How Does Online Puppy Training Work?

In-person training options may be more limited right now, but your puppy’s training doesn’t need to wait for classes to be back in session! And it shouldn’t have to. 2020 brought some changes in our lives but we’re equipped with great technology to bring you the best online puppy training right at home!

Since we opened our training school in Hermosa Beach, CA, we received multiple inquiries from puppy owners across the California and U.S. if we were going to open up puppy training classes in locations near them! And the idea for our Online Puppy School was born! Going virtual is something we’ve been working on and developing for over a year now, perfecting the user experience, and formatting classes based on hours of testing and working with puppy owners to bring you exactly what you need! Our new Online Puppy School is the way you can now experience The Puppy Academy, our training, and our trainers, from no matter where you live!

What is Online Puppy Training?

It’s exactly as it sounds! Training that you can do online, right at home from your computer or phone, with your puppy! Just as if you were in an in-person class, you’ll cover the same topics such as basic obedience, curbing common puppyhood problems, potty training, crate training, and more! While in-person training has many pros, online puppy training classes are not short of benefits for you and offer effective techniques taught by professionals to really help you train your puppy.

In our Online Puppy School, you can enjoy the same benefits of training in-person while avoiding the commute with easy-to-follow LIVE Zoom online puppy training classes! These live classes allow us to offer real-time coaching to work with our students and their parents straight from their home! And just like with our physical school, we provide a very structured step-by-step program for puppy owners to follow and help keep them and their pups on track and seeing results! Plus, in our private Facebook group for our online students, puppy owners get even more support on their off-class days from our trainers, and feel encouragement from other puppy owners going through the same things with their own puppies!

Do I Need Online Puppy Training?

Yes! If you brought home a new puppy, you’ll want to start training them as soon as possible rather than waiting for in-person classes to start that may not be an option. It’s much easier to train the right behaviors before your puppy develops the wrong behaviors and you need to spend more time undoing them. Some new owners opt for the DIYT (Do It Yourself Training) route which ultimately can cause more frustration and money to correct bad behaviors with a professional down the line. The right online puppy training will allow you to establish boundaries, trust, and leadership with your puppy by providing you the basic obedience and advanced techniques, plus other puppy behavior and care-related topics, you would do in-person.

ENROLL YOUR PUPPY IN ONLINE PUPPY TRAINING CLASSES!

What are the Benefits of Our Online Puppy Training?

Beyond Basic Obedience!

Puppy training encompasses MANY topics, so we wanted to make sure we would still cover everything that we do at our physical school, for everyone at home. In our main curriculum program of our online school: Train Your Puppy in 90 Days, we take owners through 12 weeks of learning all the commands to help your puppy become that well-mannered puppy you always wanted! This includes commands like Sit, Down, Stay, Come, Heel, our favorite command Place, and more! In addition to our command training classes, we also hold live Masterclasses that deep-dive into common troublesome puppy behaviors like biting, jumping, potty training and barking, to give you effective methods to help you curb those puppy behaviors quickly!

LIVE & Personal Sessions!

One of the biggest benefits for you and your puppy is how personalized these sessions can get! At our Online Puppy School, you have the option to participate in our LIVE Zoom sessions where you get to work via video 1-on-1 with our top trainers and the rest of your class. During those sessions, you can follow along with the lesson with your puppy right at home and troubleshoot with our trainer right away if your pup is having a tough time figuring out the command. And we understand that not every puppy is the same so we wanted to provide you a more personalized way to learn how to work with your puppy on command, and lets owners see how other owners work with their puppies. This provides so much great insight and tips for you to use to make sure your pup is really getting it right!

On-Demand Capability!

Can’t make a session? That’s totally fine! All of our LIVE online puppy training classes are recorded and then uploaded to our virtual campus. As an enrolled student, you can access them at any time from your smartphone, tablet, or laptop and follow them along at your convenience. The best part of having this option is, you can watch and re-watch the videos as many times as needed and to match your pup’s learning pace. It’s a huge benefit for anyone that is new to owning and training a puppy to have this resource available all the time and to use as your blueprint!

Trainer Q&A Sessions!

For new puppy owners, we understand support is everything and some pups won’t immediately take to certain commands -- they’re puppies after all! So we’ve sure to include as much support for you as possible by providing Q&A sessions! During our Q&A sessions, owners can come back with their questions and troubleshoot some issues they are having LIVE with one of our trainers. To really help owners, some of our Q&A sessions also provide advanced training to work on different techniques that will help you get your puppy listening to you faster!

