Our winter puppy class starts 1oth October and will be at 1pm on Sundays
Our summer puppy classes are on Wednesdays at 7pm until 8pm ish at Orchard Farm. Puppies can join the classes when they have had their second vaccination. We socialise the puppies and start their basic training. We also provide friendly advice and support for any problems people are having with their new dog. As the puppies develop we increase the level of their training, for what ever people would like to do with their dogs. If people want to we can train for and arrange Kennel Club Good Citizens tests, or we can prepare them for agility, working trials or herding.
The cost is just £5 pay as you go.

We have puppy training and socialisation on Sundays in the winter and Wednesday evenings in the summer. They have been very popular and great fun. Young puppies have joined as soon as they have had all their vaccinations and older pupies are able to do more advanced training. So we split the class into 2 parts. We base the training on the Kennel Club Good Citizens Scheme with some additional things we like to do to prepare dogs for Agility or Working Trials. Not just for competing but making sure that they are well behaved and able to relax and enjoy themselves in a busy show environment. We are now planning to run KCGC tests and train the young dogs for them.

Age to start training

There is a lot said about when puppies can start training and how much they can do. People talk about young bones and dogs being fully grown  before doing any sort of training. There is very little actual research or scientifically based information about the effects of early training one way or another. It is clear that you should not be doing any activities that will cause impact to young bones but exercise is needed for proper development.  

When we started agility it was with older dogs that had already been doing Obedience and Working Trials. When we got puppies we started training them from a quite young age to the level of their ability, at that time they could compete from 12 months old. We did not notice any difference in their health that could be attributed to agility or any other sort of training.

We are now training our dogs from a young age in a very controlled way and we are monitoring their progress carefully. Our initial observation is that what they do when training is far more controlled and safer than when they are playing or free running. We know of a lot more injuries that have been caused when people alllow their puppies free running and none have occured when they are training with us. Our own dogs have their hips ex-rayed just after they are 12 months old and so far have all had excellent scores.

This has also confirmed their bones have finished growing and it is after this time we slowly start to build up to more serious work with them.   

We are now running puppy classes for people who have dogs that they would like to do competitive agility. Neither handlers or dogs are pushed beyond what they are comfortable with. We do exercises that help develop puppies co-ordination and confidence without high impact and we have some very confident and promising young dogs coming on.

We bring all dogs on at the pace that is suitable for them and we do not compete or train competitively until they are ready. 

                                                                                     Embers first look at the equipment at about 10 weeks old.  

Ember went through the tunnel on her own at 10 weeks old.