How We Keep Puppies Safe in Puppy Classes at The Dog School, Vancouver.

The Dog School follows the statement by The American Veterinary Society of Animal Behavior. They believe that it should be the standard of care for puppies to receive socialization before puppies are fully vaccinated so long as the environment is safe and has risk-mitigation strategies in place.

Read below to learn how The Dog School puts safety first for puppies.

Firstly, why does your puppy need puppy classes?

Puppies benefit greatly from early socialization during the 8-16 week-old period. Socialization doesn't just mean play, in fact, it doesn't even mean mostly play! Socialization really means:

• The opportunity to explore new sights, sounds and surfaces

• Novel experiences like car rides and new environments

• Neutrality around new people and other dogs

• Introductions to everyday equipment like leashes, harnesses and collars

• Establishing routines for grooming, body handling and alone-time training

• Building a bond between puppy and person
  

Socialization is a critical part of puppy development and it is so much fun when you get it right!

Puppy Vaccine Safety:

There occurs a problem during this early puppy period where puppies who only have one set of vaccines are at a disadvantage as exploring the world has risks of disease. Parvovirus is usually the most concerning for new puppy parents, but there are also other diseases lurking around that your puppy isn't fully vaccinated for yet. It's fair to be cautious during this early puppy period - we don't want to get our puppies sick! But we also have to balance the risk with opportunities to have adequate safe socialization for maximum long-term benefit. The Dog School, your Vancouver-based studio located at 4333 W 10th Ave in West Point Grey (just a few minutes from UBC and Pacific Spirit Park) is a purpose-built dedicated dog training studio. We have created a safe space for puppies with quality non-slip flooring and high quality cleaning protocols that exceed the BC SPCA AnimalKind guidelines. We ensure your puppy is as safe as possible when they enter into our space. Because our studio isn't shared with daycare operations or other community groups, we can maintain consistent, carefully controlled cleaning and disinfection protocols. Combined with our purpose-built training environment, this allows us to take a proactive approach to reducing the risk of infectious disease and keeping puppies as safe as possible. The Dog School follows the Position Statement from the American Veterinary Society of Animal Behavior  (which you can read here:  https://avsab.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/Puppy_Socialization_Position_Statement_Download_-_10-3-14.pdf ). "The American Veterinary Society of Animal Behavior believes that it should be the standard of care for puppies to receive such socialization before they are fully vaccinated" and, "in general, puppies can start puppy socialization classes as early as 7-8 weeks of age. Puppies should receive a minimum of one set of vaccines at least 7 days prior to the first class and a first deworming. They should be kept up-to-date on vaccines throughout the class." At The Dog School, we provide the following risk mitigation strategies:

• We use Prevail to thoroughly disinfect and clean the floor (A vet-grade disinfectant that kills Parvo, Kennel Cough and other harmful pathogens)

• We schedule our puppy sessions as the first class of our work-day to ensure the studio is at its cleanest.

• We screen all our puppies and ensure they have the correct early vaccinations and that these are in line with the AVSAB recommendations.

• We monitor all puppies in class and ensure if anyone has a symptom that could be concerning that we remove them from class

• We have had an independent veterinarian assess our facility and SOPs to ensure we are above the recommended guidelines outlined by AnimalKind

• No puppy may attend a class or play session until an uploaded vaccine record has been reviewed and approved 
  

Risk mitigation is of course a personal decision and if you'd rather come to Puppy Program and not have your puppy interact with other puppies we can accommodate.

We designed our program with safety in mind. Start-Anytime means: If your puppy is under the weather or your family has a previous commitment, the ability to "miss" a week and know you can make it up on another day without having to worry about losing content is one of the most valuable things we offer. We have a generous cancellation policy because we know life happens and that support doesn't come by locking you into something you don't get the benefits from. We also want everyone to be safe. If you or your dog is sick, not having a financial penalty is an important part of making good decisions.

So, The Dog School is clean, great. What are we going to learn?

For all the information you need including specific puppy module content, Visit our Puppy Program Page. You can always count on The Dog School to cover relevant puppy topics in a fun and age-appropriate way. Led by Dr. Sarah Shapiro-Ward & Katrina Per-Carruthers.

So, have a new puppy?

Register today at www.thedogschool.ca/puppy-classes