Hout Bay Puppy School

Hout Bay Puppy School We are a FORCE-FREE, Science based puppy socialization, behaviour and training establishment. Find us on Facebook under Canine Africa

Our staff are internationally qualified animal behaviourists, puppy and adult dog trainers through renowned COAPE International.

2024-12-07 Congratulations Zorro! Zorro graduated today at Hout Bay Puppy School!Well done Zorro! You're getting bigger ...
08/01/2025

2024-12-07 Congratulations Zorro! Zorro graduated today at Hout Bay Puppy School!

Well done Zorro! You're getting bigger and bigger by the day! What a stunning doggo! His guardians have really been on board with puppy school and setting Zorro up for SUCCESS! See you in our Teen class Zorro! πŸ’–πŸΆπŸ˜πŸ₯³πŸ’₯

2024-12-07 Hout Bay Puppy SchoolSweet little Ivy (cocker spaniel) joined our puppy school today! She came into puppy cla...
08/01/2025

2024-12-07 Hout Bay Puppy School
Sweet little Ivy (cocker spaniel) joined our puppy school today! She came into puppy class very timid and unsure about the environment and all the puppies! We gave Ivy the space she needed to habituate to everything going on around her and she joined the class in no time at all.

All the puppies and guardians are absolutely amazing! Everyone gave little Ivy the space she needed because they understand the fallout of flooding a timid puppy!

We discussed body language, consent and giving your dog an "out" if they are uncomfortable with a situation! My motto is "when in doubt, get your dog out!". Your dog will tell you what their flight distance is before they begin to feel comfortable again.

We never pressurise our puppies to engage. Our priority is building confidence and as many positive associations as possible at this young age! Flooding puppies is not an option at our puppy school! Each puppy is a unique individual and it takes time for come puppies to feel comfortable!

FORCE-FREE, Science based behaviour and training ROCKS! πŸ₯°πŸΆπŸ’–πŸ₯³πŸ’₯

2024-12-14 Athena's Graduation at Hout Bay Puppy School!Congratulations sweet Athena! Athena has grown from strength to ...
08/01/2025

2024-12-14 Athena's Graduation at Hout Bay Puppy School!

Congratulations sweet Athena! Athena has grown from strength to strength! She plays so beautifully with other dogs and can read body language really well! Athena is an incredibly rock-solid little girl! πŸ’–πŸΆπŸ₯°πŸ₯³πŸ’₯

2024-12-14 Hout Bay Puppy SchoolIt was super hot today at puppy school! We brought out the umbrellas and extra puppy poo...
08/01/2025

2024-12-14 Hout Bay Puppy School
It was super hot today at puppy school! We brought out the umbrellas and extra puppy pools! We had loads of new puppies join our class!

All the pups had fun playing, while being supervised by moms, dads and our assistants! The more puppies we have, the more assistants we have! Kirsty and Claire were superstars today!

We worked on attention control, teaching the pups to focus on their guardians! All the pups were little champs and were able to focus despite it being a busy class! I absolutely adore each and every one of these pups! Their guardians are really setting their pups up for SUCCESS!

FORCE-FREE, Science based behaviour and training ROCKS! πŸ’–πŸΆπŸ₯°πŸ€©πŸ₯³πŸ’₯

2024-11-30 Hout Bay Puppy SchoolToday we worked on the "leave it" cue. It's an incredibly valuable cue to have in a dog'...
07/01/2025

2024-11-30 Hout Bay Puppy School
Today we worked on the "leave it" cue. It's an incredibly valuable cue to have in a dog's behaviour repertoire! It not only teaches your dog self-control but it also helps teach your dog to avoid unwanted or potentially dangerous things!

The value of a solid "leave it":
1. Ensures your dog’s safety by preventing them from eating harmful things, i.e toxic foods (chocolate, grapes), sharp objects, or medications.
2. Builds impulse control, teaching them to resist immediate gratification and to exercise self-control.
3. Keeps your dog focussed on you by redirecting their attention back to you.
4. Avoids dangerous situations, i.e. teaching your dog to leave another dog barking behind a fence as you walk past or prevents them from chasing horses, cats or wildlife. This cue can be used in conjunction with "let's go".
5. The "leave it" cue also increases social safety, i.e. ensuring that your dog does not bother or chase after children, joggers, etc.

Once "leave it" has been mastered, this cue can be applied to new situations, making it a versatile tool for managing your dog's behavior. FORCE-FREE, science based behaviour and training ROCKS! πŸ₯°πŸΆπŸ’–πŸ₯³πŸ’₯

2024-11-23 Hout Bay Puppy SchoolToday we welcomed new faces at puppy school!  We spent most of the class discussing play...
07/01/2025

2024-11-23 Hout Bay Puppy School
Today we welcomed new faces at puppy school! We spent most of the class discussing play, allowing the puppies to play and also discussed consent and consent testing if a puppy wants to play!

