St Leonards ParkNorth Sydney OvalMiller StreetVictoria Cross metro stationBerry StreetBlues Point ReserveLavender BayWaverton Coal Loader

Puppy School and Dog Training in North Sydney

The nearest puppy school to North Sydney is DoggieLove at 71 Military Road, Neutral Bay, about a kilometre and a half from Victoria Cross, and it is taking bookings. We train older dogs one to one in your own flat, across North Sydney, Waverton, McMahons Point, Lavender Bay and Cammeray.

See What We Do

Puppy school and dog training in North Sydney, the short version

Quick Facts

Where We Work: In your own home, across North Sydney, Waverton, McMahons Point, Lavender Bay and Cammeray

What We Offer

Council Area

North Sydney

Nearest Puppy School Location

DoggieLove, 71 Military Road, Neutral Bay NSW 2089. Taking bookings

Distance

About a kilometre and a half. Twenty minutes on foot from Victoria Cross, or a short run down Military Road

What We Cover

Puppies from eight weeks, teenage dogs, and adult behaviour

Who Does The Training?

Luke Buchanan. Red Cross pet first aid, AFP background checked

Where North Sydney sits, and what that does to a dog

What It Is like

North Sydney is an office district that people also live in, and the two don't share a timetable. At half past eight the footpaths on Miller Street and Berry Street carry tens of thousands of people who do not live here. By eleven the same footpaths are close to empty. Victoria Cross metro opened underneath all of it in August 2024 and pulled that crowd tighter, into fewer entrances, over fewer minutes.

That hands you a training variable almost nowhere else on the lower north shore has. Your dog's world changes character twice a day on the same hundred metres. A puppy walked only at half eight learns that outside means a wall of legs. A puppy walked only at eleven learns the opposite, then meets the crowd at four months with nothing to fall back on. Luke Buchanan, Owner of The Toe Beans Co and Sydney's Puppy Trainer, runs every session himself, and the first thing he'll change for a North Sydney owner is when you walk rather than how.

The green space is better than the skyline suggests. St Leonards Park is the big one, and under North Sydney Council's rules it's off lead, because the council flips the usual arrangement. Instead of naming the off lead parks it makes every park and reserve off lead and then names the exceptions. Two of those exceptions, St Leonards Oval No 1 and No 2, sit inside St Leonards Park itself, with nothing on the ground to show you where they begin.

Just over the boundary we run the same work in Kirribilli, Neutral Bay, Cremorne Point and Mosman. The rules change more between those four than most owners expect, and Mosman changes again because it's a different council with actual clock times on some of its reserves.

Popular Landmarks

St Leonards Park
North Sydney Oval
Miller Street
Victoria Cross metro station
Berry Street
Blues Point Reserve
Lavender Bay
Waverton Coal Loader

Main Housing Style

Towers and older walk up blocks through the commercial core, with houses and semis on the streets running down to Waverton, McMahons Point and Lavender Bay. Almost no private outdoor space near the station.

What we get called about in North Sydney, by age

Puppies up to 16 weeks in North Sydney

There are two North Sydneys and your puppy needs both

The suburb your puppy meets at half past eight isn't the suburb they meet at eleven. One is a commuter crowd on a narrow footpath, the other is nearly empty. A puppy who only ever sees one of them is half socialised, and nobody notices until the other one turns up.

We set the walking times across the week deliberately, so both versions are covered before the socialisation window closes at twenty four weeks.

Toileting from a tower

A lift, a lobby, two sets of doors and then a footpath with no grass on it. From some Miller Street blocks the nearest usable patch is three minutes away, which is longer than a nine week old bladder, so the puppy solves the problem indoors instead.

We time the actual route out of your actual building, then pick a surface at the end of it your puppy will use every time rather than only when they're desperate.

Construction, used properly

Jackhammers, hoardings, a footpath that moved overnight. Most owners plan around it. Worked at the right distance and kept under threshold, meaning the arousal level where calm is still possible, it's some of the best noise and novelty work available in Sydney and it costs nothing.

We pick the corner and the distance, and we only close the distance once your puppy has stopped noticing the last one.

Teenage dogs, 17 to 32 weeks, in North Sydney

Recall at St Leonards Park, and the line nobody can see

The park is off lead. The two ovals inside it are not, and there's nothing on the ground telling you where the change happens. An adolescent who has quietly decided recall is optional will be across that line while you're still saying the word.

The long line goes back on, and we teach the oval edge the way you'd teach a kerb. Somewhere your dog stops and looks at you, every time, without being asked twice.

Lead work that only works at eleven o'clock

Adolescents get walked when it's quiet, because quiet is easier. By seven months the quiet walk is the only one your dog can do, and the first busy morning puts them over threshold before the corner.

So we walk the busy hour on purpose, at whatever distance your dog can actually hold, and shorten it from there. This age sits inside our seventeen to thirty two week programme.

The lobby stops being neutral

A dog who rode the lift happily at four months starts barking at seven, and in a mixed use tower there's no pattern to it, because the people coming the other way are different every single day.

We work the building at the hours that are genuinely busy, and give you a way to hold a lift that doesn't rely on the other person being helpful.

Dogs 32 weeks and older in North Sydney

Barking that arrives as a strata letter

In a block of eighty flats nobody knocks. The complaint is anonymous, it's already formal by the time it reaches you, and it puts a deadline on a problem that doesn't respond to deadlines.

