Your puppy starts to learn from the first moment he or she arrives in your home. The experiences he has from this early age are vital for shaping his behaviour in the future.

Our Puppy Club is designed to help you give your puppy the best possible start through socialisation with people and other puppies, early stage training and, if this is your first dog, helping you to understand all the facets of dog ownership.

Your puppy can attend the course from the time he has his first injection. Run by our behavioural expert Jo Scott and held at the Verwood surgery, the club runs over the course of four weeks with one session per week and covers:

Once you have completed Puppy Club you may wish to move on into further dog training classes or, in the future, dog agility.

• How your dog learns - understanding this is important in learning to train your dog at home.
• Socialisation - learning to interact with other people and dogs will help your puppy enormously as he or she grows up.
• Basic training - teaching puppy to sit, lie down, come to you and stop teething on your hands lay down the basics for a well behaved dog and a less painful puppyhood!
• Feeding and nutrition - just like us, it's quite amazing the effects that can be achieved through good diet.
• Health maintenance - how to ensure that your dog maintains his or her health, is protected against parasites and disease and prevent teeth problems.
• Legal aspects - what you must and must not do to stay within the law and abide by your responsibilities as a dog owner when your dog is outside your home.
• The future - how to prevent any behaviours becoming a problem in the future.

Once you have completed Puppy Club you may wish to move on into further dog training classes or, in the future, dog agility.