Dog Training

Trap Falls Kennel Club is dedicated to supporting families in becoming responsible dog owners. Training your dog should be an enjoyable, fun and rewarding experience for all members of your family and help to build a bond and healthy relationship between dog and owner . These classes emphasize life skills and household manners using positive reinforcement methods, and will briefly introduce you to a variety of dog sports and other activities which are fun and challenging for you and your dog.

PUPPY MANNERS: A course in basic puppy needs, behaviors, and how to deal with them. Covers basic commands – Down, Off, Sit, Stay or Wait, Watch me, and the Recall. Understanding why your dog chooses to act the way it does, and reading the dog’s body language are key behaviors. Stress relieving socialization time under controlled circumstances.

Next class start- up will be 11/29/11, and will end 1/31/12, running 8 weeks with Christmas week off.

INSTRUCTOR Peg Demaine has been training dogs and their owners professionally for the past 5 years. She is a graduate of Animal Behavior College of Santa Clarita, California (ABCDT#14468). She focuses on the family unit to develop honest, respectful relationships between human and canine members.

FAMILY DOG: is a 6 week class for puppies and dogs over 12 weeks. People learn how to establish leadership positively and how to manage their dogs for success. Dogs learn polite behavior like walking nicely on leash and not jumping on or mouthing people and the basic obedience commands(sit, down, stand, stay, come, leave it and settle). This class provides a foundation for the Canine Good Citizen/Therapy Dog class.

The CGC/TDI class is designed to prepare dogs and their owners to pass the American Kennel Club's Canine Good Citizen and Therapy Dogs International's Therapy Dog tests. For detailed information on these programs, please click on AKC Canine Good Citizen and Therapy Dog International. Thirty-three state legislatures, including Connecticut, have passed resolutions recognizing the AKC's Canine Good Citizen programs as an effective means of providing training and education for community dog owners.

Because of the nature of the class, no dogs that are aggressive to other dogs or people are permitted in this class. Dogs should have some knowledge of basic commands (sit, down, stay, come) and walking on leash, but need not be perfect to attend class. There is no age minimum for CGC Testing, but dogs must be at least 1 year old to be TDI tested.

The class runs for 8 weeks; weeks 1-7 will encompass learning and practicing the required skills. The CGC and TDI tests will be offered on week eight for those students who would like to take the test(s). The cost of the class is $140 for 7 weeks; the tests on week eight will cost $10 each for the CGC and/or TDI.

INSTRUCTOR - Jennifer Bridwell, CnTPM, owner of Canine Connection Dog Training, has spent over 25 years working with dogs professionally as a trainer, veterinary technician, groomer, Flower Essence Practitioner and certified Trigger Point Myotherapist/Photon Light Therapist. While in the Pre-Vet program at the University of Florida, she started training 1 of her Collies for obedience trials, fell in love with it, and never looked back. She has shared her life with many diverse breeds and has competed in breed and obedience to the UDX level with Collies and Pugs. She is an AKC Canine Good Citizen and STAR Puppy evaluator, and is the author of several dog training articles and "The Everything Dog Obedience Book".