Dog Manners 1, 2 & 3

The Ahimsa owner's dogs. Alyssa Rose Photography

(Prerequisite: dogs over 5 months.)

While it is a lot of fun to turn your dog into competition obedience star, what you really need is for your dog to do first is politely greet (and stop jumping on) Aunt Martha, come when you call, and let you keep your arm in its socket when you go for a walk. We focus on the essentials and the dog-human relationship, so that you and your dog can be successful as soon as possible.

Dog Manners is for people who want their dogs to listen to them, not just at home, but also out on the streets and parks of Seattle. We will teach you how to teach your dog to sit, stay, lie down, come when called, pay attention to you, walk nicely beside you without pulling, go to his/her rug, and do a trick or two for fun.

If your dog is 5-9 months old, you *can* take these classes, but if your dog plays well with others and you haven't taken a socialization class, we highly recommend the Puppy Catch-Up class for training and socialization.

All four sessions of each Dog Manners class involve you and your dog in increasingly challenging situations. The first class you take at Ahimsa is technically 5 sessions, because all new students are urged to attend the Orientation session, which teaches about how dogs learn and how to get rid of unwanted behaviors. Your first Manners class at Ahimsa includes a clicker and a FREE dog walking harness, which you pick up at Orientation ($25 value, limit 1 per dog).

Note: If your dog is overly focused on other dogs, but is friendly, please consider the Barky Dog class (even if noise isn't an issue, just lack of focus on you).

If your dog may growl or snap at other dogs, the Growly Dog class is better than Dog Manners.

Our goal for the series is to get your dog to do a set of skills *very* well, versus a large set of behaviors that they only do when they feel like it, or when food is around, or when they get bullied into it by their humans.

So which class should you take? Dogs are well served by getting a solid foundation before moving on, especially dogs that pull on leash, so if you're deciding between 1 and 2, you should probably take Dog Manners 1. Some of our methods are unique, so you and your dog won't know them if you skip over Dog Manners 1, especially if you're new to positive reinforcement training.

If you took the Basic Manners class with us before, choose your next class based on how well your dog did in class and how much homework you did. If pulling is an issue, Dog Manners 1 or 2 is a better choice than Dog Manners 3, as we've got a new leash walking technique (still dog-friendly). Here are the list of topics/skills in each class:

Dog Manners 1:

Come, Loose Leash Walking, Sit/Down, Stay, Anti-Jump, Targeting nose-to-hand (great for moving the dog around & focusing). Humans learn how to teach dogs to do the behaviors and add cues/commands. We focus on hand signals in this first class series. Even though you probably want your dog to listen to verbal cues, does learn hand signals more quickly, so we can focus on making sure they know the behaviors very solidly. We do work on the response to the verbal name, so that we can get the dog's attention out loud, then use a hand signal to request the behavior. For some skills, we'll also work on fading food rewards.

Dog Manners 2:

This level is where your dog goes from "ok in the kitchen, but somewhat distracted in public " to "great in the kitchen and pretty good in public." We'll do distraction & duration training and add verbal cues for the skills started in Manners 1. Dogs also begin to learn "go to your bed" and "heel". Fading of food rewards continues - though we'll start out with a lot again, since we're changing from hand signals to verbal cues.

Dog Manners 3:

This is where your dog can change from "pretty good" to wonderful, if you do your homework. We'll work on distance, distraction, & duration training for the skills the dogs learned before, as well as some new tricks. Humans get more advanced training skills and continue fading food rewards for skills that your dog has mastered. If you've done your homework, your dog should be able to take the Canine Good Citizen Test soon after completing this course. If you haven't taken a class with us, you still may want to take Dog Manners 1, even if your dog has had classes, because it's important to get a solid foundation before pushing the dog ahead.

Schedule & Registration: [Dog Manners 1] [Dog Manners 2] [Dog Manners 3]

Class Descriptions:

Class Comparison

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