Having a puppy in your life is a magical and exciting experience…. when it’s going well! We’re here to guide you through this important journey!
You only have one shot at getting this right – the first weeks and months are critical for making life easy and enjoyable later on.
Puppyhood is amazing, but we know it can seem incredibly daunting at times – there is so much conflicting and confusing information out there that it is difficult to know what to do for the best, and you end up worrying about getting things wrong or worse, find problems creeping in.
We take those worries away so you can focus on enjoying life with your new puppy.
Meeting your puppy’s needs (both physically and emotionally), building trust, understanding communication and teaching those all-important lifeskills are the key to setting the right foundations in place from the very beginning.
Our help focuses on real life, not training halls – YOUR daily life , both at home and out and about.
We use our simple House of Harmony model to help you achieve the things you want to do together in a way that is fantastic for both you and your puppy.
We offer a range of programmes to support you in the best way possible – from choosing the right puppy and where to source a reputable breeder or rescue, preparing for pup’s arrival and carefully guiding them and you through their first few weeks and months.
Or you can simply book in for an hour of ‘puppy first aid’ to help you sort out a particular issue you’re struggling with – come away feeling more confident and with a plan and your next steps to move forwards.
And you can join our ‘Circle of Tiny Paws’ group too! At any time, for as long as you like. There is no better group learning.
Whatever you choose, our puppy support sets you both up for a lifetime of happiness together.
Join us in the Circle of Tiny Paws
An incredible opportunity to learn all things puppy alongside behaviourist Lisa and her rescue pup Rupert, right from the start.
Packed with real-life videos and an honest insight into providing the best support for your puppy while navigating normal life. With practical, actionable things to help, that you can apply to your own puppy at home. The group is a safe environment to share your experience, and ask for a bit of extra help when you need it. And we make it accessible to everyone with ‘pay what you can’ pricing.
Find out more about the Circle of Tiny Paws here.
Our one to one help can start even before you bring your puppy home
(After all, we want everything to be as easy and lovely as possible for both of you!)
Puppy Preparation
Know how to find the right puppy for you, what critical questions to ask the breeder and how to make sure you have got everything ready before your puppy arrives home.
Find out more
Puppy Landing
Know exactly what to do when you first get through the door! Navigate the critical first 3 weeks with confidence – sleep, toilet training and how to manage those needle teeth!
Find out more
Pawtastic Start Puppy
1:1 support, day-by-day, through your first 6 weeks. We help you through all the teething issues (literal and otherwise!) so you feel super confident about the way forwards.
Find out more
Very Best Paw Forward Puppy
The ultimate experience for you and your new puppy, helping you both expertly navigate the special first three months for the very best start to your life together.
Find out more
Or maybe you just need a little ‘helping paw’ with something?
Everything going well but you’ve got a few things you could do with a bit of expert advice on?
Book a 60 minute Puppy Behaviour, Wellbeing and Training ‘First Aid’ session with one of our behaviourists, usually our puppy expert, Kaye, and come away feeling confident and with a plan to move forwards.
£125.00
The session is tailored to whatever you need help with and can even include coaching with your puppy via zoom where appropriate – it works REALLY well. We provide a copy of the recording and any relevant notes as needed.
When you have booked and paid, we will be in touch (usually the next working day) to find a time in the diary for you. Sessions must be used within 4 weeks and we aim to offer times as soon as possible for puppy advice, usually within a week (but this will of course depend on your flexibility with appointment times).
Please note, other than by prior arrangement, we generally are not able to offer sessions after 6pm or at weekends. Please contact us BEFORE you book in if you think you may need this.
Why online or ‘at home’ support and not puppy classes?
Puppies need and deserve so much more than that – and so do you!
Whether this is your very first puppy, or you are an experienced dog guardian, learning in your puppy’s safe space at home and in familiar environments (rather than a hall) gives them a better foundation for real-life and makes it easier for both of you.
Here are just a few of the advantages:
- Sessions are one to one and specifically tailored to your pup, family and environment.
- Learn where you actually spend time with your puppy (at home and out and about), not in a hall or field.
- Prevent problems by getting started as soon as pup arrives (or even before!), no waiting for vaccinations to be complete (by which time you’ve missed a vital early development and learning window…. and life at home may already be feeling tougher than it needs to!)
- You can focus on the information you’re learning without having to worry about what your pup is doing at the other end of the lead, or with a puppy who is so overwhelmed or over-excited they can’t learn well anyway!
- Never worry about missing a class, we’re there for you when you need, not just once a week.
- Puppies learn every second that they are awake, whether you think you are ‘training’ at that time or not! They don’t wait for classes once a week, so we help you simply weave your puppy training through your normal, everyday life – exactly where it needs to be.
Here's more information about why we don't offer traditional classes....
Reason 1
Traditional classes simply don’t set puppies up for normal day to day life, doing the things you want to do, in the places you normally do them – time and time again we see puppies who can’t learn at all in class because they are too worried or over-excited or tired or hungry…… or who can do the training in the hall but can’t apply that learning anywhere else!
Reason 2
Puppies are so vulnerable in their early months, it is vital to ensure they are not overwhelmed and one of the most common problems we see is puppies who have been exposed to too much, too soon in class environments they can’t cope with or who haven’t learned to apply the skills in real life situations. These are the puppies who pull like a steam-train on the lead, bark at people and dogs, stall on walks, jump at noises or strange objects, race round at the park like you’re invisible and just can’t listen to you outside the house, to name just a few things. And it can lead to a world of problems as they grow.
Reason 3
We know that group environments, especially in a training hall, mean your puppy has to cope with far too many distractions and it can cause significant stress (like fear or overexcitement) – how well would you learn like that? Starting with online learning and then putting it into practice at home and in REAL environments means your puppy can relax and so can you.
- You can focus on the information you’re learning without having to worry about what your pup is doing
- You don’t have to worry about your puppy being tired/hungry/travel sick or just ‘not in the mood’ and wasting a lesson – you learn when you are both able to concentrate.
- When you put things into practice, you can give your puppy your full attention – great for both of you.
- You both learn faster, more easily, that learning sticks and you simply weave it through normal everyday life, not an hour a week.
Reason 4
Puppies learn every second that they are awake, whether you think you are ‘training’ at that time or not! They don’t wait for classes once a week, so it’s up to you to make sure that your puppy is learning what you want them to, every moment of the day. With the easily accessible short lessons and expert support in between, we help you simply weave your puppy training through your normal, everyday life – exactly where it needs to be.
Reason 5
Classes mean you have to wait for vaccinations to complete, by which time you’ve missed a vital early development and learning window and may find you already have problems creeping in which could have been avoided. In fact, the best time to start is BEFORE your puppy comes home. You can’t do that in a face to face class.
Our puppy programme sets you up not only for puppyhood and adolescence but for a lifetime of happiness. We call it building the Canine Thinking House of Harmony and we love the success it brings our puppy clients.
CLICK HERE FOR YOUR 3 STEPS TO A LIFE OF HARMONY WITH YOUR DOG!
You are in the best hands with our puppy specialist, Kaye
A true puppy specialist, she has been helping guardians navigate their way through puppyhood and into adolescence for some 30 years now (sssshhhhhh, don’t tell her we mentioned that!) and as both an APDT assessor and someone who always keeps up with the latest puppy development science, you really are in the very best hands.
Kaye leads our puppy programmes. The rest of the team here to help too, especially as part of our Pawtastic Start and Very Best Paw Forwards programmes, where you will also meet our wellbeing specialists. We help you look after EVERY aspect of your puppy’s development and wellbeing.
