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Please check out our 2 new venues in Swanley and Belvedere!
They provide much larger halls for indoor training and fantastic outdoor spaces for when the weather is beautiful and we can go outside!
Please send us an inquiry form to book your space!
We look forward to meeting you and your fur babies!
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121/private/individual training sessions
Sometimes- a class environment isn't ideal for a dog or the owner.
Or, we want to deal with specific behaviour: pulling on the lead, recall, not good with other dogs, barking, have a rescue dog and want to give them the best start of new life..…
Many owners I have met need to build owners confidence as they are anxious about meeting other dogs, or even just simply don’t know how to deal with behaviours above
We work with you to make sure you have pockets full of knowledge when you leave us, confidence to deal with your dog on your own and work with those behaviours you struggle the most with.
I love 121 as we can have good chat and a laugh, its more personal and owner get 100% of my attention. You make a special connection with family and become a member of a dog family.
It is up to 2h session and we try our best to make sure you don't have to come back, not because we don't want you back- we want to make sure you know what to do and how to deal with behaviour just from 1 session
Five venues to choose from in different areas and days of the week
Puppies: up to 6 months old
Bronze: from 6 months old & pups who completed Top Dog puppy class
Higher: dogs that have completed Top Dog Bronze class, or bronze level with other training schools
Pro: Those who can do most exercises off the lead
Sessions are 45mins-50min long:
What will we cover:
How to stop the pulling and walk nicely with loose lead
Eye contact and attention on you while walking
Recall distractions: other dogs, cats, squirrels, food on the floor, runners, and bikes.
Barking: window, other dogs, runners, cyclists, children, people without dogs
Nipping, chewing, biting
Boredom, treats, toys, digging the garden and everything you may have a problem with
And all the things you need in real life.
You can't attend 121 sessions, or maybe you cannot use Zoom classes, or it's at the wrong time- Video consultation training could help, as we could call through Facebook messenger or WhatsApp.
We can cover all the behaviour as we can also send you a video of the exercise and then talk through it and you can even be in the garden or outside, show me how you do it, and I can be there and praise you for how well you are doing or maybe a correct little mistake.
We can have one h or two h calls. Are all up to you.
Still working on it
What is dog training?
We all believe that the dog training is teaching a dog particular skills or behaviours. Dog training includes teaching a dog to react to particular commands and cues as well as to act independently by deliberately changing their natural behaviour (not to chase squirrels, birds or cats. Not to bark, not to dig the garden)
But how can we teach dogs all those things if we as the owners don’t know what we are doing. Many of us have an idea, but it is the expectation of how the dog should behave. We remember how our nans and grandads or maybe even parents train dogs- shouting No, hitting with newspaper when dog touched something, or maybe rubbing their nose when dog done wee in the house. But we never praised the dog when they stopped doing naughty things because we are too upset or annoyed and it is our expectation that the dog should behave how they do after they been punished.
The times have changed and now we are actually teaching the dogs how to behave instead of just punishing them when they did something wrong (reminds me of my childhood a bit) But how?
First of all, us Dog Owners need to learn everything there is to learn about the dog.
What is the dog?
Differences between the breeds?
What your dog was bred for?
Natural instincts?
How they think?
How they learn?
What they need to learn?
Why they need to learn those things?
Differences between each dog:
If you have 10 golden retrievers you will notice that even though they are the same breed, they have different characters and will behave differently is different situations- Same as if you have 10 children, but they have different characters and will behave differently.
What dog behaviour depend on?
Dogs behaviour depends not only on how new owners will treat them, but also how they were bred:
Character or mum and dad:
were they selected carefully talking about behaviour. Were they friendly, well socialised, not aggressive, not nervous and well balanced dogs?
How were they bred?
Did breeders take they time to introduce the dogs, were dogs happy to be with each other, did breeding needed to involve human help or it happened naturally.
How did pregnancy go:
Was mum looked after well while pregnant, was there enough food, was food nutritious, did mum go through any stress
Birth:
Was puppy born inside of the house, or outside in a dog barn or even in a big kennel. Was birth of pups easy, were all pups healthy
First weeks:
Was mum a good mum? Feeding her pups, being with them, teaching first important skills or did she wanted anything to do the pups and they had to be hand fed by the breeders. Was environment stress free and all pups growing up happy and healthy.
