Puppy School and Dog Training in Neutral Bay

Both words get used loosely in Australia and neither one is protected, so anyone can print either on a card. Here is the honest version.

Training is teaching a dog what to do. Behaviourism is working out why the dog is doing something else. Most of what we are called about is the second one, and the training only sticks once that part is sorted. So we do both, and we start with the why.

Luke Buchanan is Dog Trainer Academy accredited, Red Cross pet first aid certified and AFP background checked. If your dog needs medication or a clinical diagnosis, that is a veterinary behaviourist rather than us, and we will say so and point you to one.

Nothing. They are three names for the same thing. Vets tend to say puppy preschool, some trainers say puppy kindergarten, we say puppy school.

What actually matters is not the name on the door. It is whether the group is small, whether the puppies are matched by size so yours is not learning next to a dog four times its weight, and whether someone is watching the play properly and stepping in before it tips over. A badly run puppy class can set a puppy back further than no class at all.

For group dog walking, a meet and greet is mandatory before any walking can take place to make sure that everyone is safe. We will under no circumstances accept a group dog walking booking without a meet and greet

Our dog training runs in three stages and you pick the one that matches your dog's age.

• 8 to 16 weeks: the Complete Puppy Program, which includes group puppy school
• 17 to 32 weeks: adolescent training, for the stage where most owners feel they are losing the dog they had
• 32 weeks and older: at home one to one behaviour training

Puppy school runs at our venues in Paddington, Zetland, Alexandria and Marrickville, and at Neutral Bay on the Lower North Shore. Everything else happens in your own home, across Sydney.

It is really important that your puppy meets lots of different types of dog while they are young. We do see breed specific schools cropping up, cavoodle only classes and the like, and we cannot stress how bad an idea that is.

That said, a large breed starting at 13 weeks and a Pomeranian starting at 12 weeks in the same class is not workable for either of them. We match puppies on relative size and age, while keeping a good mix of breeds in every class.

We aim for between 6 and 10 dogs in puppy school to balance quality and socialisation.

Our puppy schools run across several venues so there is a convenient one for you to attend during the puppy program. We currently offer Paddington, Marrickville, Neutral Bay, Zetland and Alexandria.

The program runs from the day your puppy comes home through to around 8 months old. The 4-week in-person Puppy School happens once your puppy has had their second vaccination, usually from around 11 weeks, with 6 months of dedicated support throughout.

Yes. For dogs 32 weeks and older everything is one to one in your own home. There is no group class at this age. Your first session runs two hours and every session after that runs sixty to ninety minutes.

There are four levels, Bronze, Silver, Gold and Platinum. They differ by how many sessions you get, how long you have the online course, and how you reach us afterwards. Every level includes Ask Luke, our 24/7 support, with no message limit.

Both, and which one you need comes down to your dog's age. Puppies get group puppy school alongside one to one work in your own home. Older dogs get one to one only.

Group obedience is very good at teaching a dog to behave in a hall full of other dogs. It is much less good at fixing the barking that happens in your hallway at eight in the morning, because the hallway is not in the hall. That is why everything past puppy school happens in the place the behaviour actually lives.