Their Journey

Our dogs start training as early as 8 weeks old. Their training starts with their volunteer puppy raiser at home working on manners, potty training, crate training and socialization. They come into the facility once a week for “puppy kindergarten” to learn more with our trainers. They start simple with sit, down, touch, wait, eye contact, walking on a leash and most importantly, their name! At this age socialization is most important for these dogs for them to get used to all the sounds, sights and senses that they possibly can.

Once the dogs are around 8 months old, they enter their next stage of learning. In intermediate class once a week, they learn how to walk on a loose leash, ignore distractions, how to greet people politely, lay under a chair/table, dress themselves with their vest, place themselves in the “heel” or “side” position next to their human and much more. They also fine tune the cues and behaviors they learned as puppies to prepare them for what they are about to learn in advanced.

Once the dogs are a little over a year old, they enter advanced training. Advanced training comes with a lot more responsibility for them, but nothing they can’t handle! They come into our facility to train 3 times a week with our trainers, and once every other week with their volunteer raisers so that they can continue training at home. At this age they start to learn things that will be incredibly useful to their future partner. They learn how to retrieve items, settle in public, open and close doors/cabinets/drawers, help with laundry and much more!