Back in March, the Government introduced the UK to Social Distancing measures and subsequently a COVID19 Lockdown. This sent me into a meltdown! One of the best parts of my job, my Puppy School courses, were going to have to stop because running classes in a hall environment was no longer safe for me or my clients. How was I going to continue training puppies that were halfway through their training? How was I going to honour training for puppies booked onto my future courses? How was I going to continue providing support and advice to people that needed it?

But, the Puppy School family weren’t about to let COVID19 stop us from helping puppies who were in need of vital early training! We converted our informative, fun and comprehensive Puppy School course into a LIVE and ONLINE course!

I’m not a technical wizard by any means (quite the opposite actually) so I was initially worried about how these were going to work. I’m also a perfectionist and take huge pride in my Puppy School classes so I was worried that ‘going online’ would affect my high standards of training. Those sleepless nights though were completely unnecessary – my Online Puppy School courses have been an amazing success and my classes are to the same high standard as they’ve always been! I’ve had some wonderful feedback from clients who started their training in a hall but subsequently had to convert to online training and also from clients who joined from day 1 as online trainees!

The benefits they are seeing include:

Better focus from puppies as they are less distracted which helps both puppy and owner concentration.
Owners are left feeling really keen to continue training straight after class – which they can because they are already at home and set up for a training session.
Due to the smaller classes there is more time for individual coaching.
Parents are managing to engage older children with their puppy’s training due to the ‘technical’ angle.
It is self isolation friendly.
There’s no travel time or rushing to and from classes.
Puppies as young as 8 weeks old have been able to join as there is no need for them to be fully vaccinated.
It is all conducted in the comfort of their own home which is already a safe environment for puppies.
Best of all – owners can do it in their pajamas!!

Yes, the disadvantage of online training is that there is little socialisation opportunity but don’t forget, this is only one part of your puppy’s socialisation. Attending a puppy class in a hall for 1 hour a week does not produce a fully socialised puppy. Socialisation is about introducing your puppy to different people, animals, noises, smells and sights in the real world and making sure that all these experiences are positive ones. Our online classes still cover exercises around socialisation and habituation and include advice about how this can be achieved successfully within COVID19 restrictions.

From my point of view as a trainer, I am so pleased with how successful my online classes have been. The technology is working well, the classes are live with lovely, easy to watch and understand video demonstrations, I still teach with guided learning and individual coaching. My classes continue to remain full despite transferring to online training and as I don’t have to rely on my hall availability, I’ve been able to add more courses in which means I’ve helped to train more puppies than usual! In addition, it has opened my skills to the world of technology and given me ideas on how I can utilise online training in the future - I’ve even been approached for help by puppy owners as far away as the United States!

Remember, puppies continue to grow fast so don’t wait to train your puppy – make full use of the Puppy School Online course now so that your puppy doesn’t miss out on their all-important early training! You won’t regret it – my clients certainly haven’t and I’m fully embracing my online classes too!.

Amanda Blatch
Puppy School Tutor – Reigate and Dorking
Owner of Happy Buddies Dog Training