Puppy School Marrickville, Inner West Sydney

Our Marrickville venue is Dogs in Town on Addison Road. Four weeks, capped at ten puppies and matched by size.

Puppy school Marrickville at a glance

Puppy School Marrickville

Taking bookings.

Book Marrickville puppy school

Venue

Dogs in Town

Address

55 Addison Road, Marrickville NSW 2204

Region

Inner West

Days and times

Tuesday to Friday evenings from 6.45pm and Saturday from 4.30pm

Start dates

Rolling start, no fixed intake dates. Check the booking page for what is running next

Our venue at Dogs in Town, Marrickville

Suburbs we cover from Marrickville

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

We run puppy school at six venues, and all six take bookings: Paddington, Zetland, Edgecliff, Alexandria and Neutral Bay.

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

Getting to Marrickville

The four weeks, week by week

Here is what to expect during puppy school

  • A man sitting on the floor wearing a navy polo shirt and olive green pants, holding a brown and white spaniel puppy against a plain light gray background.

    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.

  • A small black and tan dachshund wearing a light beige harness and leash, sitting on a speckled white floor with a person's legs and shoe partially visible in the background.

    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.

  • A small fluffy tan dog wearing a black harness lies on a speckled white floor in an indoor setting, with a person's legs and a colorful wall visible in the background.

    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.

  • Dog wearing a graduation cap in a pet carrier on a colorful floor.

    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.

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Who comes to Marrickville

Marrickville owners walk more than most of Sydney, so the people who call us are usually already out there trying.

Owners who dread the walk. Your dog pulls toward every dog on the Cooks River path and barks at the ones who do not come over, and you have started going out at odd hours to avoid it. That is not aggression and it is not you failing. It is a dog who was allowed to greet everything and cannot understand why the rule changed.

First time owners who want to avoid all of that. Lead work starts in week two, and it is much easier to build a dog who walks past things than to unpick one who never learned to.

Owners of rescue and rehomed puppies. The inner west sends us more of these than anywhere. A history you cannot see is not a reason to skip class, it is a reason to tell us what you do know before week one.

Houses with yards and warehouse conversions with none, sometimes in the same street. Those two puppies need genuinely different things in the first month, which is what the session at your place is for.

Some Local Details

Introduce the section here.

Can I book puppy school in Marrickville right now?

Yes. Marrickville is taking bookings, at Dogs in Town on Addison Road. Four weeks, one session a week, capped at ten puppies and matched by size.

Start dates vary by venue, so check the booking page for what is running next, or book a free meet and greet and we will tell you what suits your puppy's age.

What if we miss a week?

Tell us and we will slot you into the same class number in another block, so you get all four weeks in order rather than skipping one. The weeks build on each other, so week three in place of week two does not work.

If your puppy is unwell, keep them home. Do not bring a puppy with an upset stomach into a room of part vaccinated puppies.

My puppy pulls toward every dog on the Cooks River path. Is that covered?

It is the most common thing we are called about in Marrickville. Loose lead work starts in week two and the passing of other dogs is worked on directly, but the real fix happens in the one to one session, because your walk starts at your front door and not at a venue.

What is usually happening is not aggression, even when it looks like it. It is a puppy who was allowed to greet every dog for four months and now cannot understand why the rule changed. Once the walk stops being an unpredictable negotiation, most of the barking goes with it.

Do you take rescue and rehomed puppies?

Yes, and the inner west sends us more of them than anywhere else we work.

The thing to know is that a rescue puppy often arrives with a history you cannot see and were not told about. That is not a reason to skip class, it is a reason to tell us what you do know before week one so we can plan the first session around it rather than discover it in the room.

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.

  • A man sitting on the floor wearing a navy polo shirt and olive green pants, holding a brown and white spaniel puppy against a plain light gray background.

    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.

  • Border Collie puppy sitting in the lap of Sydney dog trainer Luke Buchanan

    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.

  • 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.

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