Puppy Steps Dog Training & Walking

28/02/2025

** Puppy Training **

**Puppy Under 5 mth?**

New class 1pm Sundays

Puppy Steps puppy class is puppy training that is designed to give you and your puppy the very best start. These are not your typical 6-week puppy classes… we want you to truly understand your dog and their needs so that you can enjoy every aspect of your lives together.

Our fun, yet thoughtful, puppy classes use reward-based methods to teach your puppy the foundations that they'll need to enjoy life with you to the full. We will look at different methods to achieve your goals, discuss the pros and cons, and find the techniques that suit you and your puppy.

Book here or send a message for more information

https://www.takepuppysteps.co.uk

06/02/2025

Please still contact me about upcoming classes, one to one training, etc. But new classes are currently suspended and posting maybe quiet.

12/01/2025

**HOOPERS**

What is Hoopers?

Hoopers is a relatively new sport similar to agility that is great fun for you and your dog, but low impact on your dog's joints. You and your dog learn to navigate a course made up of hoops, barrels, and tunnels.

Hoopers is a great way to exercise your dog both mentally and physically whilst building a great working relationship with your dog.

We only kind, rewards-based methods are used. This is about you and your dog enjoying spending quality time together, learning together, and becoming a team.

Who is Hoopers for?

Anyone! Hoopers is suitable for all breeds and ages (6 months minimum).

We have a new Introduction to Hoopers course starting in February

Message for more details, or book at www.takepuppysteps.co.uk

11/01/2025

**Gun Dog Skills for Pet Dogs**

Gun Dogs are among the most popular breeds kept as pets. The skills taught to these working dogs are essential to pet dogs of ALL breeds.

Starting in February, this Foundation class will focus on eye contact, heel walking, whistle recall, and steadiness (stay) as well as beginning gun dog retrieve, beginning searching, and much more.

You don't have to have a gun dog to join this class - it's for ALL breeds!

All classes are taught in a fun and thoughtful way and are reward-based.

Book here www.takepuppysteps.co.uk or send a message for more details

10/01/2025

** Puppy Training **

Puppy Steps puppy class is puppy training that is designed to give you and your puppy the very best start. These are not your typical 6-week puppy classes… we want you to truly understand your dog and their needs so that you can enjoy every aspect of your lives together.

Our fun, yet thoughtful, puppy classes use reward-based methods to teach your puppy the foundations that they'll need to enjoy life with you to the full. We will look at different methods to achieve your goals, discuss the pros and cons, and find the techniques that suit you and your puppy.

Book here or send a message for more information

https://www.takepuppysteps.co.uk

10/01/2025

Welcome to Puppy Steps!

Are you looking for small, friendly puppy training class in the Falmouth area?

Do you have an older puppy and need a little extra help with leading walking, come when called, or excitement around dogs and people?

Want something fun to do with your Labrador, Spaniel or Retriever, or other gun dog breed?

Fancy something like Agility?

At Puppy Steps, we have a range of classes for fun, thoughtful dog training.

Starting in February -

Puppy Steps Puppy Class - start as soon as your puppy is ready with this roll on, roll off class. Optional online package if you want to get started before your puppy has had all their vaccinations. Available for puppies up to 8 months.

Gun Dog Foundations for Pet Dogs. Even if you don't have a Gun Dog, the skills taught to these working dogs are essential for all pet dogs. If you brave a gun dog breed, teaching these skills taps into their genetics and gives them an outlet for their instincts.

Intro to Hoopers - this agility-like sport is relatively new. Learn new skills to negotiate an obstacles course of tunnels, barrels and hoops and build a fantastic relationship with your dog, and become a team.

Also available -

One to One Coaching for a reliable recall.

One to One Coaching for Loose-Lead Walking.

Support at Home for your new puppy - tailored in-person information for house training, chewing, puppy biting, early training and socialisation for your new puppy. Ideal for those first few weeks at home.
..and more.

14/12/2024

** RECALL **
Getting up the confidence to let your puppy off-lead for the first time can be really hard!

There’s so much to consider.
* do they understand their recall cue?
* really understand it?
* is the environment safe?
* in what environments do they understand their recall cue?

Here is Little Man demonstrating the first step we can do to start teaching and improving your recall.