We start with what your dog does while you're home. A dog who has never once been asked to do nothing in your company has no skill to reach for the moment you're gone, and no amount of extra walking installs it.

A dog who cannot cross the lobby at peak

Couriers, trades, office traffic, a different set of strangers every day. There's no habituation available because there's nothing consistent to habituate to, so owners start leaving at ten and your dog's world gets smaller by the month.

We find the quiet exit first, buy your dog a hundred metres of ordinary street before anything happens, then bring the main door back in off peak.

All of it in your own flat

Dogs thirty two weeks and older go on our in home dog training programme. No pain, no fear, no force, and nothing that relies on frightening your dog into stopping. Your lift, your lobby and the first fifty metres of Miller Street are the actual problem, and a training hall gives you none of them.

A man crouching in a studio while holding a Dalmatian puppy. The man is wearing a dark navy polo shirt and blue jeans, and the puppy is white with black spots.

A North Sydney call out, start to finish

A composite of the calls we take around the North Sydney commercial core. Details changed, the pattern is real.

The call

An eighteen month old Miniature Schnauzer in a tower off Berry Street. Fine on the eleven o'clock walk. Impossible at half past eight, barking and spinning at the end of the lead from the second the lift doors opened onto the lobby. The owner had started leaving at ten to avoid it, and had been leaving at ten for four months.

What we found

Two things stacked on each other. The lobby was the first busy thing of the day with no warm up in front of it, and the lift doors had become the signal that the whole crowd was about to arrive at once, which meant he was already over threshold before his feet touched the floor. By the time he reached the street there was nothing left to work with, so the street never got a fair go either.

Avoiding it at ten hadn't been a mistake, exactly. It had just quietly become the whole plan.

What changed

For a fortnight we skipped the main lobby at peak and used the car park exit, which bought him a quiet start and a hundred metres of ordinary street before anything happened. Then the lobby came back, off peak first, with the lift ride and the doors opening treated as two separate pieces of work rather than one event. About six weeks before he could do the half eight exit without spinning.

All of it ran in his own building, because that building was the problem and buildings don't travel.

What owners say, at every age

Absolutely fantastic, we had a 10 week old demanding Labrador puppy, 3 days later he barely lets out a yelp. It seemed expensive to get 1 on 1 help at first, but having him here meant we could remove any doubt about whether we were on the right track. Plus his online course and ongoing support have been a god send.

Mattice, 10 week old Labrador

I'm in Bellevue Hill and I'm struggling with recall and defiance with my 9 month old puppy. He thinks he's the boss. Luke at Toe Beans showed me a series of easy corrections and behavioural skills that my pup responded to almost immediately. He filled in my missing knowledge.

Lesley, 9 month old puppy, Bellevue Hill

I couldn't believe anyone could really have a big impact on a 7-year-old pet but within just one session, I could see a big difference in both of my dogs. They were calmer, more responsive, and Rosie was completely de-stressed around strange dogs.

Adrienne, 7 year old Bordoodle, Mosman

Frequently Asked Questions

Common questions about puppy school and dog training in North Sydney

Common questions we get about our puppy program.

Common questions about puppy school and dog training in North Sydney

What are the main services you offer?

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 runs at six venues, and all six take bookings: Paddington, Edgecliff, Neutral Bay, Zetland, Alexandria and Marrickville. Start dates vary by venue, so check the puppy school dates page for what is running next. Everything else happens in your own home, across Sydney.

Which areas of Sydney do you work in?

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 six fixed venues within about eight kilometres of the Harbour Bridge: Paddington, Edgecliff, Neutral Bay, Zetland, Alexandria and Marrickville. All six are taking bookings. See the puppy school dates page for current dates.

What is the Independence Foundation Protocol?

The Independence Foundation Protocol is the six-step method used at The Toe Beans Co for separation anxiety. It begins with shifting the relational signals in the household before any absence work begins. It then decouples departure cues, introduces micro-absences with a strict return protocol, uses indoor separation to build a daily independence baseline, and only extends duration once that foundation is solid. The protocol addresses the relational cause of the anxiety rather than managing the symptom.

My dog destroyed things while I was out. Should I punish them when I get home?

No. We never punish, and in this case it would not work either. A dog that has destroyed something in distress does not connect a consequence on your return to what it did while you were out. It only adds fear to a dog that is already frightened, and it usually makes separation anxiety worse. Address the cause through the relational protocol, not the symptom.

Does your training use pain, fear, force or aggression?

Absolutely not. If you want a method like that I suggest you call the 1980s, go back there and never get a dog.

We teach The 5 Golden Rules, which is built on calm and consistent communication. The aim is a dog who chooses to look to you when something happens, rather than a dog who has been made to. No pain, no fear, no force, ever, and that is not a marketing line. Anything that works through intimidation gets you a quieter dog for a fortnight and a worse problem six months later.

How long does it take to toilet train a puppy?

Most puppies reach reliable daytime control between 14 and 16 weeks when the schedule runs consistently from week eight. Full night-time reliability typically arrives by five to six months. Consistency in the first few weeks compresses the timeline significantly.

Are there age limits for puppy school?

You can start our puppy program at any age. We recommend starting as early as possible and have online and one to one support to help you through the early weeks at home. Your puppy needs to have had their second vaccination to join group Puppy School, so we are able to take puppies from around 11 weeks once that has happened.