Puppy Programs
Start strong. Keep growing.
The first few months of a puppy's life are an especially important time for learning, socialization, and development. During the early socialization period (roughly the first 16 weeks) puppies are forming lasting impressions about people, animals, new environments, sounds, handling, and the world around them.
Each puppy program follows a structured curriculum designed to make the most of this important stage through positive training, thoughtful socialization, confidence-building, and practical everyday skills.
Training can start right from the beginning, often as early as 8 weeks old. In-home sessions make it easy to begin building skills, confidence, and positive socialization experiences as soon as your puppy joins the family.
Choose Puppy Steps for an 8-week puppy foundation program, or choose Making Strides, the complete 14-week puppy-through-adolescent program, for continued support as your puppy grows.
Puppy Steps
Build the foundation from the very beginning.
8-Week Puppy Foundation Program
Puppies are learning from the moment they come home. Puppy Steps gives you the guidance and support to make those early experiences count while helping your puppy develop the skills, confidence, and communication they'll carry with them as they grow.
Over 8 private sessions, we'll work through a structured, age-appropriate curriculum covering foundational skills, early manners, leash walking, recall, handling, impulse control, and thoughtful socialization.
Puppy Steps is perfect for owners who want a strong start during those important early months and want to learn how to keep building on their puppy's progress at home.
With Puppy Steps, you'll get:
- 8 private training sessions: Step-by-step coaching as you and your puppy learn together.
- Foundational skills: Build attention, name response, recall, sit, down, loose-leash walking, hand targeting, early stay skills, and impulse control.
- Everyday manners: Work on polite greetings, being calm, body handling (including ears, feet, and grooming prep), leash skills, and other behaviors that support everyday life.
- Thoughtful socialization: Learn to read your puppy's body language and create positive experiences with new people, places, sounds, surfaces, and environments.
- 2 socialization-focused sessions: Put those skills into practice in carefully chosen real-world settings, including a graduation outing at the end of the program.
- Owner coaching: Learn how to reinforce good choices, communicate clearly, troubleshoot challenges, and continue building skills between sessions.
By the end of Puppy Steps, you'll have more than a puppy who knows a few cues, you'll have a strong foundation for communication, confidence, and continued learning.
$700
8-week program. Scheduled weekly. Includes two socialization-focused sessions.
Want to keep building after Puppy Steps? Graduates can enroll in the additional 6-week Making Strides adolescent program for $525. We’ll introduce new skills like wait, stay, and leave it while strengthening foundational behaviors like recall and loose-leash walking for the adolescent stage.
The Ultimate Puppy Package
Making Strides
Keep building as your puppy grows.
14-Week Complete Puppy-through-Adolescent Program
As your puppy grows, their training needs grow too. Adolescence can bring more independence, stronger impulses, new distractions, and skills that suddenly seem a little less reliable.
Making Strides gives you the complete 8-week Puppy Steps curriculum plus an additional 6 weeks of structured adolescent training, adding new skills, greater challenges, and more advanced practice with the foundations your puppy has already learned.
Making Strides is perfect for owners who want the most complete puppy training experience from the start and want continued guidance as their puppy moves from early puppyhood into adolescence.
With Making Strides, you'll get:
- The complete 8-week Puppy Steps curriculum: Start with the full foundation of early skills, manners, confidence, and thoughtful socialization.
- 6 additional adolescent training sessions: Continue learning as your puppy grows, with new skills and more challenging versions of the behaviors they already know.
- New everyday skills: Add wait, stay, leave it, and a new trick or behavior while continuing to develop impulse control and communication.
- Foundation skills, leveled up: Strengthen loose-leash walking and recall with more distance, distractions, and real-world challenges.
- Continued socialization and real-world practice: Help your growing puppy apply their skills in new environments as their confidence and independence develop.
- Ongoing owner coaching: Get continued guidance and troubleshooting as your puppy moves into adolescence.
By the end of Making Strides, you'll have supported your puppy from their earliest lessons into adolescence, with a strong foundation and the skills to keep moving forward together.
$1,150
14-week program. Includes the complete 8-week Puppy Steps curriculum plus 6 additional Making Strides curriculum sessions. Save $75 when you enroll in the complete program from the start!
One strong start. Two ways to grow.
Every puppy starts by building the same essential foundation. The difference is how long you'd like support along the way. Puppy Steps gives you 8 weeks of focused training during the early puppy stage. Making Strides continues that journey for another 6 weeks, helping you strengthen those early skills as your puppy enters adolescence. Whether you choose the 8-week foundation or the complete 14-week puppy-through-adolescent program, the goal is the same: a confident dog, clear communication, and skills you can continue building for years to come.
What comes next?
Training doesn't have to stop when the puppy program ends. Puppy graduates can continue building through adult programs, or private training for goals like recall, tricks, Nose Work, Rally, CGC preparation, real-world proofing, and other advanced skills.
Ready to build a strong foundation with your puppy?
Book a free 15-minute phone consultation and I'll help you figure out the best fit for your puppy and your goals.