Welcome to
Congratulations on making the decision to further your canine knowledge and learn how to communicate better with your dog! In this 5 week class, I will not only show you how to teach important basic skills to your dog, but I will also discuss and demonstrate how to utilize them in your daily lives. Hence the name “Real World Manners”! Before your first day of class, it’s important to come prepared.
Here is what you will need to bring to class with you:
🦴 Your Dog (Obviously.)
🦴 A 4-6 foot leash - Please no retractables, bungee leashes, or long lines.
🦴 Have your dog on either a flat or martingale collar, head halter, and/or harness - Avoid harnesses that only clip in the back if your dog pulls on leash and please no prong collars, choke chains, or e-collars.
🦴 High value treats - Your dog may be very responsive to using things like their kibble at home, but the pet store is a very distracting environment! I like to make a “trail mix” of different types of small treats. It keeps the dog engaged and avoids them becoming bored of having the same treat part way through training. Since timing is extremely important during the learning process, make sure the treats are small enough for them to take easily and not have to break apart to eat. It’s about quality over quantity!
🦴 A treat pouch - You can also use a fanny pack or even just a sandwich bag in your pocket. Either way, your treats must be stored in a way that makes them easily accessible and keeps your hands free.
Rules:
🦴 Dress comfortably! No open-toed shoes or high heels. Our training plan involves moving around, so wear clothes that will not prevent you from doing so.
🦴 Please do not let your dog greet other dogs! Not all dogs are social and want to interact with other dogs and that’s completely okay and not abnormal behavior. Dog to dog greetings can be risky when on leash as it can restrict proper communication between them and nervous dogs can feel trapped and become reactive in a tighter space.
🦴Ask other owners before interacting with their dogs! It’s common courtesy to ask for permission to pet someone else’s dog. They may be working on their dog keeping focus on them when in public and unplanned greetings can be a distraction that can be self-rewarding for the overly excited dog and slow training progress for them. Just like dogs that may not be dog-social, many dogs can be selective about their people as well and their communication to ask for space can seem very subtle to the untrained eye.
🦴 No more than two handlers per dog, please! I always want to encourage household members to participate in the training but, since space is limited, we can only accommodate for two people per each dog. To avoid any distractions to you or other students, no children under the age of 13 years may attend.
🦴 Please potty your dogs before entering the store! It’s easy to forget to take our dogs out for a quick bathroom break when rushing out the door, so be sure to give them a chance to sniff around and relieve themselves before coming in for class. You may use the front and side yards and, for the humans, there are bathrooms available inside our training room.
What to expect on the first day of class:
🦴 It may be a little chaotic at first. For some, if not all of the dogs, the store is a new environment for them and they will be in close proximity to other dogs and people, along with all of the smells surrounding them from products in the store and previous dogs that have visited. Don’t fret! That is why you signed up for training! You will be learning the skills to help keep your dog’s focus, but all dog training requires a level of patience and I will be there to guide you.
🦴 You may have to excuse yourself and your dog for breaks. Outside of any necessary bathroom breaks, sometimes it’s helpful to step away for a brain reset for dogs that can get overwhelmed in the new environment. Take them outside to let them sniff and decompress for a couple of minutes if you feel you need to. Learning is a lot of work for both humans and dogs!
🦴 Questions are welcome! There will be times during class in which you might have a question. For personal training struggles, please wait until the end of class to come to me and ask. If the question pertains to the subject, feel free to ask as another student might have the same question! If it is something that we don’t have the time to dive into in that moment, I am more than happy to go into it more after class ends.
🦴 Be ready to have fun and learn new things! Even after almost two decades of training, I never get tired of teaching others not only how to teach their dogs, but also how it can be enjoyable. I also love to share my knowledge with others, so there will definitely be lots of science factoids throughout the weeks!
Please email me at devi@devithedogtrainer.com for any training-related questions and mattie@pawsstop.com for any store-related questions.
I can’t wait to start training with you!
Your