PLAY, PLAY STYLES & CONSENT!

PLAY is a vigorous collaborative, yet delicate, system involving feeling good, safe and secure in order to promote positive emotional and mood states. Rough and tumble play has distinctive physical manifestation, creating delight, jubilation, glee and happiness while permeating into all educational areas in an animal's life.

When animals play, there’s a lot of body contact which causes the release of endorphins (and other neurotropic substances, in the brain which acts like brain food, making them feel good, almost euphoric. PLAY should be mutually beneficial, at the right intensity and well practiced. It should not induce anxiety, stress, fear, anger or cause injury.

Some dogs are body slammers, some like to chase and be chased while others like to play with their bodies on the ground. Each breed, type and INDIVIDUAL dog has their own unique play style. It is imperative to match dogs according to their play style.

Unmatched play styles can cause FEAR or RAGE system activation and that is not what we are looking for at Hout Bay Puppy School. We want play to be fun for ALL dogs!

We keep our play sessions short at Hout Bay Puppy School so that the puppies do not become too over-emotional and over-aroused. They learn to self-regulate and also learn that when they become over-emotional and over-aroused, play ends.

It's important to understand that play is fluid, it moves and it changes all the time and so do emotions. Emotions can flair very quickly at this young age so we keep an eye out for this. The trick is to learn body language very well so that you can read your dog and the other dog's body language.

Observation is learning! We do not force timid puppies to play with other puppies. It takes as long as it takes for them to feel comfortable playing with other puppies.

The more your puppy plays in a controlled manner, the more they will learn vital social skills of how to play and how to communicate with other puppies, dogs within a household and other dogs in different environments.

Puppies need to practice how to play in order to learn these valuable social skills. When puppies are left to their own devices while playing, they are invariably unable to self-regulate or read other dogs' body language as they become over-emotional and over-aroused.

Puppies need supervised play and guardian intervention so that they can learn how to self-regulate (calm themselves down) and play in a calm manner. It is also a good way of testing for consent.

The PLAY system activation involves meta-signals, activity shifts, role reversal and self-handicapping (M.A.R.S.):

Meta-signals β€” these are appeals to play (play bows, piercing barking)

Activity shifts β€” this is a different order of predatory sequence and expression of this sequence. There should be soft, wiggly and loose body language. There should be breaks between play sessions, i.e. shake offs, sniffing or drinking water.

Role reversal β€” alternating between I chase you, you chase me, I’m on top, you’re on top.

Self-handicapping β€” a larger dog will normally handicap themselves and play gently with smaller dogs.

Often puppies that have not learnt how to play become bullies and as adult dogs get into a lot of trouble with other dogs' as they haven’t learnt the social skills of reading other dogs' play styles, body language or respect dogs' wishes of not wanting to play. We do not allow uncontrolled play at our puppy school.

Unpracticed and limited PLAY behavioural repertoire can negatively activate the SEEKING system, causing stalking, biting, attacking and unemotional predatory behaviour.

FORCE-FREE, Science based behaviour and training ROCKS! πŸ₯°πŸΆπŸ˜πŸ₯³πŸ’₯

2024-11-16 Hout Bay Puppy SchoolWe had a whole bunch of new puppies join our class! They all had to get to know each oth...
07/01/2025

2024-11-16 Hout Bay Puppy School
We had a whole bunch of new puppies join our class! They all had to get to know each other and habituate to the new environment! Each dog has their own unique personality despite their breed.

It takes as long as it take for a puppy to feel comfortable in a puppy school environment! We never force them to interact with each other and more often than not, they come out of their shells and really enjoy interacting with each other!

FORCE-FREE, Science based behaviour and training ROCKS! πŸ₯°πŸΆπŸ’–πŸ₯³πŸ’₯

2024-10-26 Hout Bay Puppy SchoolMaple's Graduation! Maple has come such a long way since beginning at puppy school! Mapl...
07/01/2025

2024-10-26 Hout Bay Puppy School
Maple's Graduation! Maple has come such a long way since beginning at puppy school! Maple was very excitable right from the word go!

Maple's dad worked very hard at training Maple for calm and helping her to self-regulate when she becomes overemotional! What stars you both are! Congratulations! Maple is an incredible doggo!

