Natural Puppy Fundamentals
Get your puppy off to the best possible Start in life, with Natural, Simple, Profound learning.
110% recommend James. We’re new puppy owners and James spent a good two hours with us today focusing on walking outside, lead training and aggression/biting. Within 5 minutes of James entering the room, our puppy was like a different dog. Completely obedient and the biting stopped really quickly. James was lovely and we had a fantastic time and laugh with him. He was extremely calm and gentle towards our dog which was a concern as we knew a few dog trainers who take the harsher approach. If you have a puppy or have any dog issues, don’t even think twice about booking James. This evening was the best evening we had, extremely controlled and relaxed after 3 weeks of teething and biting.
James & Atti
Let’s be Honest - most puppy training classes aren’t great. They’re chaotic, they’re overwhelming. There’s food flying everywhere. Puppies jumping all over each other or hiding under chairs. No one can concentrate, and none of it is specific to your puppies individual needs. And if you have problem behaviours - you probably won’t be invited back.
It’s time that Puppy Training gets a Refresh.
Natural training, that nurtures a calm state and builds confidence as a foundation. Simple, sensible techniques that actually work to fix problematic puppy behaviours quickly. No excessive food or hyper-treating. Techniques that are easy, cost effective, and time efficient for you to practice when you leave. And most importantly - customised, individual advice for your puppy as a unique personality.
We don’t think that’s too much to ask. That’s why we do things differently.
Welcome to Natural Puppy Fundamentals.
The Puppy Behavioural Health Check.
Crate training? Check. Crazy puppy biting? Check. Nervous Puppy? Check. Just like a trip to the vets, but for your puppies behaviour instead.
Did we mention it’s free?
Make these the five Simple Goals for your New Puppy
Our Natural Puppy Fundamentals Syllabus. For Puppies up to six months.
We prioritise your learning around the most important skills, that will have the biggest impact - and fit into a busy lifestyle. Our five point checklist is designed to help you focus on the big tickets for the first six months of your Puppies life, when good habits can make all the difference. Using this imprint period in the right way will make it significantly easier to get through the early months, and will maximise the positive impact as your puppy enters adolescence.
1. A Healthy Relationship with Touch.
One of our Keystones for relationship success is what’s called a healthy ‘Touch Imprint’. Not only is it a golden nugget for resolving puppy biting, Touch Imprint is also essential for preventing guarding behaviours, helping with handling and grooming, and setting your puppy up for success when it comes to greeting others and feeling relaxed with new people.
2. Sit for Calmness, and for healthy conflict resolution.
One of the big things we do differently is that never teach sit for food. Sitting naturally represents a calm state for dogs, and by nurturing that with massage and affection, we honour its natural purpose, rather than blocking relaxation and rewiring the sit for anticipation by teaching dogs to sit for food.
If you can ask your puppy to sit down and relax, you can use this as an outcome for conflicts and disagreement - as part of our “Don’t Do This, do That” approach to teaching through and resolving problem behaviours. The best way to disagree is to show your puppy what you want instead, and most of the time, that means asking them to chill out.
3. Take your calm puppy everywhere.
The buzzword is ‘Neutral Exposure’ - and it means getting them used to sights, sounds, and experiences in a calm way, without the requirement to interact. Creating as many healthy, relaxed and calm new experiences as possible sets your puppy up for success in the human world. It’s one of our top priorities - to maximise time out in the world and minimise time spent indoors doing tricks and obedience.
4. Establish a Healthy Daily Routine.
A lot of problems with adult dogs can be avoided with a solid daily routine set up in puppyhood. Get to grips with toilet training, exercise requirements, opportunities for play, feeding independent sleep and crate training. Understand how, when and where - for smooth sailing without worrying about issues like Separation Anxiety down the line.
5. Learn great social behaviour from adult dogs.
Puppies do not teach puppies - not beyond the skills they learn with their litter. Spending time with well behaved adult dogs is the best way to teach healthy, polite social interaction. Not just play behaviour, but how to greet, how to respect space, how to move through the world with structured walks - and how to relax around other dogs. Getting a quality group of adult dogs to show your puppy the ropes is the best way to develop a polite, well mannered adult dogs.
It really is that Simple.
