Getting a puppy is one of the most exciting times in any dog lovers’ life. By taking part in training from an early age, you and your new puppy will be starting your new life together on the right paw. Training with your dog helps to build your bond, gives you confidence as a dog owner and helps develop essential life skills in your pup so they can grow into well-rounded, happy, confident adult dogs.

This course is all about building a solid foundation of training for new puppies. It covers essential life skills such as loose-lead walking, recall, meeting and greeting appropriately, learning to focus around distractions and stationary positions such as sit and down. As the owner, you’ll also learn valuable training techniques, how to use various pieces of equipment, develop an understanding of canine communication and receive guidance on socialisation.

The course is delivered over 10 weeks. It’s a hybrid model, with the first four weeks being taught online and the following six weeks in person. The final session is a training walk where we take everything we’ve learned over 10 weeks and apply it in a real-world setting. You’ll also benefit from tailored support between sessions as and when needed, as well as being part of a Facebook or WhatsApp group with the rest of the class. Class sizes are deliberately kept small to ensure everyone gets the support they need.

As the course content is tailored specifically for puppies, it’s best suited to dogs under the age of six months. It’s suitable for puppies from 8 weeks of age (pre-vaccination) as the first four weeks take place online. However, slightly older dogs who haven’t previously undergone training may also be suitable - please get in touch with any questions.

As a general rule, newly rehomed rescue dogs would not be the best fit for this type of class and would possibly benefit from 1-2-1 support.

During the first four weeks, training sessions will take place in the comfort of your own home via a live online class. This helps both you and your pup get familiar with the basics before moving to a more distracting group setting.

From week five, training will be in person at the Waterside Centre, Newbury, usually on Sundays at 11am. The final session will be a training walk, which generally takes place at the picturesque Greenham Common, to give you the chance to practice what you’ve learned in the real world.

The safety and wellbeing of your pup is the cornerstone of training at Kaelum Neville Dog Training. I want you and your dog to have a happy and fulfilling life together, so all of my training is based on the principles of positive reinforcement. I do not and will never use aversive training methods (shouting, fear, intimidation, punishment, etc) or equipment (shock collars, prong collars, slip leads, etc). Instead, I use the most up-to-date, ethical and scientifically-backed methods.

For training to be effective, it’s important that you are happy to do certain amount in between classes, as the real learning happens in real life!