I am so happy to introduce this “Puppy Series” of training DVDs. It was a labor of love – a year in the making – with many hours of planning, video capture and editing. The DVD series is best characterized by the term “filmed before a live audience”. This means that all the episodes in the series were done with planning in mind, but what you see is what actually happened in each session. Nothing with the puppy was rehearsed or redone.
The series starts (and features) an 8-week old puppy. You are able to following her training all the way until she reaches 12 months old. In that timeframe, the puppy learns and becomes proficient at all the skills necessary to earn an AKC Novice Obedience title (“CD”) and/or an AKC Novice Rally title (“RN”).
Interspersed with the featured puppy, I have shown several other dogs going through the process of learning – which of course is often very different from dog to dog. I have put together weekly and monthly lesson plans to follow along in the training progression.
Viewing one of these DVDs is like going to a weekly training class – but you get to do it in the comfort of your home. Not only that, with the DVD in hand, you can replay training sessions for those exercises that might be more difficult for you and your dog to master. That’s something that you can’t do once you leave a training class. The DVDs allow you to digest lesson information at your own pace – and gives you a reference source to come back to for “consultation.”
Attending weekly classes with a puppy from 8 weeks to 52 weeks old could be considered a relatively expensive undertaking. Not only is there a cost of the classes, but the classes are generally only offered at specific timeframes (which may or may not work for you). In addition, there is your time, effort and gas required to get to training facilities that might offer the class you need. By offering this DVD series, I’ve hopefully found a very attractive (and economical) alternative to “in-person” training. Not only that, the series provides a very valuable resource for going back to when you run into problems or find that you can’t remember what was said or done in a training hall environment with other dogs.
I hope you enjoy watching the progression of the puppy in this series – and that you find the DVDs a great resource and training “manual” for your efforts.