We cover all of this in Puppy Paws (as well as all of our Life Skills classes)
* We start at the beginning.
* We teach them a recall cue.
* We teach them what it means.
* We play games to make their recall cue fun!
* We practice in easy places.
* We practice in more challenging places.

We make progress…

A super solid rocket recall doesn’t come overnight, but when we teach our dog the cue, and what it means, practice it in lots of situations, prevent them making errors wherever possible (and if they do then we think about why! Hint: it’s usually our fault) and reward all their great work and effort, you will start to lay the foundations that will set you up a reliable recall for life.

Puppy class on Sunday - places available in the New Year near Falmouth, Cornwall

Got an older puppy?? Foundations for Puppies over 6 months also available to book now

03/12/2024

Little Man has been learning some new skills recently. I've really enjoyed bringing out my little Yorkie's inner Gun Dog with Jane Ardern and The School of Canine Science . He's been learning to retrieve like a Gun Dog, which, for a tug-obsessed Terrier, doesn't come naturally.

He been learning to be "Steady", to wait for cues and direction, to focus, to use his nose, and to bring the dummy back rather than run off with it, which is what he'd really like to do! Most importantly, we've had so much fun working together on this skill.

Many Gun Dog skills are just as vital for our pet dogs - focus, engagement and connection with us, a Whistle Recall, Stop and Sit at a Distance, Walking to Heel, Steadiness (stay despite distractions) Retrieving, and patience - and, most importantly, for us to understand our dog's hunting instincts, to work with them rather than be frustrated by them.

If you'd like to bring our your dog's inner Gun Dog, or better understand and work with your pet gun dog, our **new** "Gun Dog Skills for Pet Dogs - Foundations" class is starting in the new year.

Go to www.takepuppysteps.co.uk for more information and to book, or drop a message to discuss.

13/11/2024

Gundog Retrieve Challenge with The School of Canine Science and Jane Ardern. Day 4 - Sending Back

Ive been a little be behind in filming our sessions. This exercise involves having your dog facing you, and then sending them left or right to run away from you.

We start with food and then using a couple of different gun dog dummies. It's been a challenge to find a dummy small and light enough for Little Man to get his tiny mouth around, but I think we've cracked it!

Little Man did very well at this as he's always very focused on my hands, though he's not as steady in this position.

With the final try, he took the dummy and hid it in his toy box, though he did go get it and bring it to me when asked.

We're enjoying the challenge of teaching something new.

It's never too late to teach your dog something fun and new. How about other Gun Dog skills that are useful for pet dogs?

Check out www.takepuppysteps.co.uk for a new class starting in the new year.

13/11/2024

Run don’t walk - the Tug-E-Nuff Black Friday Sale is here. 🥳💨

This is always the absolute best deal on the absolutely best dog toys in the world - so don’t snooze!

As a Tug-E-Nuff partner, I get to reward YOU with 3 for 2 on all their award winning toys!

>>> Ready, set, GO! 👇

https://tug-e-nuff.com/collections/black-friday?ref=PUPSTEPS

You can choose any 3 toys and simply pay for 2 - then sit back and wait for the postie.

Your dog’s tail is going to go bananas for their special delivery…

Or, you could be sensible and hold them back for Christmas morning. You decide! 🤪

Shop now >>> https://tug-e-nuff.com/collections/black-friday?ref=PUPSTEPS

Save BIG in our most bonkers sale of the year (plus bag exclusive black friday deals for purchasers.) These toys are set to be your dog’s all time favs.

07/11/2024

Day 3 of The Gun Dog Retrieve Challenge with Jane Ardern and The School of Canine Science

This is the Seen Retrieve - where the dog knows where the dummy is. The dog should remain focused on the dummy, until released to get it.

As Retrieving is not something that Little Man naturally wants to do, we've switched to his favorite toy "Sprout". We've been practicing him picking it up and touching it to my hand. After some useful info from Jane regarding dogs who are not motivated by the Retrieve, I decided to use a platform for the Heel position (Little Man likes the platform) and encourage him to bring the toy back to that point. Little Man also gets very excited by the sight of Sprout, so we had some extra behaviours like Down, which normally work for him, but not on this occasion.

