Lomond Hills Puppy School is a unique service that we offer exclusively to buyers of our Australian Labradoodle puppies. For the most part, Lomond Hills puppies move to their forever homes on the scheduled puppy collection day, typically a weekend date between 8 and 9 weeks old – but if you prefer – you can enrol your puppy in our Puppy School for 1 – 7 weeks of professional training and socialisation. This is a key stage in your puppy’s development, often known as the “sensitive” or “imprint” period, when big leaps in training and socialisation are possible in a relatively short period of time.
Perhaps you are a first-time dog owner and would like your puppy to be professionally trained before you welcome them into the family? Or maybe you are keen to train your puppy yourself, but would like them to have a head-start on crate and toilet training before they come home? Maybe you have the time to dedicate to dog ownership, but are just not able to commit to the several weeks of intensive training that goes along with bringing home an untrained 8-week old puppy? We have five options across our Puppy School which are designed to meet the varying needs of our customers.
Your puppy will spend an extra week or two with us at Lomond Hills beyond the litter collection date.
He’ll get started with important early training where the primary focus will be on getting familiar with the crate and doing the toilet outside! During the daytime, your puppy’s crate door will be open so that he can come and go as he pleases and start to get comfortable with it. He will have access to the outdoor turf toileting area via our ‘doggie door’ during the daytime which fast-tracks toilet training.
He’ll learn to eat meals inside his crate without the competition of his brothers and sisters (which has been driving his appetite until now) and this will reinforce the crate as a positive place to spend time. At bedtime, he will be put inside his crate and settled down for the night.
Initially, he will have the company of other dogs/puppies to help him settle and this will be gradually withdrawn. Your puppy will benefit from lots of socialisation and handling with people and other Australian Labradoodle puppies and dogs. We’ll use his name every time we speak to him so that he can get started with name recognition and we’ll introduce him to grooming and short periods of alone time, both of which are important to start early. The vet bed, blanket, toys and bowls he uses will be his to take home and the familiarity of these items will aid with the transition period.
After completion of this programme and a brief transition period, you can expect your puppy to rapidly achieve crate and toilet training in your home.
If your puppy is enrolled for two weeks, we’ll send you a progress update and photo after his first week with us.
When you come to collect your puppy at the end of the training, we’ll provide a written progress report and a comprehensive verbal handover. This will allow you to start building on his early training as smoothly as possible.
Your puppy will spend an extra week with us at Lomond Hills beyond the litter collection date and will follow the A Paw Up training programme during this time.
Then, your puppy will spend either 2, 4 or 6 weeks with one of our trainers in their home.
He’ll build on everything he has learned so far – getting more comfortable with crate training and improving reliability in toilet training. He’ll also learn to sit in his crate at mealtimes. Socialisation with people and other dogs will continue – the longer he is enrolled for, the more people and dogs of different breeds and sizes he’ll meet. Your puppy will gradually get used to spending a little more time alone so that he will be ready to adjust to busy family life when you will need to leave him home-alone for a few hours.
The trainer will continue to work on brushing and ear-plucking and if he’s with us for 4 weeks or more, he’ll be introduced to bathing. He’ll learn to recognise and respond to his name. The trainer will dedicate a lot of time to working on basic manners and commands, such as not jumping up and not mouthing, ‘sit’, ‘lie down’ and ‘stay’.
He will commence lead walking training and will learn to come when called. If he is with us at 10 weeks old, he’ll get his final puppy vaccination and from 11 weeks old, he’ll be able to explore public places on the ground which will be great for his continued socialisation in the “big bad world”. Prior to 11 weeks, this will be limited to being in the trainer’s arms.
Your puppy will experience lots of short car journeys and will become increasingly comfortable with car travel. The longer he is enrolled in puppy school for, the more he will achieve and the more reliable each element of his training will be, particularly in distracting environments.
At the end of each week, we’ll send you a progress update and photo or video.
When you come to collect your puppy at the end of the training, we’ll provide a written progress report and a comprehensive handover which will include time with the breeder and the trainer. This will allow you build on and reinforce his training.
© Copyright of Lomond Hills Labradoodles
Lomond Hills Labradoodles is a trading name of LHL Limited, a company registered in Scotland
© Copyright of Lomond Hills Labradoodles
Lomond Hills Labradoodles is a trading name of LHL Limited, a company registered in Scotland
