The September break gives most Sydney families a solid fortnight at home with the puppy, and it is the best training window you will get all year. It is also the single most reliable cause of separation anxiety I see in my sessions, and those two facts are the same fact.
Two weeks of constant human presence teaches a puppy something. If you do not decide what it teaches them, it teaches them that someone is always here. Then the Monday arrives, the house empties at eight in the morning, and a puppy who has never once been genuinely alone is asked to do it for six hours cold. Luke Buchanan, Owner of The Toe Beans Co and Sydney's Puppy Trainer, gets those phone calls in the second week of every school term, and they are all the same phone call.
So here is the plan that uses the fortnight properly.
Why a two-week block is worth more than two months of weeknights
A two-week block beats two months of weeknights because puppy training is built on frequency and repetition rather than session length, and a normal working week simply cannot deliver either.
Toilet training is the clearest example. Getting a puppy outside every forty five minutes while they are awake, catching the moment, rewarding it in the right two seconds, that is not a thing you can do around a commute. Do it for ten days straight and most puppies are largely reliable in the house. Do it four times a day for eight weeks and you are still mopping in November.
Same with anything that depends on catching a behaviour as it happens. You are home. You see it. You can respond in the second it matters instead of finding the evidence at six o'clock. That access is the whole value of the fortnight, and it is worth more than any amount of formal training time.
The mistake almost everyone makes: too much, too fast
The most common holiday mistake is treating two free weeks as permission to do more training, when what your puppy needs is more repetitions of less.
An eleven week old sleeps somewhere around eighteen hours a day and learns nothing once they are over threshold, which is the point past which calm behaviour is simply not available to them. A puppy who has been handled, walked, played with and trained since seven in the morning is not learning by two in the afternoon. They are just tired and mouthy, and the mouthing gets read as naughtiness when it is exhaustion.
Keep exercise honest as well. Five minutes of on-lead walking per month of age, twice a day, and rough play in the garden counts towards that total. A twelve week old is on about fifteen minutes twice a day, not the two-hour beach adventure the holidays invite. Overtiredness in a puppy reads exactly like boredom, which is how people end up doing more of the thing that caused it.
Training sessions across the fortnight should be three to five minutes, five or six times a day, ending while the puppy still wants more. Then sleep. The sleep is where the learning consolidates, and a puppy denied it because the family is home and excited will look like they are regressing.
Week one, the four things worth drilling
Week one is for the four things that need frequency rather than novelty: toileting, alone time, lead walking on quiet streets, and handling.
Toilet training you can actually finish
Out the door after every sleep, every meal, every play session, and every forty five minutes in between while they are awake. Same door, same patch of grass, every time. Stand there and wait rather than wandering, and mark the moment it happens rather than praising thirty seconds later in the kitchen.
Ten days of that with someone actually home is usually the difference between a house-trained puppy and one who is still unreliable at Christmas.
Alone time, while someone is home to build it properly
This is the section the whole article exists for, and it is the one everybody skips because the house is full and nobody wants to shut the puppy away on a holiday.
You are teaching one thing: you leaving is boring and you always come back. Start with twenty second absences. Walk out of the room, count to twenty, walk back in, and carry on without making anything of it. Ten or fifteen times a day. It should be so uneventful that your puppy stops lifting their head.
Then stretch it. One minute, five, fifteen. Leave through different doors at different times of day. Pick up the keys and then sit back down, so the keys stop meaning anything. By the back half of the fortnight you want thirty minutes, then an hour, then two, with everyone genuinely out of the house.
Two rules govern all of it. You only move up a step when the current step is boring, so if your puppy is crying at fifteen minutes you go back to five and rebuild rather than trying thirty tomorrow. And you never open the door while they are crying, because that is the version of the lesson you do not want. There is a fuller protocol in the guide to solving separation anxiety.
Lead walking on quiet streets
Quiet mid-morning streets during the break are close to ideal for early lead work, because the traffic is thinner and the school run is not happening.
Do not aim for heel. Aim for a puppy who can walk near you without the lead going tight, and who looks back at you now and then without being asked. Stop when the lead tightens, wait, move when it slackens. Change direction often enough that following you is the interesting option.
Handling and grooming, five minutes a day
Ears, paws, between the pads, tail, gums, all of it, every evening while your puppy is tired and settled. Five minutes.