FORCE-FREE, Science based behaviour and training ROCKS! 😍🐢πŸ₯°πŸ€©πŸ₯³πŸ’₯

2024-10-26 Hout Bay Puppy SchoolWally's Graduation! Wally is probably one of the most optimistic little guys I've ever m...
07/01/2025

2024-10-26 Hout Bay Puppy School
Wally's Graduation! Wally is probably one of the most optimistic little guys I've ever met! He has a joy for life like no other! He's super friendly and loves playing and goofing around! Congratulations mum and dad! You've really set Wally up for SUCCESS! See you at Teen Class!

FORCE-FREE, Science based behaviour and training ROCKS! 😍🐢πŸ₯°πŸ€©πŸ₯³πŸ’₯

2024-10-19 Hout Bay Puppy SchoolToday was the perfect day to start desensitizing the puppies to cars, trucks and horses ...
07/01/2025

2024-10-19 Hout Bay Puppy School
Today was the perfect day to start desensitizing the puppies to cars, trucks and horses as they have all had their 3rd vaccination!

What fun they had! They got to also learn to focus on their humans while out and about! Fun was had all around! The puppies are growing in confidence and really learning to use their bodies through proprioception.

FORCE-FREE, Science based behaviour and training ROCKS! πŸ’–πŸΆπŸ₯°πŸ₯³πŸ’₯

2024-10-05 Hout Bay Puppy SchoolToday's class was all about teaching the puppies to be calm and offering them positive d...
07/01/2025

2024-10-05 Hout Bay Puppy School
Today's class was all about teaching the puppies to be calm and offering them positive distractions when they are overexcited and/or overemotional.

We also discussed observation and how some dogs don't want to engage but would prefer to rather observe until they feel comfortable enough to engage with the environment.

Forcing our dogs into situations which they cannot or aren't equipped to handle, is one of the quickest ways to build a fearful, reactive or aggressive dog. While we want our dogs to have confidence, be resilience and have appropriate problem solving abilities, we need to take things slow and steady, giving them the opportunity to figure things out appropriately for themselves.

It is our job as guardians to guide our dogs through building positive associations so that should something aversive happen, they have the coping skills and resilience to bounce back.

Learning to understand and read body language is extremely important and helpful for guardians as well as dogs when interacting with the environment. If we can observe and understand our dogs body language and interactions as well as others, a lot of the drama we see out in the world could be prevented!

FORCE-FREE, Science based behaviour and training ROCKS! πŸ’–πŸΆπŸ₯°πŸ₯³πŸ’₯

2024-10-05 Hunter and Enzo's Bromance at Hout Bay Puppy School!Hunter joined our puppy class a little later than usual. ...
07/01/2025

2024-10-05 Hunter and Enzo's Bromance at Hout Bay Puppy School!

Hunter joined our puppy class a little later than usual. He and Enzo hit it off right from the beginning! It took them a little while to figure out each other's play style but in the end they figured it out! Enzo (GSD) was much smaller than Hunter but he's grown so much in the past couple of months that he's bigger than Hunter (Australian Shepherd)! To this day, they are besties and love running on the beach together can playing in the waves! I adore both these dogs!

FORCE-FREE, Science based behaviour and training ROCKS! πŸ’–πŸΆπŸ₯°πŸ₯³πŸ’₯

2024-10-05 Alfie and Wally's Bromance at Hout Bay Puppy SchoolFrom the moment they met, these two pups developed a broma...
07/01/2025

2024-10-05 Alfie and Wally's Bromance at Hout Bay Puppy School

From the moment they met, these two pups developed a bromance! They absolutely adore each other and Wally is so sweet the way he self-handicaps so that Alfie can play with him! We spent most of the class just laughing at the two of them! You could barely make out whether it was one or two doggos in some instances! What fun they had!

FORCE-FREE, Science based behaviour and training ROCKS! πŸ’–πŸΆπŸ₯°πŸ₯³πŸ’₯

2024-09-14 Hout Bay Puppy School Shai's Graduation!Shai is the sweetest, kindest and gentlest doggo! Shai is not the big...
07/01/2025

2024-09-14 Hout Bay Puppy School Shai's Graduation!
Shai is the sweetest, kindest and gentlest doggo! Shai is not the biggest fan of treats! She'll work for toys and praise any time! Shai has grown and blossomed at puppy school and has an incredible bond with her humans! πŸ’–πŸΆπŸ₯°πŸ₯³πŸ’₯

2024-09-14 Sweet Cooper Graduated today at Hout Bay Puppy School!Cooper is a rock-solid little guy! He is outgoing, adve...
07/01/2025

2024-09-14 Sweet Cooper Graduated today at Hout Bay Puppy School!
Cooper is a rock-solid little guy! He is outgoing, adventurous and loves mingling and playing with other dogs! His mom has really put the work in to set him up for SUCCESS! We'll see you at Teen Class!

