puppyacademy

I love puppies, you love puppies, everyone loves puppies 🙌!  That’s why a tough day can be brightened just by watching puppies play together (that’s why the entire team at the dog school are so happy all the time)!

However, even the cutest, most adorable puppy can grow up to become an adult dog with…….. ‘issues’. 

So, how can you make sure this doesn’t happen 🤔? 

Well one big step in the right direction is by doing lots of safe and intentional early socialization. And when I say “early”, I do mean “before all vaccinations are done”. 

However, there’s a fine line between socializing your puppy and accidentally making the world a little bit too exciting or scary!!

So, then this begs the question: “What IS proper socialization?”  Where should you start? And how do you create balance while socializing your puppy?

We answer all these questions (and more!) in this week's episode of Dog Sense. 

Tune in now to learn everything you need to know about fear periods, when to start socializing your puppy, and the importance of adventure walks.

 

Key points discussed

Intro (00:00)

What is proper socialization? (00:52)

When should I start socializing my puppy? (03:27)

What are fear periods? (06:51)

Adventure walks (11:00)

The second fear period (13:44)

Our advice (17:19)

 

Additional resources

Learn more about the Puppy Prep Course: https://bit.ly/3egb3S3

Need help socializing your puppy? Check out the Puppy Socialization Checklists here: https://bit.ly/3ezkXhK

Learn everything you need to know about puppy vaccination now: https://bit.ly/3eG5I6D

Anyone‌ ‌who‌ ‌has‌ ‌known‌ ‌me‌ ‌for‌ longer ‌than‌ ‌5‌ ‌minutes‌ ‌will‌ ‌know‌ ‌that‌ I don't love talking about myself (I’d rather talk about YOU and your DOG!), but this needs to be done, so here we go: The Kathy Santo origin story!

Many people ask me how I started in this industry, or “When did you know that you wanted to be a dog trainer?”.  My answer is usually along the lines of “from the minute I met my dog!”  Which is true.  But more specifically, it all started with some deli meat (sorry, mom!), my childhood Great Pyrenees “Teddy”, and a six-year-old (me!), wanting desperately to prove my parents wrong!

It’s not an exaggeration to say that after that first dog training experience with Teddy, I knew that it was what I wanted to do forever! I wanted to learn everything I could about dogs so that I could communicate even better with them.  And possibly get my dog to do some even cooler tricks……..

And even though I’d never met a dog trainer (plus I was 6, and you don’t have that big of a friends circle at that point, right?), I still had this burning, never-ending passion for training.  And pretty soon, I announced to anyone who would listen that it’s what I wanted to be when I grew up.  

My attempts at training (and eventually my ‘system’) went through trial and error (more errors than trials in the beginning), but every step of the way was great, because I was doing something I loved!

So, if you want to learn more about how my career as a dog trainer began and evolved, the infamous deli meat incident (again, sorry mom!), and how I went from backyard training by myself to a 16,000 sq ft facility with 50+ team members, tune in to this week's episode now!

 

Key points discussed

• Intro (00:00)
• How it all started (01:32)
• Moving into competition obedience (05:32)
• When I started training student’s dogs (10:30)
• The therapy dog program (16:34)
• The book deal (20:46)
• TV and radio appearances (25:08)
• Making the right decision (27:39)
• Back to the present (32:16)
• Puppy Prep School (35:14)

 

Additional resources

Check out Kathy’s book here: https://amzn.to/3mMjR5R

Learn more about the Puppy Prep Course: https://bit.ly/3egb3S3

Learn more about Kathy Santo Dog Training: https://bit.ly/3wVrtrq