Starting as early as 4 months of age your puppy can enroll in the Safari Dogs Boot Camp training regimen. Boot Camp training is most effective when 3 weeks long. We charge $175/day. For puppies we suggest 2-3 weeks at 4-5 months of age to give the puppy a basic education of commands and manners. Later when the puppy is 7-9 months we suggest another 2-3 weeks to advance the commands. At this more mature age we can have much higher expectations than when the puppy was 4 months old. For adult dogs who have not been trained we suggest 3-4 weeks at one time. Boot camp is $175 per day for 3 weeks of continuous stay at our home near Denton, Texas.
The lessons are initially taught with positive motivation. Once the dog understands commands, plus assumed behaviors, we then advance to full off leash expectations. We add consequence of loss of rewards for poor choices, or, directly show the dog how to behave. Good choices have us continue to reward with food, toys, attention & freedom.
Watch this video to see our some of our training methods. We use majority positive motivation with food and praise. We also physically stop/control/teach with our hands/leash/collar. Our method is simple:
1) Reward the good choices.
2) Ignore or physically teach the dog to avoid bad choices.
Commands & Assumed Behaviors:
- Be calm in the crate
- Potty outside
- Heel on the left/no pulling on the leash. (This video shows a puppy at the start of training.).
- “Come”, even when other things are really distracting
- “Leave it”, learning to ignore the “leave it” object. See this video of a beginner dog learning to “leave it”. This advanced “Leave It” video shows a dog learning to avoid multiple distractions.
- Sit & stay
- Lay down & stay
- Lay down & stay with distractions
- Go to bed & stay in the living room. This video shows how we first teach the bed stay. Then, watch this advanced dog doing their “bed stays”.
- No mouthing
- No jumping up and sit for attention. Here’s one method we use to stop a dog from jumping up.
- Self control
- No barking, learn to self soothe
- Wait politely at doors
- Follow off leash, no running off.
- Watch this video of a dog who trained with us for three weeks.
All dogs in training live the majority of their day in the house and play with friendly dogs in our well-fenced play yards.
We also take your dog out in public for on leash training with distraction. At home we train mostly off leash. Each dogs works several hours each day with a trainer and still has lots of play time with other dogs. Many dogs need 3-4 weeks to develop their new skills.
In-home private lessons for new clients are $250. Follow-up lessons are $150. Families with any age puppy or dog can benefit.
Watch these videos for samples of our trained dogs:
- Remy – 5 month old Bichon, 10 days of Boot Camp
- Midori – 4 month old Cavapoo, 9 days of Boot Camp
- Daisy – 9 month old Mini Aussie, 6 days of Boot Camp
- Apollo – 6 month old Goldendoodle, 2 weeks Boot Camp
- Honey – 5 month old Goldendoodle, 2 weeks Boot Camp
- Bear – 1 year old Goldendoodle, 3 week Boot Camp
- Nema – 6 month old Beagle, 7 days of Boot Camp
- Gryffin – down stay with bouncing ball distraction
