Picture this. You’re down at the dog beach with your dog. There are people walking past, other dogs having a sniff, and plenty of interesting things happening around you.
Your dog is busy exploring. Maybe it’s even halfway through sniffing another dog’s backside.
You call, “Here!”
And your dog turns around and comes running straight back to you.
Not because you’ve had to shout five times. Not because you’re waving a treat around trying to compete with everything else on the beach. But because your dog genuinely loves being with you. Coming back to you is something it wants to do.
Now, that’s the kind of dog we want to help you raise at Canine Revolution.
We want your puppy to want to be with you
When people contact us about puppy school in Coffs Harbour, they often ask about the usual things: sitting, staying, walking on a lead, toilet training and coming when called. Of course those things matter. We teach obedience, and we want your puppy to do it well.
But here’s something I talk about with owners all the time: I don’t just want your puppy to know the exercises. I want your puppy to be genuinely enthusiastic about doing them with you.
I want your puppy to look at you and think, “Mum, Dad, what are we doing next? I want to hang out with you!”
That’s engagement. And for us, it’s one of the most important foundations of puppy training.
Don’t end up with one puppy at home and another outside the front gate
You know the dog I’m talking about.
At home, the owner gets out a biscuit and the dog is brilliant. Sit? Done. Down? No problem. On the bed? Straight away. Everybody’s impressed with how much the puppy knows.
Then the front gate opens.
Suddenly there’s a whole world of smells, people and other dogs, and the owner might as well not be there.
It’s not that the dog has forgotten everything. Often, we’ve accidentally spent months teaching the puppy that all the really exciting things happen away from us. Inside the house, we’re interesting. Outside, we’re just the person at the other end of the lead.
If every walk becomes “Right, this is your time to sniff, pull towards people and rush over to every dog,” what do we expect six or nine months later?
That’s why we look at things differently from the very beginning.
Socialisation doesn’t mean every dog and person becomes the main event
I’m all for puppies learning about the world. I want them to experience new places, different sounds, people, dogs and environments in a safe, positive, age-appropriate way.
And yes, your puppy can have a sniff. It can investigate a tree. It can enjoy an appropriate greeting with another dog.
But I don’t want your puppy growing up believing that every other dog and every other person is more exciting than you.
Imagine taking your puppy somewhere with plenty going on. It notices the other dogs, takes in the environment, and still wants to check in with you. It wants to be part of what you’re doing.
We’re not trying to take the fun out of your puppy’s world. We’re teaching your puppy that some of the best fun in that world happens with you.
That’s a very different way of thinking about puppy socialisation.
The secret isn’t just using rewards. It’s how we use them.
People sometimes ask whether we use food and toys in our puppy training. Absolutely we do. Food, toys, play and games can be incredibly motivating for the right puppy.
But the important part isn’t simply having a pocketful of treats.
We want your puppy to discover that choosing you is highly reinforcing. It checks in with you, comes towards you or offers you its attention, and suddenly something wonderful happens. Maybe it’s a favourite toy. Maybe it’s an exciting game. Maybe it’s a food reward the puppy really loves.
You can almost imagine the puppy thinking, “Wow! I didn’t even know you had that! I chose you, and all the good stuff happened!”
Here’s one of the principles behind the way we work: we make it very easy for your puppy to get it right and very difficult for it to get it wrong.
We structure the early experiences so your puppy has opportunities to make those great choices and discover how rewarding it is to engage with you. We’re not asking a tiny puppy to ignore every distraction on day one. We build the desire, then develop it as your puppy grows.
And we have fun doing it. We use motivating games that adults, children and families can learn to enjoy together, with the right guidance and supervision.
Training isn’t something that only happens in the lounge room
When I’m raising and training my own puppies, I don’t want a dog that can only work in one familiar spot.
I build that relationship on the front porch, in the backyard, in the front garden, then beyond the fence. As the puppy is ready, we take that training into places like the Coffs Harbour Jetty, Coffs Central and other real-world places.
Why? Because the real world is where you want to enjoy your dog.
I want a dog that loves playing retrieve with me even when other things are happening around us. A dog that gets excited about searching for something with me. A dog that can sit, lie down and come when called with enthusiasm, not just go through the motions.
The picture I have in mind isn’t a dog that never notices its surroundings. It’s a dog that has developed such a strong history of enjoying time with you that you remain the person it wants to come back to.
That’s the foundation we start building when your puppy is young, and it’s something you keep developing through adolescence and into adult life.
What do you really want from your puppy school?
If you’re searching for puppy school in Coffs Harbour or puppy training in Coffs Harbour, think beyond whether your puppy will learn to sit for a biscuit.
Think about the dog you want beside you in six months, twelve months and years from now.
The dog you can enjoy taking places. The dog that wants to listen even when life gets interesting. The dog that comes back when you call because coming back to you has become one of its favourite things to do.
That’s what we’re working towards at Canine Revolution.
We don’t just want to teach your puppy commands. We want to help you become one of the most interesting, rewarding and important parts of your puppy’s world.
And we want to teach you how to build that relationship, not just do the work with your puppy while you watch.
Want to raise a puppy that genuinely wants to be with you? Have a chat with us about our Puppy Training programs in Coffs Harbour. We’ll show you how we structure our puppy training and help you find the right starting point.
Call Canine Revolution on 0414 251 177.
