Puppy School Edgecliff, Eastern Suburbs Sydney

Four weeks at Dogs in Town on Glenmore Road, capped at ten puppies and matched by size. Saturday and Sunday afternoons, rolling start, so you join the next block rather than waiting for a term to open.

Book Edgecliff puppy school

Puppy school Edgecliff at a glance

Puppy School Edgecliff

Booking now open. Weekend afternoon blocks, capped at ten puppies.

Book Edgecliff puppy school

Venue

Dogs in Town Edgecliff

Address

500 Glenmore Road, Edgecliff NSW 2027

Region

Eastern Suburbs

Days and times

Saturday and Sunday afternoons

Class size

Ten puppies maximum, matched by size

Puppy school at Dogs in Town, Edgecliff

Suburbs we cover from Edgecliff

Your one to one sessions happen at your own address, so only the group class brings you to the venue. Tap a suburb to see local parks, off lead rules and tips.

Where else we work

Our other running schools are at Paddington, a few minutes up Glenmore Road, and Neutral Bay if you are north of the harbour. We also hold venues at Zetland, Marrickville and Alexandria, where intakes have not opened yet.

Want your own trainer, one to one at home? See Private Puppy Training. Older dog? See in home dog behaviour training.

Getting to Edgecliff

The venue

Dogs in Town Edgecliff is a purpose built dog facility, not a hired hall. Fully enclosed, cleaned properly, and staffed by people who read dog body language for a living. It sits on Glenmore Road, the road that runs down from Paddington, so if you know our Paddington school you already know roughly where you are going.

Parking

Metered on New South Head Road and time limited in the streets off Glenmore Road, with a paid car park under the Edgecliff Centre if the street is full. Weekend afternoons are the easiest time to park here by some margin, but still allow ten minutes. Read the plate before you walk off, the Woollahra signs change block to block.

Public transport

Edgecliff station is on the Eastern Suburbs line, two stops from Town Hall and one from Bondi Junction, with the bus interchange directly above it. If you are coming from Paddington, Woollahra or Double Bay it is a short bus ride or a walk down the hill.

The four weeks, week by week

Here is what to expect during puppy school

Week 1, foundations

Controlled introductions one at a time rather than a free for all. Sit, Down and Stay taught properly instead of repeated. Supervised socialisation with a trainer narrating what you are actually watching, which is the part most owners have never had explained. Straight answers on biting, teething and toileting. Your puppy's photo is taken this week for graduation.

Sign Up For Puppy School
Week 2, adding difficulty

Down and Stay under real distraction. Stay versus Wait explained as two genuinely different commands, because they are. The start of loose lead walking, and a fix for jumping and attention barking. We introduce the first two of the Five Golden Rules here.

Sign Up For Puppy School
Week 3, building reliability

Chains of commands, recall under distraction, which is the hardest skill and the one that matters most, off lead structured walking, and separation anxiety prevention. Your puppy is bigger and busier by now, so you get breed specific guidance on how much exercise and mental work they actually need.

Sign Up For Puppy School
Week 4, graduation

Loose lead technique in high distraction conditions, calm freeze, reading park play properly, and a look ahead at early adolescent behaviours before they set as habits. Graduation includes your framed week one photo and a final question and answer.

Sign Up For Puppy School

Who comes to Edgecliff

Weekend afternoons here fill with people who work through the week and want the class to be the one fixed thing in the diary.

Apartment households. More of them here than anywhere else we run. No garden, a lift or a stairwell between the front door and the street, and neighbours through the wall. It changes toilet training, it changes settling, and it means the first thing we sort out is the route from your door to the ground.

Couples and families who both work. A Saturday or Sunday afternoon block is usually the only slot that survives contact with a real week. Bring whoever lives with the dog, including the kids. A puppy has to learn to live around children, and an hour in the room does more for that than any amount of explaining at home.

Owners who had a dog years ago. Genuinely useful experience, and raising one from eight weeks is a different job from living with a settled six year old. The people who tell us the course changed how they think are more often the experienced ones than the first timers.

People whose puppy has not arrived yet. The best time to start is before the puppy is in the house. Get the setup and the routine right first and the first fortnight is a completely different experience.

Cavoodles, Cavaliers, Groodles, French Bulldogs, Labradors and Retrievers are all well represented. Every size is welcome and every class is matched by size, so a Cavoodle is never learning next to a Labrador twice their weight.

Some Local Details

Introduce the section here.

Puppy school in Edgecliff and the harbourside east

Edgecliff is one of the densest pockets of dog ownership in Sydney and one of the hardest places to raise a puppy well, for a reason most owners do not see coming. Almost nobody here has a garden. Between the apartment towers of Edgecliff, Darling Point and Rushcutters Bay, the great majority of the puppies we see live above ground level, and every single toilet break is a lift, a corridor, a lobby and a footpath before anything happens.

