Courses

Our courses are designed to develop a strong foundation of communication and trust between you and your dog. We help you establish a relationship where your dog really listens to you and you matter to your dog. For best results, you will need to be committed to working through our process and doing the homework as set out for you. In doing so, you'll start to see results after the first lesson!

Before we start you and your dog on one of our courses, we'll discuss your needs and wants with you over the phone to help work out which course is right for you and to create a strategy to help you get your dog to be the dog you've always hoped it would be. Whilst each course is tailored to your individual needs and addresses the specific issues you need help with, the level of help required and the type of problems you need help with, determine the course that's right for you.

The Muddy Paws courses

The Muddy Paws introductory session (2 hours)

The first hour is free!

You'll learn 4 basic exercises

1. Teaching your dog to wait calmly by your side for a command
2. The basics of teaching your dog to reliably sit on the first command
3. Teaching your dog to hold a sit under distraction until told it can get up
4. Giving your dog an association between the tone of your voice and whether what it's doing is desirable or not. Starting to communicate with your dog in a way that makes sense to it and gets it listening to you.

Together, we'll teach your dog basic manners

1. We'll teach it not to barge through exits and entries around the home (ie. back door, front door, gates, garage doors)
2. Working through internal boundaries, getting your dog to wait until it's invited through (ie. kitchen, changed flooring conditions, bedrooms)
3. Addressing undesirable behaviours: jumping up, leaning on people, demanding pats, pulling on the lead, other demanding behaviours identified as relevant for your dog

Muddy Paws basic obedience + manners classes

All of our basic obedience classes are carried out on lead

Basic lesson 1 (1 hour)

• Refining the basic exercises and basic manners from The Muddy Paws introductory session
• Addition of obedience exercises
  • Heeling + auto halt: getting your dog to walk nicely by your side and sit when you stop walking
  • Stand + stand step away (stay): getting your dog to stand on command and hold it until told
• More manners and addressing behavioural problems
  • Give + yours: teaching your dog to leave whatever it has in its mouth and take it again on command
  • Getting your dog to listen: using food and toys to distract your dog, we teach it to listen to you, even when there's something more exciting for you to compete with
  • Addressing undesired behaviours: using the language and tones of voice your dog has learnt, we start working through some of the behaviours you need help with

Basic lesson 2 (1 hour)

• Refining and building on the exercises already learnt, working them to a higher level
• Addition of obedience exercises
  • Drop + drop step away (stay): getting your dog to drop on command and hold it until told
  • Recall to name: teaching your dog to come back to you when called, even when there's something more interesting happening
• More manners and addressing behavioural problems
  • Review manners + behavioural problems from previous week
  • Bed command: Teaching your dog to go to its bed on command and stay on its bed until invited off

Basic lesson 3 (1 hour)

• Refining and building on the exercises already learnt, working them to a higher level
• Addition of obedience exercises
  • Recall to heel: teaching your dog to come back to you when called, even when there's something more interesting happening, AND sit nicely by your side awaiting your next command
• More manners and addressing behavioural problems
  • Review manners + behavioural problems from previous week
  • Car boundaries: Teaching your dog to get in and out of the car on command and not beforehand
  • The check position: Getting your dog to lie on its side, on command, and hold the position calmly whilst you check it over for any injuries, look at its teeth, etc

Basic lesson 4 (1 hour)

• Refining and building on the exercises already learnt, working them to a higher level
• More manners and addressing behavioural problems
  • Review manners + behavioural problems from previous week
  • Food refusal: Teaching your dog to wait for permission before eating or taking treats
  • Manners around food: teaching the dog not to beg or harass your guests or you for food. Establishing basic manners around food and getting your dog to listen and do as asked, using food as a distraction
  • Socialisation to other dogs: carried out on lead and only if your dog is ready and dog friendly.

Muddy Paws Advanced classes

Our advanced classes take your obedience to a very high level

Advanced lesson 1 (1 hour)

• Ultra loose-lead heeling + auto halt without a command
• Individual transitions: teaching your dog to go from stand to drop, stand to sit and drop to sit, by your side on command
• Sit from a free: teaching your dog to sit as soon as it hears the command, no matter where it is and what it's doing

Advanced lesson 2 (1 hour)

• Sit, drop + stand whilst heeling: as you heel your dog around, with your dog walking nicely by your side, you will be able to say sit, drop or stand and your dog will stop walking and go into the requested position
• Transition combinations: teaching your dog to go from sit, drop and stand, by your side on command, in a row in any order
• Stand and drop from a free: teaching your dog to stand or drop as soon as it hears the command, no matter where it is and what it's doing

Muddy Paws off-lead classes

Off-lead classes work through obedience and problem solving/manners exercises

Off-lead lesson 1 (1 hour)

• Off-lead manners + behavioural problem solving
• Off-lead Give + yours
• Off-lead introductory session exercises (only within a well fenced area)
• Off-lead heeling

Off-lead lesson 2 (1 hour)

• Off-lead stand + drop
• Off-lead work around food and other distractions: getting your dog listening to you without using obedience to override behaviours, when it's distracted
• Off-lead heeling around food and under high level distractions
• Off-lead recall to name from low level distractions in an enclosed area

Off-lead lesson 3 (1 hour)

• Off-lead recall to heel under basic distraction
• Step aways (stay): sit, drop or stand, off-lead and leaving the dog in the position, walking away and using distractions to strengthen the position
• Off-lead check
• Off-lead free walking in an enclosed area

Muddy Paws lifestyle classes

There are a range of lifestyle classes available, each designed to test and teach your dog in different ways. Choose between any of the following settings.

• Walk to a Café for lunch/coffee
• Walk on the beach
• Walk in the park
• Farmers market
• Shopping strip
• Train ride
• Local sporting event (e.g. local footy – client dependent)
• Others as relevant / client’s choice

Social rehab

Social rehab is worked into the Messy Paws, Grubby Paws + Muddy Paws courses and addresses the individual needs of your dog, addressing the following high-end behaviours

• Aggression – dog aggression, people aggression, food aggression etc
• Fearful dogs
• High drive/ very pushy dogs
• Any other serious undesirable behaviour