As you can see, dogs’ behaviour doesn’t only depend on what you a new owners gave to the dog, but way before you.
When I choose my puppy, I always visit the house to meet mum, to see where the dogs kept, watch all the pups and have a chat to the breeder about the dad, why they chose him.
Think why we are choosing this dog:
Have you read and researched everything there is to know about the breed?
Can you provide the dog with everything they need for that breed? Space, exercise, food, companionship, grooming and training?
Or is it because:
They are cute?
Your friends got it and you absolutely fell in love with that breed?
And the most important is:
Can you provide all 5 freedoms of Animal Welfare:
1. Freedom from hunger and thirst: by ready access to fresh water and a diet to maintain full health and vigour.
2. Freedom from discomfort: by providing an appropriate environment including shelter and a comfortable resting area.
3. Freedom from pain, injury or disease: by prevention through rapid diagnosis and treatment.
4. Freedom to express normal behaviour: by providing sufficient space, proper facilities and company of the animal’s own kind.
5. Freedom from fear and distress: by ensuring conditions and treatment which avoid mental suffering.
I know right, this is all before you even choose the dog.
What should we train our pups?
So now we know what dog we have, we are ready to teach them how we would like them to behave. But what is it that we need to teach them. Every human in the world wants something different, but there are few things that we all want to teach our dogs. When owners bring their new puppies to training, they have already taught thing or two- some, nothing at all.
When pups come to school, most of the pups know sit and paw. These two things I see in 90% of pups as they are so easy to teach.
There are so many different types of training, but is it that we need to have well behaved family dog.
There is training when puppy comes home:
Where puppy sleeps?
Where and when puppy eats?
Where puppy goes toilet?
Where puppy plays?
Leave puppy home when you out
And then its training training:
Socialisation with other dogs, environment, people, surfaces, car, sounds, textures and many more
Respond to their name.
Recall
Walking nicely on lead
Sit, down, up.
Stay
Watch
Settle
Leave
How to ignore other dogs And the most important is :
What are 5 freedoms of Animal Welfare:
1. Freedom from hunger and thirst: by ready access to fresh water and a diet to maintain full health and vigour.
2. Freedom from discomfort: by providing an appropriate environment including shelter and a comfortable resting area.
3. Freedom from pain, injury or disease: by prevention through rapid diagnosis and treatment.
4. Freedom to express normal behaviour: by providing sufficient space, proper facilities and company of the animal’s own kind.
5. Freedom from fear and distress: by ensuring conditions and treatment which avoid mental suffering.
When it’s ok to say hi to other dogs
Leave wild animals alone
Not to jump
Not to bite
And everything else what we thing of.
So What is Top Dog Training?
First of all is to teach owners all about the dogs. Then we start from basics and go into harder things as the puppy progress week by week and then course by course. I always advise owners to do puppy class and bronze level. These two levels will give enough information to have a well behaved dog at home and community.
Every week you learn something new with how to do it and why we actually need it, where will you use it. Then you practice what we learned that week at home. Next week the next step, but it will be connected to the first step.
Top Dog teaches real life training that you will use on daily basis. We don’t learn unnecessary thigs unless you ask us. I always ask my owners what they would like to learn and why. What they expecting to gain from my classes, then we run the class designed for the students in that group.
What do you think? Let us know
1 Davis Way
Foots Cray
Kent
DA14 5JR
Monday night:
Puppies: 18.00- 18.45pm
Bronze: 19.00-19 .45 pm
Silver/Gold: 20.00- 20.45pm
Belvedere Junior School
Mitchell Close
Belvedere
DA17 6AA
Wednesday night:
Puppies: 18.00- 18.45pm
Bronze: 19.00- 19.45pm
Silver/Gold: 20.00- 20.45pm
Horizon Primary Academy
Hilda May Ave
Swanley
BR8 7BT
Saturday Morning:
Puppies: 09:30- 10:15am
Bronze: 10:30-11:15am
Silver/Gold: 11:30-12:15pm
Parkway Primary School
Alsike Road
DA18 4DP
Sunday Morning:
9:30am
Weather dependant
Parkway Primary School
Alsike Road
DA18 4DP
Sunday Morning:
(It’s very easy to find it on maps)
Done it once: 10.30 am
Done it twice : 11.30 am
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