Should my puppy attend boot camp?
What is puppy boot camp?
In todays modern era of puppy training. Puppy owners are looking for a quick solution to train their puppy without having to invest any time to do it themselves. So should your puppy attend a puppy boot camp? This is where you take you board your puppy at a facility for 2 weeks and during this time they “guarantee” your puppy will be trained and all you have to do is follow the instructions for training and your puppy will be trained. Buyer beware! that is not always necessarily true…
What should you know?
So the question is “should my puppy attend boot camp?
What training techniques are used?
It is important to be sure to know if the trainers are 
using positive reinforcement puppy training techniques. Questions to ask – do you use “prong, choke or shock collars” as part of their training methods? If the answer is “yes” run like crazy!!! Never leave your puppy with anyone who would use inhumane training techniques. These are used to intimidate your puppy, such techniques can be detrimental to your puppy’s overall emotional state.
You also need to be confident all the trainers are certified professional dog trainers through organizations that require the use of positive reinforcement dog training only.
Dog training certifications that are reputable are, CCPDT (Council for Certified Professional Dog Trainers) and IAABC (International Association Animal Behavior Consultants).
How do puppies learn?
Puppies learn in environments where there is plenty of opportunity to play, and interact with other puppies of similar age. 
Playing and learning from their peers provides optimal value. Other puppies are communicating together in a similar language this helps the puppy learn, and develop a social learning pattern.
Once the puppy is relaxed enough he or she is now ready to start basic training.
Trainer vs Owner
Puppy trainers are professionals and know pretty much instinctually how to interact with a puppy to ensure the puppy gets reinforced for desirable behaviors. Trainers typically do not greet puppies with excitable interactions to encourage jumping. Trainers, often times require a puppy to perform a particular command before being rewarded. As trainers work with puppies daily in this manner, the puppy begins to recognize the pattern i.e. I have to “sit” before I am petted.
Owners however operate differently with their puppy. The initial greeting is excitable, thus reinforcing excitable jumping from he puppy resulting in the owner pushing the puppy or yelling at the puppy and the spiraling behavior continues.
So when a puppy leaves puppy “boot camp” they appear to be perfect as the trainer has been able to achieve the behaviors working daily with the puppy. The key now is to effectively be able to transfer that knowledge over to the owner so the owner can equally achieve the same results.
Owner expectations
Many owners expect the puppy the leave the training program and automatically begin to respond the same way as with the trainer. That is not how puppies learn. They learn by association i.e. I behave this way with this person and “that way” with another. So the key is to ensure the owner now learns the effective training techniques to achieve similar results.
How does our Puppy Training Camp differ?
Our puppy training camp is NOT “boot camp” we are not intimidating nor terrorizing your puppy in any shape or form.
When puppies join our puppy training camp. They are first of all living in our home environment. i.e. with our family, in our 
family space, with other dogs, so they start to learn to relax and gain some structure whilst there are lots of activities in and around the environment.
The puppies have plenty of time to play and socialize with other puppies, and training is carried out in small pockets of time several times a day, as opposed to large amounts of time. Puppies loose concentration very quickly so we ensure we keep the sessions short but repetitive. Its consistent repetition that changes behavior!
Our trainers are certified professional dog trainers through CCPDT (Council for professional dog trainers) we are all trained to use 100% positive reinforcement training techniques. We are also certified through the International Association of Animal Behaviorists who are an organization where positive reinforcement training is required.
Still want your puppy to go to puppy training camp? GREAT.. then try OUR program!
Contact us today, you will see the difference between our puppy training camp and the standard puppy boot camp!
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