It looks like admin and it is conditioning. Ten days of it produces a dog who tolerates a vet or a groomer without a fight, and that is worth more than anything else you will do in the fortnight for the same time spent.
Week two, taking it outside the house
Week two takes the same exercises into places that are harder, because a cue learned in a quiet kitchen has not been learned in a loud street.
This is the bit that surprises people. Your puppy nails their sit at home all week, you try it outside the shops on the Tuesday, and they act like they have never heard the word. That is not the training failing. Generalising a behaviour across contexts is a separate skill and it has to be taught separately.
So repeat week one's work in the front garden, then the footpath, then somewhere with people walking past. Keep the criteria low when the environment gets harder. If your puppy cannot do it there, the environment is too much, not the puppy.
Vaccination status governs where you can go. Group classes need the second vaccination complete or proof it is imminent, usually somewhere in the twelve to fourteen week range, and your vet sets that rather than us. Carrying a young puppy through a busy street costs you nothing and banks a great deal of habituation. The week by week puppy training schedule lays out what is age-appropriate.
Getting the kids involved without wrecking the training
Children can genuinely help, provided each child is given one specific job rather than general access to the puppy.
General access is what causes the problem. A puppy who is picked up eleven times a day by four different people, woken from naps to be cuddled, and squealed at when they mouth, is being taught that people are chaotic and hands are exciting. The squealing in particular is the one to stop first, because to a puppy that is a very rewarding noise.
- One child owns the water bowl and the evening handling five minutes. That is a real job and it is safe.
- Older kids can run three-minute training sessions on a single cue, once a day, with an adult watching the timing.
- Nobody wakes a sleeping puppy. Make the crate or the bed a place the kids do not go, ever, with no exceptions for cuddles.
- When the puppy mouths, the hands go still and the person stands up and walks away without a sound. Squealing and pulling the hand back is a game.
There is more on the introductions themselves in the post on introducing a new puppy to family, kids and other pets.
The Monday the holidays end, and what falls apart if you skip this
Start rehearsing the post-holiday routine three or four days before the break ends, because a puppy who goes from a full house to an empty one overnight is the classic route into separation anxiety.
From about the Thursday, run the real thing. Everyone leaves at the actual time they will leave. The house goes properly quiet. Come back after two hours, then try a longer one on the Friday. You are not testing whether your puppy can cope, you are making the Monday a repeat rather than a first.
Move the feeding and sleeping times across to the term-time schedule in the same few days, in fifteen minute steps, rather than shifting an hour on the Monday morning. And on the day itself, leave without a goodbye. No long farewell, no reassurance at the door. Both of those tell your puppy that your leaving is a significant event, which is exactly the belief you have spent a fortnight dismantling.
Do that week properly and the fortnight compounds. Skip it and you have spent two weeks teaching a puppy that they are never alone, which is the most expensive lesson in the whole first year.
Want help putting this into practice?
The Toe Beans Co runs a free SKOOL community where Sydney dog owners get access to training guides, Q&As, and direct support from Luke. It's free to join.
Upcoming puppy schools in Sydney
Luke runs regular puppy schools across Sydney, with venues in Paddington, Edgecliff, Zetland, Alexandria, Marrickville and Neutral Bay. All six are taking bookings, and anyone in Sydney can attend any location. The break is a good moment to get a spot booked, and the full programme details cover what each block includes.
Check upcoming dates and book your spot →
Frequently asked questions
My puppy is only nine weeks old. Can we still do this plan?
Yes, with shorter sessions and no public walking. A nine week old can do the toileting routine, the alone-time steps and the daily handling from day one, all of which happen at home. Save the footpath work until your vet confirms the vaccination schedule allows it, and carry your puppy through busy places in the meantime.
How long should each training session be during the holidays?
Three to five minutes, five or six times a day, stopping while your puppy still wants more. Longer sessions do not help because a puppy over threshold stops learning, and the extra free time in the holidays is best spent on more repetitions rather than longer ones. Protect the sleep, which is where the learning sticks.
What if we are going away during the break?
Then build the alone-time work before you go rather than after you come back, because a trip compresses the same risk into a shorter window. If your puppy is staying home with a sitter, keep the routine, the crate and the feeding times identical. If they are coming with you, expect a few days of disrupted toileting on your return and go straight back to the normal schedule.