FORCE-FREE, Science based behaviour and training ROCKS! πŸ’–πŸΆπŸ₯°πŸ₯³πŸ’₯

2024-09-14 Hout Bay Puppy SchoolWhat fun the dogs had learning to walk on a loose-leash as well as investigating the env...
07/01/2025

2024-09-14 Hout Bay Puppy School
What fun the dogs had learning to walk on a loose-leash as well as investigating the environment and training together! Little Maple joined our class today and was quite apprehensive in the beginning! In no time, she joined in on the fun and adventures with Cooper, Shai and Wally!

FORCE-FREE, Science based behaviour and training ROCKS! πŸ’–πŸΆπŸ₯°πŸ₯³πŸ’₯

2024-09-14 Hout Bay Puppy SchoolToday we discussed loose-leash walking and pulling on the leash as the pups were startin...
07/01/2025

2024-09-14 Hout Bay Puppy School
Today we discussed loose-leash walking and pulling on the leash as the pups were starting to pull on their leashes to get where they wanted to go! Leash work is a dance, both dog and guardian are in a partnership and need to understand each other in order for the dance to be fluid.

One of the biggest problems that I've found with leash pulling is the dog wants to go one way and the guardian the other way. This is where the conflict begins! The dog is unaware that the guardian is on the other end of the leash and trucks on, pulling to their hearts content. This is where the guardian becomes frustrated and conflict ensues.

Loose leash walking is very easy if you know how! Understanding that you and your dog are a team is the first part, getting your dog to acknowledge that you are on the other end of the leash is part two. Your dog needs to realise and acknowledge that the leash is becoming strained and then reference you. Once they realise that, the rest is a walk in the park, so to speak!

There are many reasons why dogs pull on the leash, just too many reasons to discuss here because each dog and guardian are unique individuals. If you and your dog are not a partnership, a team and don't have a good understanding of each other, leash pulling becomes a conflict and walks become unpleasant, often resulting in aversive equipment being used or no walks at all!

It is usually at this point, out of sheer frustration, where guardians start using choke chains, slip leads and prong collars which are really not necessary if you learn the art of leash work, you put the work in, train your dog at every opportunity and build an understanding.

My dog was a prolific puller, a behaviour she learnt prior to my adopting her. In the 10 years I've had her, she tore the rotator cuff on my left shoulder twice and once on the right.

She had me on my knees, crying in frustration. We couldn't walk 100m without her pulling. Through patience, perseverance and building a bond of trust and understanding, she is amazing on leash and walking her has been a pleasure since I trained her and we built an understanding.

Leash work is never easy in the beginning but it should become easier as you train your dog and you build on your partnership and understanding of each other. Being patient, consistent and persevering will result in walking becoming fun for both you and your dog!

FORCE-FREE, science based behaviour and training ROCKS! πŸ’–πŸΆπŸ₯°πŸ₯³πŸ’₯

2024-09-07 Hout Bay Puppy SchoolJimmy's Graduation! Well done Jimmy and family! He's probably one of the most high drive...
06/01/2025

2024-09-07 Hout Bay Puppy School
Jimmy's Graduation! Well done Jimmy and family! He's probably one of the most high drive dog's I've met in a very long time! He definitely has working stock coursing through his veins! What an amazingly rock solid, handsome dog he is!

FORCE-FREE, Science based behaviour and training ROCKS! πŸ’–πŸΆπŸ₯°πŸ₯³πŸ’₯

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Hout Bay
7806

Opening Hours

Monday 08:00 - 18:00
Tuesday 08:00 - 18:00
Wednesday 08:00 - 18:00
Thursday 08:00 - 18:00
Friday 08:00 - 18:00
Saturday 08:00 - 13:00

Telephone

+27835273446

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Canine Africa - Hout Bay

Canine Africa is a FORCE-FREE, Scientifically Based Puppy and Adult Dog Socialization Training Academy. Our aim is to create a happy, enriched and emotionally well-balanced relationship between you and your special canine companion.

Dogs are social animals and emotional beings that have a strong love for their humans and require social contact in order to bond. Different breeds of dogs have their own breed specific traits and have their own specific requirements to fulfill their lives. Ultimately you are dealing with the INDIVIDUAL dog in front of you, despite breed. Learning to understand your dog, their body language and emotional state is crucial to predict their behaviour. These are all tools to be able to fulfill their daily needs.

If a dogs emotional, mental and physical needs are not met on a daily basis, there is a good chance that they will β€œAct Out” in an effort to fulfil their β€œhard-wired” and internal/external requirements.

At Canine Africa, we work within your dogs specific requirements so you can get the best out of them and have a relationship of understand, bonding and love. We educate and train our owners how to handle their dogs and situations so that they can effectively deal with and avoid stressful situations and fulfill their canine companions needs.