What Is Puppy Pre-School?

Puppy Pre-school classes are a fun way to socialise your puppy, both with humans and, more importantly, with other puppies of a similar age. The classes follow on from a Puppy Parenting night (an information session for new puppy owners held once monthly) and are run right here in the Aberfoyle Hub Veterinary Clinic. Each of the four sessions goes for an hour, during which puppies have play sessions with one another, basic obedience lessons using positive reinforcement and owners are instructed on various aspects of pet care. All members of the family are encouraged to attend, so kids are more than welcome!

The Importance of Socialisation

Puppies have a peak socialisation period early in life where experiences they have and behaviours they learn have a great effect on later behaviour. It is for this reason that puppies need to interact with other puppies, and people, during this socialisation period. Just like human children, puppies interact with adults differently than they do with puppies their own age. This means that in order to learn all the right social skills, it is important that their socialisation during this period involves lots of play with similarly aged puppies. Puppy Pre-School is all about providing a safe, supervised environment for the puppies to interact with each other, and with people outside their usual family.

Puppy Manners

Puppy pre-school is also about teaching your puppy good manners. In order that your new puppy becomes a polite and welcome member of your family, they need to start learning how to behave immediately. This means that they need to learn about human expectations, and to have the opportunity to be rewarded for performing desired or acceptable behaviour. It is important to set boundaries right from the beginning, as behaviours that are cute or funny in a small puppy soon become unmanageable or unacceptable in an adult dog.