Focus you energy on these five simple principles, and we’re confident that you’ll raise an amazing dog. The skills they’ll need for later in life - including recall and obedience - all start with these foundations. When it comes to the most common behaviours we resolve in adult dogs, we reintroduce these foundations where they are missing. They are the five things that every dog owner should know - that’s why we teach them to you.
We’d Love to teach you how to do things differently.
Visit us at Underhill Farm.
Behavioural Health Check | 30 minute session | FREE
Puppy Fundamentals | 90 minute session | £119.00
Members Price | £79.00
Meet the Pack - Private Walk | 30 Minute Session | £40.00
Exclusively for members.
Book an Exclusive Home Visit.
Private 2 Hour Home Visit | £199.00 | Places Limited.
Members Price | £149.00
The 2024 Puppy Behaviour Trend Forecast.
A different perspective on Puppy Development.
As professional behaviourists that specialise in solving issues in adult dogs later down the line, we know better than most what quality, preventative training looks like. Being on the front line of problem behaviours in adult means we see the big issues and bad habits creeping in, and how the trends change year on year. The Behaviour trend forecast is put together by us, for you - so that you know what to look for, and what to avoid when raising your puppy.
Our 2024 Buzzword:
Hy•per•trea•ting
(verb)
To give food to your dog at speed and in excess, with the loose purpose of distraction or reward. To throw, sprinkle or otherwise deliver food in excessive quantities, typically more than one piece per second.
“We went to the local puppy class and it was complete chaos - constant hypertreating. Throwing food on the bed, throwing food on the floor. They gave my puppy so much food he threw up in the car on the way home.”
Our 2024 Trends:
Excitement ≠ Happiness.
It’s an easy sell, that an excited dog is a happy dog - but it's also not true. Excitement without limits is the Number 1 cause of behavioural issues later in life, being one of the three key triggers for both aggressive incidents, and a major contributor to long term anxiety and stress, when a dog is unable to relax.
Nurturing calmness starts in puppy hood, and calmness is a keystone of having an awesome adult dog - everything we do centres around that principle. A calm dog is better able to handle stress, easier to take with you into social environments, safer around people of all ages, and less likely to become aggressive.
Dodge the Hypertreating Trend.
It’s increasingly common that we work with neurotic, over stimulated and chronically stressed out dogs that have been raised on a system of Hypertreating. Like any form of addiction, there’s nothing “positive” about the long term impacts of getting your dog hooked on their next dopamine kick.
Dodge dopamine addiction that’s nurtured in puppyhood through excessive food, and learn to nurture calmness through a wider system of reinforcement. There are many better and deeper ways to communicate than throwing hot dogs around like Confetti or popping your dog sausages like pills, under the disguise of ‘Positive Reinforcement’.
It probably isn’t Prey Drive.
Prey drive has become a hot topic in recent years, and as more people learn about it, there are an increasing number of dogs visiting with a misdiagnosis of ‘high prey drive’. (compared to the small number that really are).
The reality is, all dogs have prey drive, and how they express it is typically a measure of how much we encourage independence vs obedience. Most of these cases are just overstimulated dogs that have practiced a lot of independence at a young age, without limits.
If you can’t get your dog back, but you let them off a lead anyway, or if your dog spends most of their walk with their nose on the ground, whilst you are chatting or on your phone, then you can only expect your dog to get better at ignoring you. And as they say, practice makes prey drive!
All the Puppy Questions you ask Google - answered by the professionals.
The Puppy Survival Guide.
“Really brilliant session with James helping us with our 5 month old Labrador puppy, Barney. His calm manner and clear explanations mean it’s easy to put things into practice. Lead walking is now a pleasure for all of us. James has been with us from the start when we had some early issues following getting a puppy during lockdown. His advice saved our sanity!”
Jacqui & Barney
“I was so impressed by your calm & kind nature, your advice and guidance has made a huge difference to my whole family. From the moment you introduced the new lead and techniques Meg has improved in leaps and bounds.”
Abbi & Dora
“As a retired vet, I felt I should know how to deal with my puppy who was constantly snapping, biting and chewing me but I couldn't resolve it. James was extremely helpful and gave me some valuable information and advice. I can recommend him to anyone who wants a well behaved dog.”
Frances & Deena