HOME SCHOOL YOUR PUPPY WITH LIVE & ON-DEMAND ONLINE PUPPY TRAINING CLASSES!

Fun Homework You’ll Both Love!

Practice makes perfect and with just 15 minutes a day you can fast-track your puppy’s training with fun routines your pup — and you — will look forward to! Puppies learn through repetition and consistency. After working with hundreds of owners and their puppies, we’ve seen that the best results come from owners that put in extra time with their pups at home. Working with your pup is also a great and easy way to build your pup’s nondescripts and trust with you!

Empowers You, the Owner!

You are vitally important in your pup’s training success so we wanted to give you the tools and support you need to train your pup the right way! Our online puppy training classes allow you to be involved every step of the way so you know exactly how to train, guide, and build upon your puppy’s skills so that you can also feel confident as their leader! You’ll learn directly from our top trainers so you can use those techniques at home or out in public. Plus, with our private Facebook group, you can connect with other puppy parents just like you and support each other along the way -- we’re all in this together!

Proven Results!

Training your puppy from home has never been easier with the help of our online puppy school. In creating this virtual campus, it was our top priority to be able to achieve the best results possible for our puppy owners at home, as we do for the owners here at our school. Our trainers have worked with thousands of puppies over the years of all different breeds and temperaments, and have turned puppy problems into proud accomplishments for their parents! So, we’ve made sure that our online puppy training classes were designed to not only teach you and give you the tools you need to train your puppy, but also follow the systems we use so you can learn how to communicate with them, get them listening and responding, and set you and your puppy up on the right track for the most incredible life together. With our team of puppy experts, you can feel confident you are in the best hands possible to guide you through puppyhood! Our trainers are here with you every step of the way! And with all the changes happening in today’s world, we know new puppy owners need more help now than ever before. We’re so happy to be able to provide this support and share the best of what we do at our puppy school in Hermosa Beach, CA, now to owners everywhere, online!

Our current semester is in session but if you recently brought home a new puppy and weren’t sure about online puppy training classes, reach out to us! Ask about our upcoming semester waitlist!

Check out these related blogs on puppy training and more!

How to Socialize Your Puppy During Social Distancing!

Bringing a Puppy Home During Quarantine? Tips for New Owners!

Potty Training Your New Puppy! Tips for New Owners!


How to Socialize Your Puppy During Social Distancing!

In the time of social distancing, bringing a puppy home has major advantages providing you extra time to bond, get acclimated to the household, and just love on your new puppy! But how do you socialize your puppy when you have to social distance? Take advantage of these helpful tips to prepare your pup for the world!

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Social distancing has been rough on everyone. But our pups don’t understand what a “pandemic” is or what “stay-at-home order” means. To them, you’re always around and that’s awesome! Their world is the inside of your home, the yard, and you...but when it’s time to venture out into the rest of the world, you want to make sure your puppy is ready for those new, strange experiences. 

Socializing your puppy doesn’t just mean meeting new people and dogs. It means safely exposing your puppy to a variety of new things they’d be exposed to on a regular basis. From 8-14 weeks this window is an important time in which you want your puppy to experience as many new sights, smells, sounds, people, and dogs in order to be well-adjusted adult dogs. Waiting too long or not socializing your puppy at all could lead to some behavioral issues down the road that can only be resolved through professional training. Luckily, there are easy and creative ways to socialize your puppy while staying at home!

HOME SCHOOL YOUR PUPPY WITH LIVE ONLINE PUPPY TRAINING CLASSES! BASIC OBEDIENCE AND MORE!

Tip 1: Get Creative!

Actually, being at home is a great time to socialize your puppy! There are a ton of creative ideas you can do to expose your puppy safely and without distraction. Think about where you live and what are some places you may take your puppy. Expose your puppy to different surfaces like hardwood, carpet, tile, asphalt, and gravel to name some surfaces that your pup will walk on around your home and in your neighborhood! Check out our “Over, Under, Through!” game we use at our school in Hermosa Beach to teach puppies to feel comfortable on different surfaces!

Sounds are super important to get your puppy used to and you can easily do it with your cellphone or computer! What are some sounds your puppy will hear throughout the day? Doorbells, car horns, loud music (all types of music too!), alarms, construction noise, laughter, other dogs barking -- the list could go on but playing these sounds for your puppy at home and giving them positive reinforcement will help your puppy feel calm and not react the next time they hear that sound out in the world!

Pro tip: YouTube has a lot of options to play long tracks of various noises like these puppy parents can play in the background on low settings to get their pup used to them (we use them at the school too!)

