Puppy Pre School

Re: Puppy Pre School

Ben Gardner RVN — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 21:36:31 GMT

Thanks for your advice guys, I have now put together a plan and emailed it to my boss. Im excited about starting them as its something new and interesting No doubt I will be back picking your brains again soon!

Ben

Re: Puppy Pre School

louise170388 — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 16:38:14 GMT

Hey, the practice i'm at have just started a puppy pre-school class and so far its been very successful.

They offer the following:

* 4 one hour sessions for £80.00 total.

*Free 'nose to paw' health check by the nurse

*free dose of wormer at 6months of age

*10% discount on neutering for the pup once 6months of age

*free squeaky ball, certificate at the end, and handouts at each session.

We basically give adv re:worm/fleas, vaccines, neutering, microchippig, insurance, diet, dental health as well as socialising and convering alot of behaviour (as the vet running it has a keen interest in behaviour).

We have offered it to puppies aged between 8 & 16 weeks (at the time of enrollment) and have kept it to a max of 6 puppies per class. Seems to be going very well :)

Re: Puppy Pre School

Ben Gardner RVN — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 14:01:28 GMT

Thanks Stux. I think there would be a charge for them of which Im not sure yet. Im trying to put my class plan together now on my day off. Dedication or just plain stupid?! haha

Re: Puppy Pre School

nin86 — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 13:04:09 GMT

Hi Ben,

We are about to start a similar thing at our practice. I went to the puppy seminar cpd cay course at the college of animal welfare which was a great source of info about how to run successful puppy socialisation classes. The woman who ran it gave us some very valuable advice too. She advised to make sure all puppies in attendance have had their 1st vacc at least 7-10 days before the class starts. Puppies no older than 16weeks. She recommended a maximum of 8 puppies (ideally 5-6) and to make sure you have other members of staff to help suprevise. She recommended having controlled play session supervised by staff so that the classes dont become a free for all which can be very cahotic and detrimental to the socialisaton experience. All puppies should obviously be fit and well- no d+/v+ or coughing etc. But if they are ill still encourage the owbers to come.

I agree with stuart that you will struggle to fit everything into 2x45 min sessions with socialisation. We will be running a 4 week course each session approx 45mins-1hr. We have selected topics to discuss each week such as neutering/vaccination/fleas/worms/insurance/tooth care/diet etc and the owners will be given a talk on each subject. The puppies stay with their owners on leads during this talk so people dont get too distracted and pups settle. We have asked a local dog trainer/behaviourist to do 1 of the 4 week sessions as none of us feel confident or qualified enough to give sound behavioural/training advice- perhaps u can ask the man whose classes youve been seeing to come in and help?

Each session is ended with a 15m controlled play session- supervised by staff and watched by owners so they can see proper dog interaction.

We will give each client a puppy pack with all the info covered and a goody bag with food sample, toy etc.

Hope this helps and good luck!

Re: Puppy Pre School

Stuart McQueen RVN MBVNA — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 10:43:31 GMT

Hey Ben,

That all sounds great, it's a lot to fit into 2 x 45 minute parties if you want the puppies to socialise too.. I think defo the tour of the practice is a great idea! It lets the clients see that the fun doesn't stop at the consult room! haha

Keeping the numbers to a minimum could help all the topics to be covered.

I run a 5 week rota of general play, handling, training, preventative health and phobias. When talking about phobias with puppies I start with noise - fireworks etc... but then go in to people and animals and places and most importantly LEAD AND COLLAR!! (the number of puppies I've seen where the client will tell me they are scared of going for a walk, basically because they haven't habituated with a collar and lead, is crazy!)

I don't however have much of a cap on numbers... We are always 10-15 puppies and I couldn't bear spliting and being at work late on 2 nights of the week... ;-)

Would you be charging for the service?

It's important to let the clients know that bringing their puppies to the practice - even out of hours and still having only received their first vaccine they carry the risk of catching an infection - and should only bring their pup if it's fit and healthy at home.

I have a limit of 8 week to 15 week old puppies, and take care to split the more troublesome puppies from the quiet shy ones!

Hope this helps. Good luck.

Stux