Q. How old can my puppy be to attend lessons?
Your puppy should have had its full course of inoculations before attending a puppy class.  The socialisation period starts at around 3weeks so as soon as you get your puppy you can start exposing him to different sights and sounds.  This will make him better equipped to handle new situations in the future.

Q. Will the puppies get to play together in class?
No but the puppies will get to interact with our stooge dogs.  They are all older, adult dogs who will help the puppies learn how to interact around strange dogs and teach them all important manners.

Q. Why shouldn't all the puppies in a class play together?
Your puppy has, providing he came from a litter with other puppies, had around 8weeks of running around and playing with other puppies.  He will know how to play with them but will not know how to interact with adult dogs.  If he goes to a puppy class and plays around uncontrollably with other puppies he will learn that all dogs are to be played with so when he slips his lead and sees another dog across the road who can blame him for running over the road to play with a possible new friend.  Not all dog owners or dogs will take kindly to your pet, no matter how friendly you feel they are, running up to them.  Puppy socialisation is about learning good manners around other dogs not how to play.

We had a fantastic dog last year who came to us from being a puppy then joined our moving on class.  His owners wanted to try other things with him so additionally signed up to a 4week course with someone else.  Here the dogs all got to run around and "play" together off lead in an uncontrolled indoor hall environment.  There were different ages and sizes of dogs and this lovely dog learned to play rough and gained the thought that all dogs want to play.  We are now having to do extra work helping the owner regain control and prevent him coming to danger by either another dog or owner hurting him or hit by a car as he has ran across a road to other dogs.  It is not an unfixable situation but shows how 4hours poor instruction can damage several months of good training.

Q. My dog is a bit aggressive with other dogs and people, can I bring them to a class to get used to strangers and other dogs?
A class environment such as this is not of use to your dog.  Unfortunately, Pawfect Start does not currently have any training classes for dogs with aggressive issues - this is a very complex situation that needs specialised instruction.  We can, however, put you in contact with trainers who specialise in this.