The Top 5 Perfect Dog Breeds for Families with Children
Adding a furry friend to your family can be an incredibly rewarding experience, especially when you have children. However, not all dog...
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Services: How Can We Help You?
With over 20 years experience training dogs, we use a reward-based approach to build understanding between you and your dog to ensure that they become the best furry family members that they can be.
We work with dogs of all breeds and ages, whether you are looking for Obedience Training to stop mouthing or to stop lead pulling, or if your dog struggles with larger issues like aggression, reactivity or anxiety.
Feel free to give us a call so that we can discuss what services might be best suited to you and your dog, or feel free to check out our services below.
FAQ's
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When is the best time to start training my puppy?
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You can start training your new dog or puppy as soon as you bring them home.
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My dog is older. Can they still be trained?
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Yes! Dogs of all ages can be trained successfully.
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Do you offer group classes?
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Yes! We offer group classes. We also offer 1-2-1s, either at our facilities or at your home (Location dependent).
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How long does training take:
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Training classes take approximately an hour to complete. The number of sessions depends on the dog's age and training requirement.
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How do I get started?
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Check out the various courses that we offer in the services tab above. Also, feel free to give us a no-obligation call to discuss your requirements and how we can best help you.
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Blog Posts
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Lea with Monty
"We worked with Lauren on our newly adopted golden retriever puppy Monty and we’ve seen great development since the start of the course. Monty is now 6 months old and Lauren helped us train him to become the good and well trained boy that he is. Would recommend for sure!"
Alaister with Twiglet
"Lauren was brilliant. Great empathy with our dog (& us!). Our dog is massively better since we went to her. Also, very good value for that level of quality & 1:1 coaching."
Sandra with Sid
"Such a productive day today with Lauren . Sid came away with new skills and a much calmer dog. I was nervous as Sid is an older dog but he took to Lauren immediately as did I , firm and friendly . Her love of dogs and what she does shines through. So glad I stumbled across this page . Looking forward to our next session ."
Cindy with Moxie
"We have only been for 3 sessions and I can't believe the difference in my dog and my understanding of her.
I highly recommend Planet Pup, Lauren truly is exceptional!"
Contact Us
Ballybrack, Carrignavar, Cork
083 8584 097
Send us a message
Puppy Training
Did you know...
Most of a dog's behavioural problems arise in their first year of life?
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Socialising your puppy incorrectly can lead to...
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reactivity and aggression.
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Managing your puppy's biting incorrectly can lead to...
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life-long biting and chewing issues.
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Potty training your puppy incorrectly can lead to...
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lifelong accidents inside the house.
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Teaching recall incorrectly can lead to...
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a dog who refuses to come back to you.
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Lead training incorrectly can lead to...
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an adult dog who thinks that pulling you around is the best way to get anywhere.
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What you will learn:
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Sit, Down, Stand
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Stay
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Recall
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Loose Lead Walking
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Leave it
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Go to Bed
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Chill at a Cafe
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Door Manners at home
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& Lots more
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Potty training
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Crate training
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Managing puppy biting
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Preventing reactivity
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Preventing Separation Anxiety
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Treats and Nutrition
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Handling and Grooming
Puppies will continue to develop behaviours that make them feel good. Owners often unknowingly reward behaviours that start off as cute when the dogs are puppies, but then become difficult to manage as the pup grows.
Jumping up is a great example of this, where young puppies are often heavily rewarded for jumping up with affection and excitement. In just a few short months, your adorable ball of golden fluff becomes a 50kg Golden Retriever who has the same innocent intentions as the tiny puppy, but now creates muddy paw prints on clothes and knocks the kids over by accident.
Pulling on lead is another activity, where us humans unknowingly teach our dogs to pull. When you follow your puppy around when they pull on their lead, you are essentially showing them that pulling gets them where they want to go. As they grow, we start pulling back, making them pull harder with the same result. Add to this that often once they get to their goal destination (this could be another dog, a leaf, smelling post, etc), we usually stop pulling on the lead, further rewarding them. This results in a dog who is continually rewarded for pulling on lead, even though us humans aren't consciously rewarding it.
Starting training as soon as you get your new puppy has several benefits:
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You start off your relationship understanding your dog better, the way that they think and why they behave the way that they do.
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You know what to expect from your puppy at each stage of their life, allowing for more empathy and understanding when, for example, they are teething or becoming teenagers.
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You have the knowledge to avoid accidentally reinforcing bad behaviours, like the ones mentioned above.
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You can prevent the development of undesirable behaviours before they become an issue.
