Puppy Training

Not all "Puppy Classes" are built to help you raise a well mannered and confident adult dog.

When Should I Start Training My Puppy?

Puppy training should begin the FIRST DAY you bring your puppy home with you. I often notice that in the typical “puppy classes” you’ll find in your neighborhood do not focus on what I believe are the most crucial lessons and aspects of puppy training. They often like to focus on obedience training such as “sit”, “come” and “down” for example. Unfortunately obedience training is not the most important aspect of early puppy training.  

What Are The Most Important Elements Of Puppy Training?

01

Proper Socialization

Proper socialization to as many people, places, objects and environments.

02

People & House Manners

Learning how to be polite when interacting with people, and what they are allowed and not allowed to do in your home.

03

Potty Training

Teaching your dog to eliminate outside or on a particular spot you’ve designated.

Proper socialization is the key to a happy well mannered adult dog.

Proper socialization is the most important aspect of a puppies foundational training. The word “proper” being the key word. It is especially important to get this work done before the “puppy socialization window” closes at the age of 4 months. This is because before the age of 4 months, puppies are incredibly resilient to fear, and it takes very little time and effort to get them used to something that they might have initially been terrified of. 

What Does "Proper" Socialization Look Like?

Proper socialization means that we want to introduce our puppies to as many people, dogs, objects and environments as possible, but in a safe and polite way. Safety and manners are the key to proper socialization because if you just take your puppy out and try to meet as many people, dogs, object and environments as possible without being cautious about the experiences being safe and positive, and how polite your puppy is in this process, bad manners and fear can occur from these attempts.

What Happens If My Puppy Is Already Over 4 Months Old?

Don’t worry, we can still socialize your puppy, its just that now that the socialization window has closed, it will take MANY more repetitions and patience for you to socialize your puppy to something than before. 
puppy socialization

What A Puppy does when it's little may not be so cute when its a full grown adult.

Teaching People & House Manners Should Start On Day One

Nipping, biting, jumping, and barking are all typical behaviours a puppy will exhibit to try to play and communicate with you. While this might be how they communicate with their siblings, this is not an appropriate way of communicating with you. Its important to teach them right away that these are unwanted behaviours, and your puppy needs to learn to communicate with you differently.

Puppies rarely "grow out of " behaviours.

puppy nipping and biting

Jumping up is one of the best examples of something a puppy will do when they are little to get attention. While its cute when they are small, this will quickly become a problematic behaviour when they get bigger and could knock someone over or scratch their legs. 

Whenever your puppy is doing a behaviour, you should always ask yourself if this is something that could become a problem when they are older. If the answer is “yes”, discouraging the behaviour right away is important. 

House Manners & Potty Training

It’s important to allow your puppy to explore and have access to your house and meet people under supervision so that you can start to teach them what they are allowed (and not allowed) to do.

To avoid the house from getting destroyed, many people try to set their puppies up for success by “puppy proofing” their house before the puppy comes home, and allowing the puppy to have access to entire rooms or floors of the house unsupervised.  Unfortunately, the lack of supervision creates opportunity for potty accidents and destructive behaviour. Not matter how well you “puppy proofed” the house, the uncluttered floors and hidden cables won’t last forever, and eventually, your puppy has to learn that these things are not theirs to chew. 

This is why crate training when you can’t be watching them, and 100% supervised house exploration sessions are the key to teaching your puppy that they can’t just chew on and pee on whatever they want. 

Puppy house manners, destructive chewing, jumping up, biting, nipping, mouthing

Of course, crate training for many new puppy parents can be incredibly challenging. If you are struggling, DO NOT GIVE UP! It’s important to contact a trainer as there are many techniques to help you though your crate training woes. Without crate training, your house manners and potty training will be a real challenge. Rather than completing the training in weeks, you’ll be struggling for months.

This is where I come in, to help teach you how to communicate with your puppy about what they should and shouldn't do. It's important to understand how to communicate with your puppy clearly and effectively to help them learn the new rules of their home. Without this clarity, we are often left with frustrated pet parents and confused and out of control puppies that do not understand what to do.

Dog Training Toronto | Hairy Tales | Award Winning Dog Behaviorist
Kristina Rapson The Hairy Dogmother

Puppy Training Options

Ready to set your puppy up to be the best adult dog they can be?  There are some different options available to you:

One-on-One Private Sessions

(At Hairy Tales Training Studio)

  • No packages required and can be purchased pay as you go!
  • Typically this is the best option as each puppy has different training needs and progresses at different speeds.
  • Coming to the training studio gives your puppy the opportunity to go to a new place which is great for their socialization. This is one of the KEY components to puppy training.
  •  Most clients find that they need puppy classes every 2-3 weeks to keep up with thier puppies ever-changing behaviours and training needs.
Book At The Training Studio

In-Home Sessions

  • 3 session package required for in-home sessions
  • In-Home sessions are for client convenience and are not necessary for your puppies training success.
  • Depending on where you live, some sessions might take place somewhere other than your home as socialization is one of the most important aspects of your puppies training.
  •  If you live in a quiet neighborhood that is not walking distance from a busy street like Yonge or Bloor, it is strongly suggested you book at my training studio so we can work on socialization there.
Request To Book In Home Session

