Before you choose your Puppy or Kitten
- Activity-Level: Consider how big your puppy will be when she is full grown and how active she will be. It is important to carefully consider how this puppy will fit into your life, family, future family and lifestyle. Many dogs and cats live into their teens and early twenties. We consider this is a lifetime commitment.
- Young or Old? Puppies and kittens require and deserve a lot of patience, energy, attention, supervision and consistency. You might consider adopting and adult or senior pet.
Before Puppy or Kitten Comes Home
- Toys & Chews: Have a variety of toys and chews on hand immediately. We can help you select items that will stimulate your little one’s brain, occupy his time and help him adjust to his new home. Most importantly, we can make sure the items you get are safe for puppy or kitten.
- Have the right equipment: Baby gate, play pen, leash, collar, and crate. There is a lot of planning involved in adding a new family member. Let us help you select appropriate items to help with this very important transition.
- Puppy/kitten proof your house.
- Diet Considerations: There are so many choices out there and many of them less than nutritious. It can be hard to know where to start! Let us help you start your new addition out on a healthy diet. A good, healthy start will likely result in a long healthy life. Let us help you transition appropriately to a healthy food.
After Puppy or Kitten Arrives
- Walking gear: Bring puppy in to be fitted for a harness and get a collar and leash if you haven’t already. May puppies need some help adjusting to this equipment.
- Day-to-day life: Let us help you with the day to day needs like feeding schedules, occasional tummy upsets, chews and of course training.
- Crate, potty and litter box training: Sometimes you need a little guidance with house training and if you have children, they need a little help adjusting too!
Kitten and Cat Consultations
| Price | $35 for a 30-minute session $65 for a one-hour session |
|---|---|
| Age of cat | Any |
| Requirements | No known behavioral issues |
Kittens and cats will occasionally have adjument, dietary and behaviorial issues. We are available to consult with you and assist with trainings, nutritional advice, and education about your kitty’s needs.
Training can include, but is not limited to:
- Digestive health
- Introduction to other animals
- Living with a dog or child
- Inappropriate scratching
Puppy Training
| Price | $15 per session |
|---|---|
| Age of dogs | 8 – 16 weeks old |
| Requirements | No known behavioral issues Current on vaccinations |
| # of sessions | N/A – Pay each time you drop in! |
Helping your puppy learn how to play appropriately with others can set the stage for a lifetime of friendships with other dogs.
This drop-in class is designed to allow your puppy to socialize and learn to play appropriately with puppies and respond quickly to direction and feedback.
This group will be fun for you and your puppy but will not be an unsupervised free-for-all. It will be primarily off-leash in a supervised, safe, learning environment.
You will:
- Learn the rules of puppy play
- Practice handling acceptance
- Hear tips for mouthing and biting issues
- Address harness and collar struggles
- Learn how to trim those baby toenails!
You can attend this group whether or not you are enrolled in another class with us. This class will last 30-45 minutes depending on how the puppies are doing and how much time the group would like to reserve for questions.
| Price | $35 for a half-hour session $65 for a one-hour session |
|---|---|
| Age of dogs | Any |
| Price | $125 |
|---|---|
| Age of dogs | Up to 5 months old |
| Requirements | No known behavioral issues Current on vaccinations |
| # of sessions | 5 one-hour sessions |
This class is designed to help your puppy get a good start living together in partnership with everyone in the family. Our goal is to help you establish a supportive, loving relationship with your puppy to create a strong bond that will last a lifetime.
We will focus on many of the common puppy concerns such as, but not limited to:
- mouthing
- biting,
- jumping
- “zoomies”,
- potty or house training
- handling and restraint (for vet visits, nail trims and the like)
- basic behaviors such as
- sit,
- down
- wait or stay
- Name recognition and attention
- Recall (come when called)
- Greet politely
- Beginning leash work
This class will teach you how to help your puppy make good decisions and improve their frustration and tolerance by developing a sense of partnership and teamwork. We will help you establish a very clear way to communicate with your puppy based on how they learn so that they will be happy to focus on you for feedback rather than the distracting environment.
| Price | $125 |
|---|---|
| Age of dogs | 5 months or older |
| Requirements | No known behavioral issues Current on vaccinations |
| # of sessions | 5 one-hour sessions |
Good Start class will help your dog gain impulse control, improve frustration tolerance and focus better on you rather than the very distracting environment. We will help them learn to look to you for feedback and direction.
Many dogs join this class with the ability to already perform basic behaviors. This class will help them learn to perform these behaviors and others in a distracting environment and for a longer period of time.
One of our goals is to help you learn to communicate with your dog in a clear and supportive language that dogs understand. This will strengthen your bond to last a lifetime.
Specific behaviors include:
- Sit
- Down
- Stay or Wait
- Drop-it
- Polite greetings with people and other dogs
- Recall (come when called)
- Attention to name and focus
- Leash training (Beginning)
Remember, we help your dog become a thinking dog rather than a reacting dog. One that makes good decisions based on your teaching. Helping with impulse control while practicing specific behaviors can help your dog become more settled and have better focus around the everyday distractions of life!
This class is great for dogs new to you or dogs that have done little training up to this point. We assume these dogs are no longer dealing with the younger puppy issues but certainly can help you if they are struggling in any of these areas.