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You build a better bond with your dog, through increased understanding and communication, as well as through spending time training them in activities where they have been set up to succeed.
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You increase your puppy's confidence by giving them small challenges to overcome daily that set them up for success. You know that wonderful feeling that we get when we accomplish something challenging? Your dog gets that too and it helps them to build their self confidence, resulting in a more stable dog and helping to prevent or correct issues like fear and anxiety.
We Offer Two Different Puppy Courses:
Baby Dog Obedience - Pups 8-11 Weeks Old
We can start training pups from as young as 8-11 weeks old. These tiny pups take a little more time to master certain concepts, so our 8-week course for pups at this age is a little longer. There is also more emphasis on potty training at this stage, and setting up the environment to best prepare for the teething phase that starts at around 10 weeks old. This course would be like
Smarty Pup Obedience - Pups 3-6 Months
This course is 7 weeks long, catering for pups through their teething phase (which usually completes around the 6 month mark). This course is akin to primary school for puppies and focuses on teaching good lead manners, house manners and obedience to help set your pup up with the best start in their new family.
In both courses we focus on similar objectives, but these are trained slightly differently to accommodate your pup's age.
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Adult Dog Obedience Classes
Owning a badly behaved dog can be a nightmare!
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Pulling on lead:
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Besides making walks extremely unpleasant, pulling on lead can pose a safety risk, both to the dog and the owner. Dog's might accidentally pull their owners over, or cause injury to shoulders and rotator cuffs as the owner tries to hang onto their dog. Pulling on Collars can also result in injury to the dogs' neck, collapsing their trachea in severe cases. A dog pulling on a harness may also result in injuries to the dog's chest or shoulders, depending on the harness design.
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Not coming back when called:
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You dog not coming when called can become a minor annoyance in cases where they wont come in from outside in the evenings, to a health risk where they go charging up to other dogs who may be aggressive, or who may run across busy intersections as they single-mindedly chase that cat or bird.
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Jumping Up
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Although cute when they are puppies, adult dogs, particularly in larger breeds can cause havoc when jumping up. From preventing exuberant pups from knocking over children, elderly and unsuspecting guests, to protecting your clothes from muddy paw prints, jumping up can range in severity as an issue and is one of the most common issues that we see.
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& More
When we get a dog, we often have this romanticized view of going for long walks in the forest, letting our pups off at the dog park to play with other dogs, and snuggling with them on the couch on a cold winters evening.
Unfortunately for many people, this wonderful dream is shattered when they find themselves struggling with a dog who pulls excessively on lead, refuses to come when called and causes general havoc and destruction around the house.
Our 6-week long obedience course covers general house manners and mild reactivity issues, as well as other mild issues like digging or chewing due to boredom or frustration.
By the end of the course, we aim for you to have a dog that you can go walking with on a loose lead, one who will stay as you get your mail, will come bounding back to you as soon as you call them and will go to bed when you ask them to. we want you to have a dog that you can take to a cafe and relax with and a dog who you can chill with in the evenings.
What you will learn:
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Sit, Down, Stand
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Stay
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Recall
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Loose Lead Walking
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Door Manners at home
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Eye Contact
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& Lots more
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Treats and Nutrition
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Handling and Grooming
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Leave it
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Go to Bed
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Chill at a Cafe
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Drop It
Behaviour Modification
Sometimes we need help with more severe issues...
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Reactivity on Lead
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Reactivity encompasses a variety of behaviours, including barking, lunging, whining, growling, snapping, etc. This is usually in response to seeing other dogs or people, but in some cases can be in response to cars, bikes, scooters, strollers, birds and a host of other things.
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Aggression Towards People/Dogs
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Aggression looks like growling, snapping and/or biting at other dogs and/or people. Whether your dog is snapping at children, strange people or looks like they want to eat any other dogs that they see, we can help.
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Separation Anxiety
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Does your dog bark and howl while you are out? Do they become distressed and destructive, or overly anxious, not able to settle? These are some of the symptoms of Separation Anxiety. This can be heart breaking and frustrating for the owners, and so difficult for the dogs. We can help you to show your dogs that being by themselves can be a safe and comfortable time, teaching them to relax while on their own, rather than creating noise or becoming destructive.
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Resource Guarding
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This is when your dog decides to guard something like food, toy or space in an effort to keep other people/dogs away from it. This can look like them growling when you approach their food bowl, snapping at you when you try to take stolen socks off of them, or nipping at children who come too close to their beds. In more extreme cases, the dog may fully bite or attack other animals or people who come near them when they have something that they consider valuable. We can help you teach your dog that us coming into their space is actually a good thing, so that we can eliminate their need to protect these things from being stolen.
