Mountain View Dog Training

Dog obedience classes at Mountain View

We urge you to take your baby puppy to puppy kindergarten — DO NOT WAIT until he is 6 months old and full of himself, out of contol and BIG! The old adage about an ounce of prevention being worth a ton of cure certainly applies here. Teach your puppy right from the start, and you won’t be “fixing” problems later — because they won’t occur! We believe that puppy kindergarten is your dog’s most important “obedience” class, and we make it really fun and informative. In this class your puppy will learn critical socialization skills and begin the patterns of learning that will continue through his life. Puppies need and love early socialization and early learning!

Puppy kindergarten is open to puppies age 9 to 22 weeks old.

For the more mature dog (any age over 5 months old), we hold obedience classes for the family dog. In this class we help you teach your dog the basic manners that will make him or her a welcome member of the family and community. To follow up on this, we offer a Canine Good Citizen class, which prepares your dog for the AKC Canine Good Citizen test. This class helps to polish the skills begun in the Family Dog class. Other classes held on an intermittent basis are our “All Around Dog” class and Rally-O.

All dogs of all breeds, including and especially “All Americans,” are welcome here. We offer discounts in our beginner-level obedience classes for dogs that come from rescue programs, including animal shelters.

Class schedules Registration info (including fees)

Puppy Kindergarten

The focus of this class is puppy socialization and basic obedience. Clicker basics and obedience behaviors are taught, as well as tricks. Management issues (housetraining, confinement, jumping up, etc.) are also addressed. An essential part of a puppy’s upbringing!! This is a 7-week long class, meeting once a week for about 75 minutes. Check our Class Schedule page for the next Puppy K.

Family Dog

A six-week course aimed at training your dog the fundamentals of obedience, to help him or her become a pleasant member of your family. We use our positive approach and clicker training to help you teach your dog the basic behaviors: sit and down, stay, come, and walk calmly on leash. Much attention is given to teaching dogs self control, and especially to control themselves when greeting humans.

Check our Class Schedule page for the next Family Dog class.

All-Around Dog

This class includes some or all of the following: Rally, loose lead walking/heel work, Really Reliable Recall, off-lead work, Meets & Greets with a twist, solid stays, desensitization skills (counterconditioning, “Look at That” game), distractions, distractions!… What is covered depends on the dogs and their handlers - what you want and what your dog is ready for, and what we can fit into six weeks. So many of the skills we are teaching our dogs are applicable to various dog sports in addition to “real life”: loose leash walking/heel work is good for Rally, agility, therapy work, and competition obedience; a reliable recall is necessary everywhere; and the same can be said for the stay. We also take into consideration the Canine Good Citizen test, so if that’s your goal, this class will help! Please state on your enrollment form what you’d like to achieve from this class. You can be sure that no matter what you want, you’ll have fun!

Prerequisites: Completion of a basic good manners class. Dog must walk nicely on leash and get along well with other dogs. Dog must have a solid sit & down on cue. Check our Class Schedule page for the next All Around Dog class.

CGC / Therapy Dog Prep

AKC’s Canine Good Citizenship program is designed to reward dogs who have good manners at home and in the community. The program is open to all dogs, including mixed breed (”All-American”) dogs. It includes such skills as accepting a friendly stranger and sitting nicely for attention, walking on a loose lead, walking politely in a crowd, coming when called, behaving politely around other dogs, acting confidently in distracting situations, and remaining calm when left with a “friendly stranger.” Look here for details of AKC’s CGC program.

In addition to gaining wide use in the general dog-owning population, police and animal control agencies use the CGC for dealing with dog problems in communities, some therapy dog groups use the CGC as a partial screening tool, and some 4-H groups around the country have been using the CGC as a beginning dog training program for children.

Therapy dogs visit with folks in hospitals, nursing homes and other rehabilitation centers. They need much of what a Canine Good Citizen needs, but, even more, they need to be “bomb-proof” around such objects as wheelchairs, clanking bedpans, unsteady (even trembling) people. Our class will help your dog handle many of the challenges that face dogs doing therapy work. Check out the Waggin Hearts Therapy Dogs website.

Prerequisite: Family Dog or Puppy K. New Mountain View student who wish to join this class must be evaluated for readiness to participate in this somewhat advanced training.

We offer this six-week class periodically. Check our Class Schedule page to see if one is planned, and if not, let us know and we’ll gather folks together to create one!

Rally

Rally is a fun sport for dogs and their handlers!

In rally, the handler and dog work their way through a course with numbered signs indicating different exercises such as Sit-Down-Sit, Straight Figure 8, Send Over Jump, Recall Over Jump. Teams navigate the course without direction from the judge. Handlers are encouraged to talk to their dogs during the performance.

Our class is designed to teach the basic Novice Rally exercises.

Prerequisite: Puppy K or Family Dog (or both), with possible addition of an All Around Dog class, or equivalent. Candidates for this class who haven’t trained with Mountain View will be evaluated for preparedness prior to the start of class.