I was very pleased that several times in a row he brought the toy back to the platform with encouragement and managing the environment (ie blocking escape routes). The first few times he ran off with it!

Thinking through working through training challenges in a kind and thoughtful way is part of Puppy Foundation and Teens Foundations classes.

Places available for Puppy Class starting this Sunday - message for more information . Teens class currently full - message for more information.

Www.takepuppysteps.co.uk

06/11/2024

Day 2 of Jane's Ardern's 7 day Gun Dog Retrieve Challenge.

Retrieving doesn't come naturally to Little Man like it did with Kaycee and Meena . We have plenty of other games to play, but I thought this would be a good challenge ahead of our Gun Dog Skills for Pet Dogs starting in January.

In these exercises, Little Man needs to focus forward on the marker before released to go get it, and then to stay steady while I point, and then follow the directions of my pointing hand towards the target.

This is hard for Little Man as I've put a lot of work into eye contact with me. He started to get it though. Throwing out the squeaky toy is too much for him, but he was able to stay steady when placing it out. He shows no interest in bringing it back, only in running off with it!

Forward focus is a skill I taught Kaycee and Meena for agility, and it's a skill we also use in Hoopers , which is similar to agility.

Activity classes are great for continued socialisation and learning to work together as a team, building the relationship with your dog.

We have a Foundation Hoopers class, and Pet Dog Gun Dog class starting in January - message for more information.

05/11/2024

This week I'm participating in a 7 day Gun Dog Retrieve Challenge with The School of Canine Science and fab gun dog trainer Jane Ardern.

My Bearded Collie X Kaycee retreived very naturally, though I settled for depositing the ball within a six foot radius of me as I didn't know any different!

My collie, Meena, retrieved a tennis ball for me within 5 minutes of meeting her as an 11 week puppy and it's a game she enjoyed all her life. I taught her to Retrieve to Hand, and she once came 2nd in a fun Gun Dog Scurry!
She would retrieve most things for me, with was very useful.

Little Man? Well, let's say retrieving doesn't come naturally to Little Man. As a terrier, he'd much prefer tuggy and to "k*ll" the squeaker. Retrieving has never been a priority as there are plenty of other games we play together.

So when this challenge came up, I thought, well, let's give it a go!

Here is Little Man on Day 1 of the challenge , showing "steadiness" when setting out a retrieval item. I haven't done a lot of formal Wait/Stay with Little Man, so I'm very pleased with this final repetition, even through i had to reset in the middle.

Gun Dog skills are useful for all pet dog - from recalling to a whistle, to on-lead and off-lead heeling, a solid Stay, searching and retreiving. Why not have a go yourself in January with our Gun Dog Skills for Pet Dogs Foundation course.

Www.takepuppysteps.co.uk

05/11/2024

Day 1 of Gun Dog Retreive Challenge with The School of Canine Science and Jane Ardern. Session 2. Steadiness placing out a toy.

Toys are much harder than sticks! But we got there in the end.

Suddenly, the pink toy that Little Man has shown no interest in at all is the most exciting thing in the world, even above Sprout !

He tries so hard even though he really wants it. He always makes me laugh when I work on something with him.

Steadiness is an important skill for Gun Dogs - they need to be able to wait despite gun shots, lots of movement, sounds, flushed birds, and falling birds.

Our pet dogs are in a different environment. We may want them to wait despite passing people, dogs, cyclists, joggers - all just as challenging.
We need to break things down into small steps, starting easy and gradually making it more challenging, giving lots of support where needed and reinforcement when they get it right.

If you're looking for kind, thoughtful, reward-based training classes or one to one training - send me a message:

30/10/2024

Puppy Steps offers a limited, bespoke dog walking service.

I've been covering for a dog walker friend for the last couple of weeks, and had the pleasure of walking this little cutie, Doris.

When the brief includes a visit to her favorite café well then, it
would be rude not to!

Three Little Birds on Bickland Water Road is dog-friendly and offers lovely coffee, cake and meals with fab service.
https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100087512587299

26/10/2024

🥰🐶 PUPPIES!!! 🐶🥰

There are many words we can use to describe puppies….