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Fear/Anxiety
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Sometimes our dogs are fearful or anxious of the world around them. They may panic when they hear the garbage truck or run knots in their lead to get behind you when they see a flag flapping in the wind. They may run and hide every time that you have visitors or try to run away when they know that they are due a car ride to the vet. All of things can be worked through to allow them to feel more safe and secure in situations where they were previously uncomfortable.
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For more severe issues, we offer 1-on-1 behavioural consults.
Behaviour Consults generally follow the process below:
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History Call
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Before we meet your dog, we will arrange a phone call to cover your dogs history, medical history, severity of the issue, etc. This allows us to get a better understanding of what exactly the issue is and to start formulating a plan to combat the issues. This also saves us valuable time during the consult, where we can now focus on working with the dog, rather than asking questions on past behaviour and routine.
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Initial Behaviour Consult
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In the initial behaviour consult, we come through and meet you and your dog for our initial assessment. We will evaluate your dog's behaviour, as well as their environment, suggesting and noting any changes that we may recommend.
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We will then start working with you and your dog, teaching you some exercises to start combating the challenges that you are facing with them, as well as confirming what we believe the root issue is as to why your dog is behaving in this manner.
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After the session, we will leave you with several exercises to work on. We will send you through handouts of the various exercises, a full report on your dog's behaviour, what we noted and how much progress we believe that we will be able to make with your dog, as well as sending you a summary of the various exercises and a sheet to monitor your dog's progress in between sessions.
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We will then recommend a time and date for our next consult, allowing you time to work on the current issue with your dog before we come back.
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How long will training take?
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The amount of follow up consults really depends on several factors including:
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How much time you can put into your dog
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How quickly you pick up the training
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How quickly your dog learns and pick up the principles in the training
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The severity of the issue
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Follow Up Consults
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In follow up consults, we will look over the data that you may have collected on your dog's behaviour from the week before, and then move into expanding upon the exercises and principles from the previous session. After each session we will confirm that our goals are still aligned with yours, regarding where we see your end goal being with your dog, and will send you on the exercises, summary and a new metric sheet to make sure that they are improving and responding well to the training.
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Adoption Assistance
Choosing the right dog for you...
In the decision to get a new dog, many different factors need to be taken into consideration:
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How much space do you have?
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How much time do you have?
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What looks are you drawn to in a dog?
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How much experience have you had as a dog owner?
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Do you have children?
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Are you looking for a running buddy or a couch potato?
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How much money are you looking to spend?
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Are you looking to adopt or buy?
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What temperament would you like?
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Are you aware of the breed characteristics that are likely to be present in your dog (mix-breeds included)?
Based on the answers to all of these questions, different dog breeds may be more or less suitable for your home.
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Border Collies, for example, struggle more in homes with young children or a lot of noise. They also have no intention of being couch potatoes and often require significant mental and physical stimulation to avoid becoming destructive.
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Staffordshire terriers tend to be great with children, but are at a higher risk of showing aggression towards strange dogs and are challenging dogs for first-time dog owners.
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Golden retrievers tend to make super family dogs and are good with young children, but are also more likely to steal and carry items around the house, making them a higher risk for resource guarding because they tend to have things taken off of them a lot as puppies.
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Terriers tend to be have a mind of their own and can sometimes struggle in homes with cats or small furries. Their great noses and independent nature mean that activities like recall can be challenging.
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Caucasian Shepherd can be great family dogs, but they really struggle with strange people and dogs, potentially becoming aggressive towards strangers as a result.
It is important to consider the cons of each dog breed as carefully as you would consider the pros. Many of the families that we work with are simply people who were not aware of the general characteristics of their chosen breed, resulting in a dog who may struggle to adapt to the families' lifestyle.
We offer two main areas of adoption assistance:
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A phone call to talk through your family situation and resources available for a dog, chatting through different breeds and options that may fit best for you and your family.
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Assistance in choosing the right puppy out of a litter.
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Even though different breeds have various characteristics associated with them, each dog within that breed is an individual and the personlity of the individual puppy matters too.
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People often go for the puppy that jumps up on them when they first meet them, and is the most outgoing and exuberant. The challenge, is that these dogs often tend to take that exuberant, jumpy and outgoing nature home with them, sometimes resulting in a highly energetic dog with poor impulse control. Choosing a more laid back puppy will often mean a more laid back and easy going dog once you get them home.
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We will help you, either via video call or in person to evaluate the different puppies in the litter to make the best decision for your family.
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Contact Us
Ballybrack, Carrignavar, Cork
083 8584 097
Send us a message
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