Puppy Kinship

Puppy Kinship is a puppy dog training preschool aimed at the challenging aspects of rearing a puppy. Harbouring proper socialization of puppies from the start is most important.

Puppy Kinship was created to teach guardians and puppies how to live in harmony and responsibly with each other within a busy human lifestyle.

Proper and adequate socialization for puppies is essential for proper adult dog behaviour and interaction. There are far too many poorly socialized dogs and it is completely preventable.

Poor socialization can be loosely defined as the inability to cope with situations in the environment because of a lack of exposure during the imprinting period of a puppy’s development. These poor coping skills are generally displayed by adult dogs as fear-aggression and directed at other dogs and/or people.

Fear-aggression is the leading cause of death (by euthanasia) of adult or pre-adult dogs.

This is completely preventable with enough proper knowledge about how to socialize a puppy properly.

There are some key elements of puppy socialization that are often missed or not addressed properly during a puppy’s imprinting period.

As a result the Puppy Kinship puppy classes are educational, fun and very interactive to help new puppy guardians accomplish the task of proper socialization and confidence building during the critical development period of a puppy’s life -between the ages of 8 to 20 weeks of age.

Self-control and good manners are taught using patience, gentle guidance, fairness and positive confidence building techniques. We do not use or encourage the use of intimidation, choke, pinch or electric training collars for our puppies. We teach guardians how to gain control of their puppy’s behaviour by establishing leadership, not through threatening a pup with punishment but by teaching guardians canine pack behaviour and dynamics and using canine instinctual rules of hierarchy, deferral and social interaction to gain a pups respect and willingness to comply.

Confidence Building

Puppies go through different stages of behavioural development as they mature. Some days a pup may feel a little insecure while other days they may feel as if they can conquer the world. The Puppy Kinship preschool program teaches guardians what to expect during these stages of development and how to help a puppy overcome a challenge confidently and learn from it.

We teach practical everyday exercises such as go-to your bed and stay, 'leave-it', say hello without jumping and take treats gently. Teaching a puppy tricks such as hi-five, roll over and play dead are fun for the guardians to teach and as a result the enjoyment that the guardians have watching their pup do these tricks is relayed back to the pup and it also increases their self-esteem.

Good manners and Obedience training begin as soon as the puppy comes home and we will help guardians learn how to teach their pup basic obedience and when to apply it so that the pup is taught self control. The sooner a pup begins to show self-control the better the chances of them retaining this information when they become hearing challenged adolescent dogs. The basics sit, down, wait in place, come when called, greet politely and walk nicely on a leash are taught. Puppy guardians are taught how to be fair leaders, predict a pups unwanted behaviour and act proactively by showing the puppy the correct behaviour to encourage learning instead of punishing the puppy after the fact.

Socialization - An ounce of prevention…

Research has shown that when a puppy is positively introduced to a variety of stimuli between the ages of 8 weeks to 20 weeks of age it greatly improves its chances of maturing into a self-confident adult dog with a stable temperament.

Socialization is the mainstay of our classes and we do a lot of it in the classes and encourage it outside of the classes. New puppy guardians are sent home with socialization homework. During the 6 weeks of the Puppy Kinship course puppy owners are given a check list of places to go and things to do with their puppy.

During class the socialization consists of monitored play time on and off leash . The classes are very interactive and puppy owners are taught how to monitor their puppy's play to minimize overstimulation and prevent conflicts. During puppy playtime personalities are matched so that wallflowers are encouraged to bloom and the boisterous ones are taught impulse control.

Guardians are taught how to cope with the more challenging parts of puppy hood such as nipping and biting, house training, food guarding, counter surfing and more. Appropriate play toys and games are taught, so be prepared to crawl around on all fours with your puppy.

We also discuss diet and nutrition, grooming and exercise needs and are always available for questions and answers you may have about your puppy's specific personality and bvehaviour.

Did You Know?

Puppies can attend pre-school as early as 8 weeks of age. The sooner you begin to socialize your puppy the better.

We take a very progressive approach to the issue of vaccines. But we understand that not everyone shares our views and we respect that.

To learn more about changing vaccine protocols visit:
www.cumbs.colostate.edu/vth/savp2.html
www.mosquitocreekvethosp.com
www.altvetmed.com
www.web.vet.cornell.edu

Our puppy classes range in size from a minimum of five to a maximum of 12 at one time and we encourage a range of breeds and sizes.

We encourage the whole family to participate in the puppy classes, the more the merrier. But if the whole family cannot attend, whoever will be the primary caregiver for the puppy should come on a regular basis.

We occasionally introduce Adult Ambassador Dogs in our puppy classes and allow them to mingle with the pups. These are adult dogs that are very dog social and love puppies. They are used to help teach puppies proper adult greeting protocol.

We highly recommend that new puppy guardians educate themselves and do some reading on their own.

Recommended reading includes:
“The Culture Clash”-Jean Donaldson
“After you get your puppy” –Ian Dunbar
"The Ultimate Puppy Kit"

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: What is socialization?
A: Socialization of a puppy means to continually expose a puppy to a variety stimuli such as different sights, sounds and smells in a positive environment so that the puppy becomes habituated to these stimuli and is not affected negatively by them as an adult dog.

Q: Why is it important?
A: Poor or inadequate socialization is the number one cause of fear related aggression in adult dogs. Fear-aggression is the leading cause of death (by euthanasia) of adult dogs.

Q: Why should I take my puppy to puppy pre-school?
A: Simply put, to help socialize your puppy. A good puppy pre-school help your puppy grow into a confident adult dog by teaching you how to expose your puppy to life’s situations so that your puppy learns how to cope confidently within these situations. It is also a safe environment for your puppy to learn proper social graces and interactions and bite inhibition.

For PUPPY classes in the Vancouver area please contact Shannon Malmberg at www.zendogtraining.com

For information regarding a Puppy Kinship puppy preschool in your area please contact us directly through our contact- us page on this web site