The most fun of all is always training your dog yourself.  It also meets our philosophy of preferring to "teach you to fish" versus just giving you a fish.  While we love our trainers and the programs we've had, 2008 brings lots of excitement as we welcome both additional trainers and partner with others to bring on great ideas and fresh new classes and workshops.  We loved our old classes but it's time to shake it up a bit!

 

Following is a run down of our fun & fresh versions of teaching you and your dog to speak the same language and be welcome in public.  Keep checking back as there are some really exciting new ideas being discussed as well!

 

Puppy Play is a fantastic developmental class for puppies 5 months and under.  Due to our revolutionary potty training programs, Urban Tails has long been known in Houston as the "puppy people".  It has been a number of years though since we had a puppy kindergarten type of class.  This great new class will add to our offerings by covering basic skills for both of you including starter commands (sit, come, leave-it for example), social play with other puppies, grooming/nutrition basics as well as incorporating mental and physical developmental needs.  As they grow, puppies need to be exposed to lots of different new experiences to hone their mental and physical abilities.  This class will stimulate them to lots of new puppy physical and mental challenges to give them a "paw up" in life.   Our instructor for this course is Catherine Browne, a competitor with over 30 years training and exhibiting under her belt.  Catherine knows puppies and her many accomplishments even include a Westminster win with her Shiba Inu!

 

Beginning Basics is a great new six week class covering essential basic skills and using the fun of clicker training to get there.  You will teach your pooch attention skills (looking at you when requested, waiting for the next request) as well as sit, stay come, heel (walking by your left side), stand (veterinarians/groomers love this one) and speak (which is how you get to "quiet" as well!).  You will also learn relaxation techniques used to increase the bond between you and your pooch and relax them so they are in a great mental place to learn.

 

Social Stars is our AKC Canine Good Citizen Prep Course and a great new class designed to get you and your pooch ready to prove you are social stars in 6 short weeks!  If you already have basic obedience skills under your belt, join us for a fun class that culminates in testing for AKC's coveted CGC certification, showing the world that you are welcome in all social settings, even the most discriminating wine bar!

 

Week 6 will be honest to goodness testing for certification by an AKC Canine Good Citizen Evaluator.  Catherine will be leading this class as well and says she can have you ready to test a week early at the July 2008 Astro Series dog show if you would like to.

 

Any trainer worth their salt will tell you that it is better for you to train your dog than to pay someone else to do so.  It is also a heck of a lot more fun for you to train your dog yourself than to pay us to do it.  Naturally if you pay us to do it we get most of the fun (woohoo!), so we don't mind that at all.

However life these days doesn't always allow for that kind of time or focus.  We know that, we use to have those very same lives.  One of Urban Tails' owners recalls being teased by a friend one day while she was working at home.  While this friend was visiting he noted that on site was a mobile groomer, a handyman, a yard guy, a maid, the groceries were delivered by Peapod and a mechanic came to pick up a car for repair.  This all happened while the friend was there for an hour or so.  Why? Because the owner's billable rate consulting in oil & gas litigation cases was higher than the support crew's billable rate.  Simple economics.  Oh yeah, and the support crew were all much better at what they did than the owner would have been at what they did.  Well, she was pretty good at dog bathing and mowing yards.  The house cleaning thing was problematic . . .

So, the advantage to paying us to do the training is that we can get the skills trained in quickly while you work or play.  We then show you what we did and how to practice and use the skills, without us.  Following are our options on this:

                                         Day Training

Do you have one of those busy schedules or does Woofie just need some sharpening up?  We offer Day Training for dogs that attend daycare or come board for the day with us.  While your dog is here playing, and you are off working hard to earn that kibble, we’ll pull your dog off the floor or tear them away from their TV to practice on those skills you feel you need help on.
 

Are you really, really busy and just don’t know where to start?  Going on vacation and want a more well-mannered dog on your return?  We also offer on site Board and Train programs to get you off the ground.  Your dog can come and live in the lap of luxury in our lofts, complete with color TV.  We’ll do the legwork giving your dog a good foundation of skills to start with.  When you get back we'll have a transfer session with you and your pooch to "give you the keys" so to speak.  You also get two class sessions to practice these skills afterward.

                                    Private Consults
We also offer Private Consults at your house or ours for those who need individualized attention or have serious scheduling conflicts with the class options.  This option works well to start off asocial dogs or help out very shy owners . . .