Best paw forward at puppy preschool

WHILE getting a new puppy is a bundle of joy, anyone with a dog will tell you pooch ownership entails a certain amount of responsibility.

A great place to help ensure that little bundle of puppy fun becomes a well socialised, happy dog is at the Ballarat Dog Obedience Club’s Puppy Preschool.

Instructor Norm Baker runs the Puppy Preschool and also has his own dogs – a 14-year-old miniature poodle and smart young part-retriever whom he recently adopted.

Mr Baker said it’s particularly timely to get a young pup into the preschool classes when they are aged between eight to 14 weeks old.

“It’s a four week, hour-long course that takes place on Thursday evenings with one-on-one instructors for each pup and their handler and we usually have about six pups at any one time,” he said.

“The pups learn the basics like recall, sit, drop, stay and how walk to on a loose lead.

“We like to get them as soon as they’ve had their first vaccination at eight to 14 weeks old. That’s when they’re most receptive to training and most trainable. It’s not to say you can’t train a dog when it’s a bit older though.

“One of the big benefits when you get a pup early is from a socialising perspective, exposing them to other dogs and to other breeds.”

Once the Puppy Preschool course is completed, people and their pups are then welcomed to stay on with the Ballarat Dog Obedience Club and continue attending its regular obedience classes that happen every Sunday morning, usually at the club’s Victoria Park home.

Mr Baker said about half of all people and their pups who complete the Puppy Preschool course do tend to stay on with the club.

“There are a lot of different dog sports you can do these days,” Mr Baker said.

“About half will go on to do obedience training and then, depending on the breed, they will give other things like agility or fly ball a go, and a lot do get hooked.”

Among those attending the November Puppy Preschool course was Jane Godfrey, a beagle breeder from Castlemaine who was travelling to Ballarat for weekly classes with Hazel the beagle.

“My beagles are used to other beagles but if they suddenly see a German Shepherd for the first time they’ll go ‘oh my god, what’s that?'” said Ms Godfrey.

“We do agility and it’s particularly good for them to come here and get socialisation with different breeds.”

Alongside Hazel, the November class included two cavoodles, a saluki, a spaniel and a groodle.

Mr Baker said the ongoing puppy preschool course will resume in mid-January.