Puppy Power Essentials

Puppy Power Essentials

A four-week class for learning how to navigate puppy life together

Four-week, in-person puppy class
Begins: Sunday, October 11 at 3 PM
Duration: Every Sunday through November 1st
Location: Pendleton Recreation Center next to City Hall
Investment: $199
For puppies: 4-11 months

Raising a puppy thoughtfully can be wonderful yet also comes with a lot of pressure. Don’t let them jump. Don’t let them pull. Don’t let them bark. Make sure they listen. Make sure they behave around people and other dogs. Before you know it, especially when it counts, you can feel embarrassed, frustrated, anxious, or unsure of what you’re supposed to do.

You may find yourself saying “no” constantly, repeating cues that don’t seem to work, or even find yourself yelling to get a handle on things. That can lead to blaming yourself or your dog when both parties are doing their best in our modern world.

But what if control wasn’t the measure of success?‍ Our Puppy Essentials class will show you how communication, collaboration, and learning to meet each other halfway makes for healthier relationships between dogs and humans. We’ll absolutely practice useful skills! But we’ll also help you understand your puppy’s body language, learning, genetics, environment, and individual capacity so you can make more thoughtful choices about how to support them and yourself.

What you and your puppy will learn

Over four weeks, we’ll build practical skills while helping you develop a better understanding of the puppy at the other end of the leash.

Week 1: Understand Each Other
We’ll start by building a shared language. You’ll learn reinforcement basics, explore puppy body language and consent-based touch, introduce cooperative care, and practice sit and down. We’ll also introduce two frameworks to help you cope and understand your puppy better.

Week 2: Stay Connected
What happens when the world becomes more interesting than you are? We’ll practice attention, name response, recall, and fun games to improve recall response and the relationship. This week we teach the #1 skill to help you and your puppy communicate better as well as introduce our protocol for helping you find clarity in a “ruff” moment.

Week 3: Navigate Everyday Challenges
Jumping. Nipping. Waiting. Settling. Leaving things alone. These everyday puppy moments can create a lot of friction. We’ll practice useful skills for navigating them while exploring ways to respond with compassion rather than making control the goal. We’ll also look at genetics and why this puppy may do that.

Week 4: Enjoy More Comfortable Walks Together
Walking together is about more than keeping a leash loose. We’ll practice loose-leash foundations, contextual heel and heel switches, outdoor safety, advocacy, and meeting people. The goal is to help you and your puppy navigate the world with more communication, confidence, and connection.

Learn useful skills. Understand your puppy. Meet each other halfway.

By the end of this class, instead of getting stuck in “What am I supposed to do?” you’ll become more comfortable asking: What’s happening here? What might my puppy need? What do I need? And what could help us move through this together?

That’s our thoughtful approach to raising dogs—and building a joyful life together. We can’t wait to be on this journey with you. If you’re ready to sign up or want to learn more, please fill out our form below.