Start your puppy off with some positive puppy play pals. This socialization experience is an hour of puppy fun and learning! This is a great option to do while you wait for Puppy Kindergarten class to start, or to do in addition to your puppy's class. 

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We’ll watch the pups play, practice calming down, play some more, talk about a puppy focus topic, play some more, answer questions about raising a puppy, then end with more play time.
Limited to nine puppies, 11 weeks to five months of age.

Puppies required to have kennel cough and two distemper/parvo vaccines and a negative fecal including giardia screening.

Puppies may be divided based on size, age or energy at instructor’s discretion.

The puppy focus topic will rotate each week, see our schedule for the topic each week. 

Topics will include - mouthing and biting, housebreaking, polite greetings, socialization, recalls, possessiveness prevention, crate training, grooming, boredom busters. 

Puppy Kindergarten helps puppies grow into confident, well-mannered family companions through positive reinforcement, carefully structured socialization, and foundational training skills. Each week blends essential puppy behaviors, confidence building, and cooperative care. The foundation training in the class will be expanded upon in higher-level classes.

This class includes:

• Weekly supervised socialization (optional as each puppy’s confidence level allows. Pups are separated by size; monitored for safety)

• Exposure to novel objects, surfaces, and friendly “real-life” stimuli

• Crate training guidance.

• Real-world problem prevention (jumping, mouthing, handling, grooming, crate training)

• This class prepares puppies for Manners Level 1 and helps owners build strong habits from day one.
   

Manners Level 1 introduces both dogs and their humans to the fundamentals of effective dog training. In this class, you’ll learn clear, practical training mechanics - how to mark behaviors, reinforce correctly, and set your dog up for success - while your dog works on the skills needed to become a polite and attentive family pet. Each week blends leash manners, station training, recalls, handling, and polite behavior around people and other dogs, all at a level designed to build confidence and reliability step-by-step. Class Goals: Build foundation skills for a polite, attentive companion at home and on walks. A dog who can focus on their handler and demonstrate basic manners in low-distraction settings.

What We’ll Work On in Manners Level 1

• Loose Leash Walking Foundations:
  Teaching your dog to walk politely at your side, build attention on walks, and reduce pulling through clear communication and handler engagement.
   

• Station Training:
  Helping your dog relax on a designated mat or bed during downtime. We gradually increase duration, distance, and distractions so your dog can settle even when life is happening around them. Building the foundation for a “place” cue where you can send your dog to their bed from a distance and wait until released.
   

• Reliable Recalls:
  Building a consistent “come when called” response by starting in quiet environments with little distractions and expanding to more challenging scenarios each week.
   

• Sit & Down on Cue:
  Strengthening core obedience cues so your dog responds promptly and confidently in a variety of situations.
   

• Handling & Cooperative Care:
  Introducing gentle handling skills for grooming and vet visits. Practicing these skills before they are needed helps your dog gain confidence and be accepting of things like - nail trims, brushing, body checks, and more.
   

• Impulse Control:
  Polite Greetings - Teaching alternative behaviors to jumping and overexcitement, helping your dog greet people calmly at home and out in public. Impulse control around food - introducing “leave it” concepts for food stealing/counter surfing. 

Manners Level 2 expands on the foundation skills learned in Level 1 and helps your dog perform those manners reliably around real-life distractions. This class focuses on strengthening leash walking, recalls, polite greetings, station training, and cooperative care while gradually increasing distance, duration, and distraction challenges. Teams will also learn intermediate skills like stay, leave-it with real-world applications, engagement games, and functional leash work for public settings.
By the end of this course, your dog will be able to demonstrate consistent manners in a moderately distracting environment and show improved self-control, focus, and responsiveness.

This class is designed for dogs who have completed an Intermediate/Manners Level 2 class or who receive instructor approval. The AKC Canine Good Citizen (CGC) program is a nationally recognized, ten-skill training and evaluation program open to all dogs - purebred and mixed breed alike. It focuses on reliable good manners, responsible dog ownership, and strengthening the working relationship between dog and handler both at home and in the community.

Over the course of six weeks, teams will practice all ten CGC test items, including polite greetings, loose leash walking, reliable responses to cues, calm behavior around distractions, supervised separation, and confident handling for grooming and exams.

The AKC CGC test will be administered on the final night of class. While passing the test is the goal, this course is about more than just the evaluation - it’s about building a well-mannered, confident dog who can navigate everyday situations calmly and politely.

For more information about the Canine Good Citizen program and testing requirements, visit the AKC website.

The AKC S.T.A.R. Puppy program is designed to help puppies and their owners build strong training and socialization foundations during this critical developmental stage. This class follows the American Kennel Club’s S.T.A.R. Puppy curriculum, focusing on basic manners, positive training experiences, and responsible ownership.

Throughout the course, puppies work on essential skills such as loose leash walking, coming when called, sit and down, polite behavior around people and other dogs, and calm handling for grooming and veterinary care. Owners learn effective training mechanics, reinforcement strategies, and how to continue socialization in a safe and age-appropriate way. The class also includes confidence-building exposure to new environments, people, sounds, and surfaces to help puppies grow into well-adjusted adult dogs.

The AKC S.T.A.R. Puppy test will be given at the end of the course, and the class includes a field trip for real-world training to help puppies practice their skills outside of the classroom. While earning the S.T.A.R. Puppy title is a fun milestone, the true goal is to create a confident, engaged puppy with a strong foundation for future training.

For more information about the AKC S.T.A.R. Puppy program, visit the American Kennel Club website.

From crazy to calm, barky to quiet, fearful to confident. This class is for dogs who need help managing reactivity and impulse control.

Learn techniques and skills to change your dog’s emotional and behavioral responses to stimulus and stressors. What are your dog’s triggers? Dogs? People? Bikes?

Class size is limited to six dogs so exercises can be customized to each dog’s triggers.

This is a behavior modification class; you will be teaching your dog a different way to react to their triggers, eventually on their own. We will work with different methods to give you a range of options.  Past participants have found this to be a very useful course when they do the exercises and practice between classes. Plan on doing your homework!

Course schedule, six sessions over eight weeks, allows for practice and progress. Dog do not attend the first class. In the interest of helping reactive dogs, not all dogs attend each class. Handlers observe and learn from all dogs.

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After completing this class series, we offer Calm Canine Continues Drop In Classes to maintain and practice the skills you learned in class. 

Helping your dog feel safe, comfortable, and confident during grooming and veterinary care is one of the kindest gifts you can give them. The Happy Hound Husbandry class focuses on teaching dogs how to actively participate in their own care through cooperative care and consent-based training.

Using positive reinforcement, we build skills that lead to calm nail trims, relaxed handling and restraint, comfortable brushing, muzzle training, and stress-free administration of medications. Dogs learn that care routines don’t have to be scary - and that they have a choice and a voice in the process.

This class is especially encouraged for dogs who have been excused from grooming salons, struggle with handling, or require medication for veterinary visits. By working at the dog’s pace and focusing on trust and communication, we help create safer, more positive experiences for both dogs and their humans.

Level 1 lays the foundation by teaching consent cues, start-button behaviors, and gradual desensitization to common handling procedures.
Level 2 builds on those skills with increased duration, complexity, and real-world application.

Some individual supplies are required for this class. A detailed supply list will be sent after registration.