space that works in other areas of Sydney then I would love to run them there. Just let me know where you think a good spot might be. Soon we will be covering as far as Penrith, Cronulla, Castle Hill or Manly.
And look, I understand, the thought of a forty minute drive each way with a car sick ten week old puppy is enough to make you close the tab.
So the question we get, several times a month, is a fair one. Why should I put the effort in to work with you.
Here is the honest answer, including the part where we tell you what you actually lose.
What group school gives you, and what you actually lose without it
Group puppy school does one thing that is genuinely hard to reproduce at home. It puts your puppy near other puppies, in a cleaned indoor space, with a vaccination check at the door and someone watching the interaction who can stop it before it goes wrong.
That matters. Dog-to-dog exposure is the one part of socialisation that carries any real risk, so it is the one part that benefits most from being run properly rather than improvised at a park.
The second thing it gives you is distraction. Your puppy learning to sit in your kitchen is not the same skill as your puppy sitting while six other puppies are three metres away. Group work forces that step early.
That is the honest list. Two things.
What you do not lose without a class is everything else. The training itself, the socialisation plan, the toilet training, the sleep routine, the recall foundation, the bite inhibition work, the structure that stops a puppy turning into a difficult eight month old. None of that requires a room in Paddington.
The at-home 1:1 covers most of Sydney
The 1:1 sessions travel. They run across Sydney, broadly within about a forty five minute drive of the Harbour Bridge, which takes in far more of the city than the six current class venues do.
Three things make this a real alternative rather than a consolation prize.
It can start immediately. 1:1 at home sessions can start as soon as your puppy arrives. There are no other dogs involved, so there is no vaccination gate to wait behind. Group school has one. This does not.
It happens where the problem happens. Your puppy does not toilet on the lounge in a training hall. It does it in your lounge room, on your rug, at the specific times of day that your household runs on. Working in your actual home means the plan is built around your hallway, your back door, your stairs and your schedule, not a generic version of them.
It is long enough to do real work. Sessions run 60 to 90 minutes. The first session for a dog 32 weeks and older runs two hours, because there is more history to unpick.
The online course runs Week 8 to Week 24 no matter your postcode
The week by week course covers the whole puppy period from eight weeks through to twenty four weeks. It does not care where you live.
One thing to be clear about, because people get caught out by it. The Bronze tier does not include online course access on any program. Silver is the first tier that opens it. If the course is the part you want, Silver or above is where it starts.
The course is structured as a sequence, not a library. Week eight tells you what to do in week eight. That matters more than it sounds when you are tired and a puppy has just weed on your foot at 5am, because the last thing you need at that point is to browse.
Support runs by phone, chat and community
You will have questions that are not in any course, because they are about your dog. The support side runs by phone, by chat and through the community, and how long it runs for depends on the tier you choose.
Use it for the specific things. Not "how do I toilet train", which the course covers, but "we are four weeks in, he was going fine, and he has started weeing in the same corner every afternoon". That is the question that needs a person.
A structured socialisation plan you run at home
This is the part people assume they cannot do without a class, and it is the part that is most doable alone.
The socialisation window closes at six months, which is twenty four weeks. That is the real deadline. It is not sixteen weeks, and it is not when puppy school finishes. You have longer than most owners think, and less than you would like.
Most of what fills that window involves no other dogs at all, which means no vaccination risk and no venue.
Noises. Doorbell, vacuum, hairdryer, traffic, a thunder recording played quietly and built up over days.
Surfaces. Tiles, grass, timber, a metal grate, wet concrete, stairs, a wobbly board.
Handling. Ears, paws, mouth, collar grab, being lifted, being held still for ten seconds.
People. Hats, beards, hi-vis, walking sticks, prams, wheelchairs, children at a distance, the delivery driver at the door.
Run a handful of these a day. Keep every one short and finish while your puppy is still happy. The full 100 item socialisation checklist is on the site and it is free.
For dog-to-dog work without a class, the rule is known and vaccinated dogs only. A friend's calm adult dog is worth more than a park full of strangers. There is a full guide to introducing your puppy to other dogs safely.
While you are at it, do not over-walk. The ceiling is five minutes of on-lead exercise per month of age, twice a day. A four month old puppy gets twenty minutes maximum. Rough play counts towards it. More than that does not build a calmer puppy, it builds a sore one.
When we would say no
We are not going to pretend distance never costs anything.
If the single thing you want is your puppy learning to cope around other puppies, and you want that solved in four weeks, then a group class near you is a better fit than a 1:1 with us. Say so and we will tell you that on the call.
If your puppy is already showing genuine fear of other dogs at twelve weeks, that needs hands-on work, and doing it entirely through a screen is not the answer.
And if you are hoping to hand the dog over and get a trained one back, that is not what any of this is. Training is something you do daily for months. We give you the plan and fix what is going wrong. You do the repetitions.
FAQ
How far do you travel for a 1:1?
Broadly within about a forty five minute drive of the Harbour Bridge, which covers most of Sydney. If you are outside that, ask. The answer is sometimes still yes.
Can I do the online course on its own?
Yes, on Silver and above. Bronze does not include online course access on any program. The course on its own suits a confident owner with an easy puppy. If you have a specific problem already running, pair it with at least one 1:1.
Can you do socialisation online?
The dog-to-dog part, no. Everything else, yes, and everything else is most of it. Noises, surfaces, handling, people, objects and calm vet visits all happen at your house. We build the list, you run it, and we correct it as you go.
Not sure which of these fits your dog and your postcode? Start with the free Meet and Greet. Fifteen minutes, no obligation, and we will tell you honestly if a class closer to you is the better option.
Full program details are on the Complete Puppy Program page.
