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five puppies await socialization training in a backyard in falls church va

PUPPY TRAINING AND SOCIALIZATION
IN NORTHERN VIRGINIA

FOR PUPPIES UNDER SIX MONTHS

Get expert guidance in navigating the challenges of puppyhood with our simplified and effective training approach. We help you focus on the priorities at each developmental stage.

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Our professional, CCPDT-certified trainers serve Northern Virginia including Falls Church, Lake Barcroft, Arlington, Annandale, Vienna, Alexandria & Fairfax.

puppy on leash sniffing a rabbit under a tree in a fairfax va park

Puppy 101

This session is completely customized to cover exactly what you need. Possible topics include but are not limited to:

o Sleep and feeding schedule

o Crate training

o Potty training

o Puppy biting

o Socialization tips

o Confidence-building exercises

o Shaping and luring techniques

o Introduction to basic skills

o Proper puppy management to prevent bad habits from forming

o And lots more!

  • Includes one 60-Minute owner coaching session (owner, trainer, and puppy) to get you and your puppy started on the right track.

  • Price: $150

Polite Puppy

This program expands upon Puppy 101 by providing you with ongoing puppy support. Meet with a trainer once a week for four weeks. Learn how to recognize changes in your puppy and shift your focus to take advantage of your puppy’s current developmental stage. The issues you deal with in week one will not be the same ones you’ll have in week four! Let us show you how to make adjustments as your puppy grows so that you can maximize your puppy’s learning potential. Basic core commands and behaviors covered include:

o Name

o Habit of attention

o Let's go

o Wait

o Sit

o Down

o Come

o Stay

o Leave it

o Drop it

  • Includes Four 1-Hour owner coaching sessions (owner, trainer, and puppy)

  • Price: $675*

yellow puppy chews toy during socialization training in annandale va
adorable puppy with blue collar on puppy field trip in vienna virginia

Polite Puppy Field Trips

You’ve completed Polite Puppy and you’re feeling great about your puppy’s newfound skills at home. But now what? If you’d like some tips for handling an excitable, anxious, or nervous puppy who hasn’t had a lot of exposure to the outside world, our Polite Puppy Field Trip program is for you!  We’ll meet at a variety of places and learn how to introduce your puppy to entirely new experiences, smells, and sounds. Field trip destinations could incorporate elevators, playgrounds, shopping centers, dog-friendly retail stores, high-volume traffic and street noise, automated doors, different walking surfaces (sand, mulch, gravel), water, bridges, and more!

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Learn how to let eager fans greet your puppy without scaring him or without him jumping all over them. Practice polite walking, wait, sit, down, stay, come, drop it and leave it in real-world settings. We’ll customize our destinations based on your location and your puppy’s experience and demeanor, but no matter where we go, this program is all about building confidence - yours and your puppy’s.

  • Includes four 1-hour field trip sessions (owner, trainer, and puppy at a field trip location (sessions on-site will be 45 minutes to allow for commute time/parking/etc.)

  • Price: $675*

  • ​Pre-req: Polite Puppy

Puppy Headstart

Busy? Tired? Overwhelmed? We get it! Raising a new puppy is fun but exhausting, and if your days are packed, it can sometimes be hard to find enough time to give a puppy everything he needs. Counterbalancing these realities, though, is this: A puppy’s Critical Socialization window is from 8-16 weeks. This is when your puppy is a litte sponge, soaking up everything and making a lot of associations – hopefully mostly positive ones. This is the ideal time to get your puppy out into the world to have lots of fantastic new experiences with new people and places.

 

Early exposure is critical to a puppy’s development and can prevent problems later on in life. Puppy Headstart takes advantage of this time in a puppy’s development and is our most popular puppy program. It combines school days with owner coaching sessions: On school days, a trainer will pick your puppy up from your home and take him out into the world for two hours before dropping him back home for a well-earned nap. School days include introduction to basic core commands; field trips to new environments; confidence-building exercises with introductions to new people, novel sights and sounds and surfaces, and exposure to other dogs (when possible) in a safe environment; and husbandry/ handling.

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There are two options for Puppy Headstart:

The 4-Pack:

  • Four 2-hour school days - one per week for four weeks (trainer and puppy)

  • Four 1-hour owner coaching sessions (owner, trainer, and puppy)

  • Price: $1,950*

The 8-Pack:

  • Eight 2-hour school days - two per week for four weeks (trainer and puppy)

    Four 1-hour owner coaching sessions (owner, trainer, and puppy)

  • Price: $2,950*

two puppies receive professional headstart training in alexandria va neighborhood

* No refunds are offered on training packages, and all classes must be taken within six months of the date of the first session.

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