That is why toilet training here takes longer than the internet says it should, and why owners so often conclude their puppy is stubborn. They are not. A puppy who has to hold on through a ninety second journey past three interesting smells and a neighbour is being asked to do something considerably harder than walking out a back door.

The second local factor is New South Head Road and the station. Traffic, buses, brakes, delivery bikes and a constant stream of people, all within a block of most front doors. Handled deliberately in the socialisation window, that density is an enormous advantage, and puppies raised here can end up unusually unbothered by the city. Left to happen by accident, the same street produces the six month old who freezes at the kerb.

When to start

Your puppy needs their second vaccination before the group component, which in practice means starting between eleven and thirteen weeks so the four weeks finish by around sixteen weeks. If your puppy is younger, nothing is on hold. The one to one work at your home and the online course both start straight away.

Common Misconceptions from Edgecliff Owners

There are dogs everywhere here, so he will socialise himself. Passing forty dogs on a footpath is not socialisation, it is exposure, and a lot of it is the wrong kind. What builds a settled dog is a small number of good, structured meetings, not a constant stream of strangers pulling toward each other on tight leads.

We take him to the park to run it off. Rushcutters Bay and Trumper Park are genuinely good places to be, and neither is a training solution. An overexcited puppy at a busy off lead park is rehearsing being overexcited. Calm has to be built somewhere quieter first, and then taken to the park.

He is fine in the apartment, so he is fine. The apartment is the easiest room your dog will ever be in. The lobby, the lift and the footpath are the test, and a dog who has only been good indoors has not been tested yet.

Frequently Asked Questions

Common questions we get about our puppy program.

What do I bring to the first class?

A flat lead and a normal collar or harness, your vaccination card, poo bags, and something soft your puppy already likes to lie on. Bring treats your puppy actually rates, cut small, and hold back their meal beforehand so they arrive hungry rather than full.

What not to bring: a retractable lead, a head collar, or a squeaky toy. And do not carry your puppy in from the car if you can walk them the last few minutes instead. A puppy who has been carried arrives at a much higher gear than one who has walked.

My puppy is nervous, or has already had a bad experience with another dog. Is class a bad idea?

Tell us before week one and we will plan around it. A worried puppy does not get thrown in, and they do not sit in the corner missing out either. They work at the edge of the group with a trainer, and come in when they are ready rather than when the timetable says so.

Introductions happen one at a time in every class regardless, which is the main reason we do it that way. A free for all is where nervous puppies learn that other dogs are something to get away from.

What age does my puppy need to be to start at Paddington?

The group class needs your puppy to have had their second vaccination, which in practice means starting between eleven and thirteen weeks so the four weeks finish by around sixteen weeks.

If your puppy is younger than that, nothing is on hold. The one to one work at your home and the online course both start immediately, and the weeks between eight and eleven are the ones where toileting, biting, crate training and settling are actually decided. Waiting for class to start is the single most common mistake we see.

Can both of us come? Can the kids?

Both of you should come, and we would rather you did. The single most common reason training fails at home is two people applying it differently, and an hour in the room together fixes more of that than any amount of explaining afterwards.

Kids are welcome and are genuinely useful, because your puppy has to learn to behave around them too. Old enough to follow an instruction is the only real requirement.

How much does it cost?

There are four levels and the current prices are all on the puppy school booking page, along with exactly what each one includes.

The four weeks of class are identical at every level. What you are choosing between is how much one to one time you get in your own home, how long you keep the online course, and how directly you can reach us afterwards. Most families land on the second level, which is where a session at home and the full course access switch on.

What happens after the four weeks?

Graduation is the middle of the job, not the end of it. The four weeks cover the busiest part of the socialisation window, and that window stays open until six months, so the work carries on after the class ends. The next thing coming at you is adolescence, and that is where most owners get caught out.

You keep lifetime access to our community and to Ask Luke, our round the clock question service, with no message cap at any level. From Silver up the online course carries on through the weeks that follow, and at the higher levels you still have sessions in the bank for when something new turns up at seven months.

Can I just do the four weeks of class, without the rest?

Yes. The entry level is the four weeks of class with community support and Public-level Ask Luke. It does not include the online course, and plenty of people start there.

Worth knowing what you are trading off. Class is one hour a week in a room. Everything that actually goes wrong happens at your front door, in your hallway and on your street, and that is what the session at home is for. If budget is the reason, start where you can and step up later rather than not starting.

My puppy is past sixteen weeks. Have we missed it?

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. Your socialisation window stays open until six months, so there is still real work to do.