🐶 cute 🐾 busy 💕 cuddly 🥰 playful 🐾 sharp teeth 🫣 bouncy 😊 fast 💕 land shark 🦈 wee machine 🙈 thief 🐾 time consumer ⌛️ adorable 🥰 frustrating 😞 sleepy 😍 sofa destroyer 😞 full on 🫣 arm shredder 😞 gorgeous…
.. and with all of that comes a whole bucket load of human emotions, feelings and states…

Love, desire to nurture, confusion when they behave certain ways, frustration, love, desire to nurture, feeling of being challenged and utterly hopeless, love, desire to nurture, tired, challenged, love…

Bringing up a puppy is all consuming and as much as we love them, want to do our best for them, sometimes it is really difficult to know what to do.

And that’s why 🐾 Puppy Paws/Steps puppy classes 🐾 exists, with Love Your Paws Training. To help you make sense of the whirlwind that has just entered your life, to set you BOTH up for success and to nurture your puppy with understanding as well as love.

Puppy Paws/Steps isn’t just a 6 week puppy course where you learn the foundation skills that your puppy needs for life.

When you sign up, you get access within 48 hours to your online training module packed with information on training, common puppy challenges and with videos on how to teach core the core skills, so you can get started straight away.

Your puppy - like Squid the Sprollie in the picture - will learn LOTS. But you will learn even more, setting you up to be the best puppy parent that you can be.

Check out our website for full details or message if you have any questions!

New class squeezed in before the holidays, starting 10/11 Sundays 1pm in Mawnan Smith - then continuing on a rolling basis in the new year.

If your puppy isn't quite ready, get in touch!

www.takepuppysteps.co.uk

13/10/2024

** PUPPY PAWS…. UP? **

On Tuesday in Puppy Steps puppy class, the puppies had a go at the Stool challenge!

Our stool challenge is very often confused with ‘Paws Up’, but we don’t teach paws up in any of our classes. Our stool challenge goes way deeper, is more thought-provoking and far more fun than Paws Up!!

The handlers are given no instructions, just some rules that are designed to improve their handling skills and help the puppies to understand what is being asked of them.

At the end of the stool challenge our pup and handler teams have…

*put their new skill of luring into practice

* seen firsthand the power of being generous with verbal praise and food rewards

* experienced how much their puppies respond to their smiles, laughter, encouragement, and natural excitement of seeing their puppy achieving

* started to understand that they don’t need to control their puppy with a lead

* realised that as dog handlers that if they think situations through they can teach their puppy new things (using the same rules as this exercise)

* thought about how if we put the same level of enthusiasm, praise and generosity into the more mundane aspects of puppy training (those things that our puppies ‘should’ do - wait at doorways rather than rushing out into the road, walking nicely on lead etc.) then they will learn them far more quickly.

* taken note that we're not training their puppies. We're training them to train their puppies! To understand how to communicate clearly with their puppies. To see the work from their puppy’s perspective.

* To think about how and why we train different skills.

So do we teach Paws Up?

No!! We do something far better than that!

Puppy Class starts Sundays in November

Teens Class starts Sundays in November

Online sessions included to get started right away .

Book now www.takepuppysteps.co.uk as spaces are limited- small classes for plenty of individual attention.

Easy parking, quiet location.

12/10/2024

***Walking on Lead without Pulling***

When you have 4 legs and naturally move faster than your 2 legged companion, learning to walk on a lead without pulling can be tough! Throw in exciting smells, people and other dogs - is it any wonder our dogs find this so difficult??

Here's Denzil. He normally pulled so hard, his people had trouble staying upright! They took a week or so off from their usual walks to work on some fun foundation engagement games.

In their second session, we worked on giving in to lead pressure and disengagement from interesting things, including other dogs.

Here's what they said:

"We thought he'd miss the walks, but he's been more tired after the games sessions "

"His recall is now almost instant (in the field)!"

"We've never seen him walk like this"

"We went out this morning and there's already an improvement on yesterday"

If you'd like to improve in this skill, ask about one to one tailored sessions and training plan

Small class sessions on Sundays during October, available to book individually if it's difficult to commit to a block of classes.

Get started on the right paw in Puppy Steps puppy class, starting on Sundays November and Teen Steps for older puppies , also starting in November.

Full 6 six week blocks include online sessions to get started right away

Book at www.takepuppysteps.co.uk or send a message for more details