All puppies love to sniff and they are bound to make interesting discoveries while sniffing the world around them. Use this to your advantage by safely exposing your puppy to different smells. With your pup on a leash, have them explore the backyard or new areas of the neighborhood and the different smells. Make sure to watch your pup so that if they try to eat anything they shouldn't, you can guide them away with the help of the leash. Also when possible, amen sue the area they are sniffing is safe for them to be doing so.

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Tip 2: Play Dress Up!

Every time you take your pup for a walk or a drive to a new place, your puppy is bound to encounter new people. But how do you socialize your puppy to new people while staying at home? That’s where the dress-up comes in. And in this dress-up scenario, it’s not your pup that gets to rock the outfits! Try sporting different things like hats, sunglasses, different jackets, noisy clothes like rubber boots, etc., to get them used to seeing different types of people. Get creative and throw in people in different scenarios like carrying grocery bags, using a walker or cane, riding a bike or skateboard-- even a Halloween costume, a face mask and gloves!

Tip 3: Socialize from a Distance!

While following the social distancing rules in place in your state, you can socialize your puppy at a distance by taking them for a walk or car ride. If your puppy still hasn’t experienced car rides or isn’t a fan, now is great time to get them used that! Check out our “How to Train Your Puppy for Car Rides!” blog for easy-to-follow tips on getting your puppy used to riding in your car. If your pup is up-to-date on all their vaccinations, let your puppy people and dog watch from a distance while you’re on a walk around town. (Even if your pup has not received all their required vaccinations, you can let them experience people walking by your home!) Give your puppy some positive reinforcement by telling them “Good!” and giving them a reward for being calm when they see new people walk past. This is a great time to practice your pup’s commands from a distance with the distractions of the other dogs and people too! You can have your puppy rest in a “Down & Stay” -- this is a great way to teach them to be calm around new exciting things. You can drive to a location where there are people walking around, like a grocery store parking lot for example, and let them sit in the car with you and watch passers-by!

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POTTY ACCIDENTS, BITING, JUMPING, BARKING, AND MORE? LET US HELP! LEARN ABOUT OUR LIVE ONLINE PUPPY TRAINING CLASSES!

Tip 4: Puppy Handling!

Part of getting your puppy used to different experiences involves being handled by different people and in different ways. Although some vet offices have limited visits, and groomers and daycares have been temporarily closed, you can simulate those experiences at home! Touch your puppy’s face, eyes, ears, open their mouth, touch their paws and tail, these are all things that would normally happen at a vets office or at a groomer. You can also start to introduce your puppy to regular upkeep such as nail cutting, teeth brushing, and fur brushing. Do these activities a few times a week for a few minutes at a time and reward your puppy in the process to help them develop a positive association!

And because your puppy isn’t meeting a lot of new people right now, it means they won’t know how to be handled by different people. Try to pet them in different ways: their chin, ears, tummy, chest...this way your puppy will understand that even if they are getting pet differently, it’s okay!

Tip 5: Create a Puppy Schedule!

If you are working from home, it means your schedule is probably a little out of whack. Throw a puppy into the mix and you’re probably running around looking after your pup more than working! And your pup is surely loving the attention but when you have to go back to work and a normal routine, you’ll want to make sure your puppy is adjusted. Sudden changes can cause behavior problems in pups but you can easily avoid that by creating a schedule for your puppy that resembles your normal day-to-day! Need help on figuring out how to set up a schedule that makes sense for you and your puppy? Check out our “Create a Daily Schedule for Your Puppy!” blog with tips on how and when to feed your pup, help fast-track potty training, introduce them to their crate, and more! 

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Tip 6: Online Puppy Training!

In-person puppy training may not be an option for you at the moment, but it’s definitely worth looking into online puppy training classes and get a jump start on basic obedience training. A professional puppy trainer will provide you guidance on socializing your puppy, at-home handling, techniques to curb some puppy behaviors like biting, potty training, and more. And the best part is, programs like our online puppy training classes provide you with LIVE and on-demand options so you can work on training your puppy at your convenience! This is the best time to put your puppy on the right track to becoming a well-adjusted and well-behaved adult dog!

Don’t let social distancing stop you from socializing your puppy! In fact, take advantage of the opportunity to start puppy training, building your bond with your puppy, working on some troublesome puppy behaviors, and really helping your puppy reach their best potential! 

BRINGING A PUPPY HOME? START LIVE ONLINE PUPPY TRAINING CLASSES!

Check out these related blogs on puppy training and more!

Bringing a Puppy Home During Quarantine? Tips for New Owners!

10 Fun Things to do at Home with Your Puppy!

Potty Training Your Puppy: Tips for New Owners!