Puppy Training FAQ
What’s the youngest age puppy I can bring to the Zoom Room?
You can start bringing your puppy to the Zoom Room at eight weeks old. He must already have his first round of vaccinations. Please remember to bring a copy of his records from your veterinarian. All puppies attending the Zoom Room must have vaccinations commensurate with their age, and proof will always be required.
If you’d like to learn more about selecting the right age for bringing your puppy to puppy classes, please read what the experts have to say in our article on puppy socialization.
My puppy doesn’t have all his shots? Isn’t that dangerous?
We have created safety and sanitation protocols at the Zoom Room that meet and exceed all industry standards, specifically to foster a safe, healthful environment for all of our guests, especially the wee ones who have yet to have all their shots. We take every imaginable precaution for the health and safety of your puppy. These precautions include:
- Every adult dog that attends the Zoom Room is fully vaccinated. We require written proof from all owners.
- The entire facility and all equipment is thoroughly sanitized with veterinary-grade disinfectants immediately prior to all puppy classes.
- All puppies enrolled in Puppy Classes or attending Puppy Agility Prep are required to have verified vaccinations commensurate with age.
- We regularly swab and test our floors, equipment and reception area surfaces to test bacterial loads, conforming to the most exacting standards. You simply will not find this attention to detail in any other training facility. Visit us between classes and you’ll think you’re on the set of C.S.I.
- We require that puppies who attend the Zoom Room do not visit dog parks or dog day cares until they have received full vaccinations.
- Your puppy is supervised at all times by a qualified dog trainer.
- And we do all of this because we firmly believe that early socialization is critical to the healthy, happy development of your puppy. We want your puppy to come Zoom with us – so we pull out all stops to make it as safe as possible for him to do so.
Have all the other dogs at the Zoom Room had their shots?
Yes. We insist upon it and verify each dog’s veterinary records.
What kinds of puppy classes do you offer?
Puppies between the ages of eight weeks and sixteen weeks can attend Puppy Preschool. Puppies between the ages of two months and eight months can attend Puppy Agility. Puppies of any age can also sign up for Private Puppy Training Lessons.
What’s Puppy Agility? It sounds fun.
Right you are. Puppy Agility is a chance to socialize your puppy with other puppies, all under the watchful eye of a professional dog trainer, while you and your puppy explore our puppy-sized agility equipment and confidence-building course. There are toys and treats and fun stuff all around the Zoom Room, but we’re pretty sure your puppy will be far too busy making new friends to notice our other amenities. It’s also a great opportunity for scheduling play dates with all your puppy’s pals.
My vet says my puppy is too young for agility training.
Our Puppy Agility program is specially designed to focus on balance, coordination and improved communication between you and your puppy. Furthermore, we use custom-designed agility equipment that cannot be found elsewhere; this special equipment allows us to adjust heights. Your puppy will enjoy a fun, safe, low impact form of agility training. We do not recommend serious agility training until your dog has the requisite mental and physical development, which typically begins at one year old. But when he’s still a puppy you can lay down the foundation for excellent agility training with low jumps and the emphasis we place on coordination and communication.
Why is it so important to socialize a puppy?
Early socialization exposes your puppy to a variety of different enrichment experiences at critical periods in his development. This is extremely important to prevent aggression and fear-based behavior problems, with regard to both humans and other dogs, later in his life. Read more about the benefits of early puppy socialization.
Can’t I just take him to the dog park?
Before he’s had all of his shots, it is absolutely not safe to bring your puppy to a dog park or to socialize with strange dogs in any uncontrolled environment. As important as early socialization is, it’s just not safe to put his health in jeopardy. It is also extremely important that your puppy’s first experiences with other dogs be positive ones. Just as exposing your puppy to illness is dangerous, it is highly deleterious to your puppy’s later development to expose him to aggressive dogs, especially those not under their owner’s control. At the Zoom Room, all dogs are individually and professionally screened for aggression and their vaccination records checked. All interactions are supervised by professional dog trainers. For the mental and physical well-being of your puppy now and later in life there is simply no comparison to the dog park.
Can you help me housebreak my puppy?
Yes. Puppy Preschool includes instruction on how to implement a housebreaking plan. But no, we don’t do housecalls if that’s what you were wondering…
How about crate training? Or getting him to stop chewing my shoes?
Yes, all of that and more. Puppy Preschool includes crate training as well as managing unwanted behaviors such as nipping, biting, chewing, barking and other common complaints.
