Puppy School and Dog Training in Clovelly

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

• 8 to 16 weeks: puppy school, which includes four weeks of group class
• 17 to 32 weeks: puppy training, for the stage where most owners feel they are losing the dog they had. There is no group class at this age
• 32 weeks and older: behaviour training, one to one in your own home

Puppy school currently takes bookings at our Paddington venue and at Neutral Bay on the Lower North Shore. Zetland, Alexandria and Marrickville are venues in our network with no dates open right now, so check the puppy school dates page for what is taking bookings. Everything else happens in your own home, across Sydney.

One to one training happens in your home, anywhere in Sydney within roughly a forty five minute drive of the Harbour Bridge. That covers the:

• Inner City and City Centre
• Eastern Suburbs
• Inner West
• Lower North Shore
• Upper North Shore
• Northern Beaches
• Hills District
• Western Sydney
• South Sydney and St George

Group puppy school runs at fixed venues within about eight kilometres of the Harbour Bridge. See the puppy school dates page for which venues are currently taking bookings.

A poisoned cue is a command word that has been associated with something unpleasant often enough that the dog's response becomes hesitant or absent. 'Come' is one of the most commonly poisoned cues. It happens when owners consistently use it to end playtime, call the dog for something unpleasant, or when the dog doesn't respond and nothing happens.

Yes. Puppy school classes in Sydney provide a controlled environment with familiar dogs nearby where structured recall exercises are part of the session. The key is daily practice between classes, in your home and garden, so the behaviour is being reinforced consistently rather than once a week.

It rarely fixes it, and it often doubles the problem. The distress comes from losing access to you rather than from being alone in general, so a second dog does not answer the question your dog is actually asking. You also risk the new dog learning the same pattern by watching.

Staffies have a long history as family dogs. The nanny dog nickname came from their affection for children. Well-raised, well-socialised Staffies are typically gentle, playful, and loyal. As with any dog, supervision with young children is still sensible.

Often just 10 to 20 seconds of genuinely controlled movement. That's a real win at this stage, not a shortfall, and duration builds from there.

Management is the key word. Use a lead more than you did at 12 weeks. Put your puppy on a long line in the park rather than expecting reliable recall. Manage the environment so your adolescent does not practise behaviours you do not want. Training can feel slower during this period, and that is normal.

From 8 weeks, as soon as the puppy arrives home. The learning window is fully open before vaccinations are complete, and basic obedience foundations can be established before your puppy sets foot in a park. Starting from day one means you're building the right patterns from the beginning rather than trying to undo habits that formed while you waited.

You have missed the group class, not the boat. The class has to finish by around sixteen weeks because the puppies in it need to be close in age and size, and running it later would be going through the motions. Your socialisation window stays open until 6 months, so there is still real work to do.

From seventeen to thirty two weeks we run a different program that swaps the group class for more sessions in your own home, because what a teenage dog needs is different work rather than the same work late. Past thirty two weeks it is in home behaviour training. Both are on the site.