Private Puppy Training is the same program with the group class swapped for more sessions in your own home. Past thirty two weeks it is Adult Dog Training and Behaviourism. Both are on the site.

Do you come to my home, and how far do you go?

Yes. On Puppy School, home sessions start at Silver. On Private Puppy Training and Adult Dog Training and Behaviourism, every session is at your address. A trainer comes to you and works on your setup, your routine and the behaviour that is actually happening where you live, which is almost never the same as what happens in a training room.

We cover Sydney within roughly a forty five minute drive of the Harbour Bridge. That takes in the eastern suburbs, inner west, lower and upper north shore, northern beaches and south Sydney. Only the group class brings you to a venue.

Can I talk to someone before I commit to anything?

Yes, and we would rather you did. The meet and greet is fifteen minutes, free, and there is nothing to sign at the end of it.

Bring the questions you feel silly asking. Most of what people are worried about at eight weeks is completely normal and takes about ninety seconds to answer, and knowing that before you spend anything is worth more to us than a booking made by someone who is not sure.

How we train

Our standards and ethics.

No pain, no fear, no force

No aggression either, at every location, without exception. We do not use prong collars, e-collars or choke chains, and we will not refer you to anyone who does.
A dog who chooses to listen

What you end up with is a dog who checks in with you without being asked, settles when you sit down, walks past the thing they wanted, and comes back when you call them in a park full of distractions.
Not because they have been bribed into it, and not because they are worried about what happens if they do not. Because you have become the person they want to follow. That is a different dog to live with, and it lasts the whole fourteen years.
Who runs it

Luke Buchanan, Red Cross certified in pet first aid and AFP background checked. Every trainer who works with a client dog holds the same before their first session.

Meet Luke
Every breed, matched by size

Classes are capped at ten and grouped by size, so a Cavoodle is never learning next to a Labrador twice their weight. Your puppy needs their second vaccination before the group component.

Puppy school, puppy preschool and puppy kindergarten in Edgecliff

Three names, one thing. Puppy school, puppy preschool and puppy kindergarten all describe the same four weeks of structured group work inside the socialisation window, and every provider uses whichever term they grew up with. If you have been searching all three and getting different results, that is why.

What actually differs between providers is not the name. It is whether the classes are matched by size, how many puppies are in the room, whether anyone comes to your house, and what happens after week four. Ours are capped at ten and grouped by size, and from Silver upward a trainer works with you at home before the first class.

Where our Edgecliff classes run

The Edgecliff school is at Dogs in Town Edgecliff, 500 Glenmore Road, Edgecliff NSW 2027, and classes run on Saturday and Sunday afternoons. Families come from Double Bay, Darling Point, Rushcutters Bay, Woollahra, Point Piper, Bellevue Hill, Paddington and Vaucluse, and it is a short run from most of them.

Classes are four weeks, once a week, in groups of six to ten puppies matched by size. Starts are rolling, so there is no fixed intake date to wait for. Your puppy needs their second vaccination, and the group component sits best between eleven and thirteen weeks.

If the weekend does not suit, our Paddington school runs Tuesday and Thursday evenings and Sunday mornings, a few minutes up the hill. If you are north of the harbour, there is Neutral Bay.

One to one puppy training in Edgecliff

The group class is one hour a week in a room. Almost everything that actually goes wrong happens at your front door, in your hallway, on your street and with your neighbours, which is why the one to one work happens at your address rather than ours.

From Silver upward a trainer comes to your home anywhere in the Eastern Suburbs and works on your setup, your routine, toileting, settling, the crate and the walk you actually take. If you only want that part, it is available on its own for dogs of any age through in home dog behaviour training.

Puppy training in Edgecliff after sixteen weeks

Group puppy school has to finish by around sixteen weeks, because that is when the socialisation window closes and running it later becomes going through the motions. If your puppy is already past that, you have not missed your chance, you have missed one component of it.

If you would rather train one to one, we run Private Puppy Training, which swaps the group class for more sessions in your own home. Past thirty two weeks it becomes one to one behaviour training. Both cover Edgecliff and the postcodes around it.

What to search for, and what you will actually get

Puppy school Edgecliff or puppy preschool Edgecliff. Four weeks of group class at 500 Glenmore Road, Saturday and Sunday afternoons, capped at ten and matched by size.
Puppy kindergarten Edgecliff. The same thing again, usually the term used by vet clinics.
One to one puppy training Edgecliff. A trainer at your address, included from Silver upward.
Puppy training Edgecliff. The whole program, class plus home sessions plus the online course, or Private Puppy Training if your puppy is past puppy school age.

Not sure which one you need? Book a free fifteen minute meet and greet and we will tell you honestly, including if the answer is that you do not need us yet.