Online Sessions

  • No packages required and can be purchased pay as you go!
  • Online classes are designed for people who do not live close enough to physically come to the training studio.
  • Online sessions can help you and your puppy establish the right rules and boundaries in your home and give you tips and tricks on proper socialization practices.
  • Initial consultations have a lot to do with us talking about tips tricks and methods to help you guide your puppy. Ideally, your puppy should be having a nap when we do this session so you can focus on our lesson.
Book An Online Session
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  • Our little girl was a rescue with a lot of fear based aggression. Working with Hairy Tales has given our girl the confidence that she’s needed to go on walks, feel safe when visitors come, and allowed us to understand her needs to make her feel safe. We are SO excited to see this change in our Natty. Thank you so much Hairy Tales. Kristina knew exactly what was going on with our girl and helped us every step of the way!!

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  • My husband and I had an excellent first meeting with Kristina., with our two dogs. She gave us valuable additional insight and recommendations with how to respond to certain situations. Already, within the first week after the visit we are experiencing significant improvement with both dogs, in their respective areas of need i.e. better walking with one, and less reactivity in the other. Thanks Kristina for a great start, and we will be coming back for follow up sessions!

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  • Kristina trained my brother’s rambunctious lab mix who is extremely well behaved. So she came highly recommended. We first went to her a month after bringing home our second dog. The day after our first session, we had a completely different dog. Today, the day after our second session, we were stopped at the park by someone complimenting us on how well our dogs were behaved and wanting a referral. 100% would recommend to anyone looking for a well balanced dog.

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  • I recently adopted a little Shelter dog, who was a real bossy bully of a dog, and walking her turned into a stressful event for both of us. But Kristina help me learn how to pick-up on my dog's body cues/language and help guide her past trigger dogs (i.e. anything bigger than her) in a calm, firm manner. She so much more relaxed on our walks now and I can't thank Kristina enough for her patience and knowledge. She is an excellent trainer and I would recommend her to anyone looking for a dog trainer.

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  • Kristina has been incredible to work with. She’s thoughtful and takes her time with my pup. She provided detailed notes and homework based on what your dog needs and sends follow ups to check in on your dogs progression. I’ve seen an incredible improvement in my pups behaviour and I definitely attribute that to the help I got from her!

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  • I had a great experience working with Kristina to train my puppy Alfie - she was thorough, king, patient and incredibly encouraging! She was flexible with the spring weather and sent extensive follow up emails to help with my training at home. She could even check in on how things were going in between our sessions, and always answered my random questions as well. Couldn't recommend her more! Such a great help to me.

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  • Working with Kristina has made a major difference in our home. Our older dog came to us incredibly fearful and anxious. The strategies and homework we did with our training has helped him really come out of his shell and develop confidence. Our younger dog can be reactive but after each session we see improvements in behaviours. Overall we have seen a lot of improvements in both our dogs and I’m really thankful for all we have learned from Kristina.

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  • Before we consulted Kristina about our rescue dog Stella’s leash reactivity, we couldn’t take her for a walk without her barking/lunging/snarling at LITERALLY EVERYTHING. We’re talking — we leave the door of the condo building and it was non-stop snarling at everything she could see. People, cars, bikes, dogs. If you could name it, Stella was trying to bite it. After just the initial consultation session with Kristina and being given homework on relationship building/the correct tools (and being taught how to use said tools), we saw a considerable improvement in Stella’s leash reactivity and her leash walking manners. It’s been 3 weeks since our first session, and today Stella walked so casually in a loose leash position, I thought I must’ve brought the wrong dog home from the groomer. She does not bark at people and cars anymore (sometimes she’ll tense up at cars, but we can redirect her now). Her threshold for seeing dogs without reacting has considerably improved and we can even walk by many of them on the sidewalk without issue — a massive improvement from seeing them even across the street and reacting. I don’t feel scared to take her on walks anymore and my confidence as a handler has also greatly improved. AFTER ONE SESSION!!! Aside from Kristina’s expertise in training, my partner and I are extremely grateful for how gracefully Kristina communicates with us. Kristina never shamed us for not knowing better or not already seeing Stella’s signs of guarding (which is related to the reactivity issue). She never made us feel badly about Stella’s behaviour issues. She teaches in such an easily understandable way. We have another session with Kristina booked soon, and I imagine we’ll sign up for more in the coming weeks/months to continue to help Stella live the best life she can. I can honestly say that it’s probably the best money we’ve ever spent. Highly recommend!!!

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  • As a first time dog owner, Kristina gives me all the tools I needed to best support my pup! She is super knowledgable and understanding of my pups needs and has so many helpful resources. She is also great with humans - professional, kind, and easy to work with. She has checked in with me throughout my training journey making me feel very supported!

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  • My 2 yorkies used to love each other, but two months ago they started fighting every day, it was a stressful situation at home. Kristina was the second trainer to try to fix this dog agression situation. She solved 70% of my problem in ONE DAY. Check the picture of my yorkies, they are together in the same room without killing each other!!!!! It happened literally 2 days after we started doing what Kristina told us to! I am looking foward to the next session, I am really confident that they will become the most polite dogs in the world

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