# Puppy Class for Toy Poodle



## Tiny Poodles (Jun 20, 2013)

Your concern is appropriate. Being knocked around and tackled by bigger puppies could hurt him and possibly ruin him for other dogs for life. I am fortunate in that a place near me offers small dog obedience. If I had to take a puppy class I would find one that just happened to have only small dogs signed up for it!


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## BentleysMum (May 22, 2016)

At one of the puppy class, the trainer has the small dogs on one side of the fence and the mid-big dogs in another. But in that session, there was only 1 small dog and the other 6 were big dogs. Which kind of defeated the purpose of socializing as he was the only one in the small section with his owner. During playtime he would just sit on the other side of the fence and watch the other dogs play.


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## fjm (Jun 4, 2010)

I tried two puppy classes with mine, both with much larger puppies. Neither allowed free play between the puppies, although one had short sessions of play between pairs of carefully matched pups. One was a drop in class, where you never knew who else would be there from one week to the next, and I stopped going because of an extremely stupid woman who repeatedly let go of her lab pup's lead leaving him to caroom around the hall bouncing off people and running over puppies. The other was calm, controlled, only 6 or 7 other puppies, and a lovely relaxed place for my dogs to learn that being around other dogs and humans was a pleasant experience (there was a table loaded with sausage, cheese, chicken, chew toys, etc, etc - pure heaven as far as my pups were concerned!). Their real dog socialisation came from lots and lots of interaction with kind, well mannered adult dogs, though. I was lucky enough to have two lovely Spinones next door who self handicapped to play beautifully with my tiny puppies, and knew plenty of other dogs who could be relied upon to teach them good manners without frightening them.

I strongly believe that setting a mixed crowd of pups loose to play together without any real control is a recipe for bullying, rather than education. At the same time a really good puppy class is a brilliant way of teaching pups to be relaxed and polite around other dogs, and of supporting puppy owners through those first often difficult weeks. It really is worth hunting (and travelling) for a class that understands the needs of toy pups.


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## Tiny Poodles (Jun 20, 2013)

BentleysMum said:


> At one of the puppy class, the trainer has the small dogs on one side of the fence and the mid-big dogs in another. But in that session, there was only 1 small dog and the other 6 were big dogs. Which kind of defeated the purpose of socializing as he was the only one in the small section with his owner. During playtime he would just sit on the other side of the fence and watch the other dogs play.



Well that is better than being hurt or traumatized! Maybe you will get lucky and there will be other small dogs next time.


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## lily cd re (Jul 23, 2012)

At my club we run certain beginner classes as designated puppy only classes and the person who teaches those is very good at reading intentions and manages the social experiences very carefully. At our other beginner classes there may be adolescent or adult dogs and perhaps puppies or a mix of all of those. My last 8 week beginner class had just two people with puppies that were both about 5 months old when we started, one was a Cavalier and the other a golden. The golden is a really rambunctious girl and the CKCS is a little boy who will be a service dog for his mom who has multiple sclerosis. His main jobs will be to pick things up for her when she drops them. She is having some issues with balance and often drops things because she has phases where she has low feeling in her hands.

Normally I would have included puppy play breaks into our classes, but for this mix that just wasn't going to work. The risk of having the CKCS end up being hurt and/or becoming afraid of larger dogs was too great. I did make sure as they progressed that I allowed them to be close to each other while moving and for sits and downs. Although it wasn't ideal, I still think both of the puppies benefited from being around each other.

My real point is that the instructor of the class should have the knowledge to read the situation and determine how to keep everybody safe while also affording them the best opportunity to learn and benefit from the experience of the class. I truly believe that early social experience with other puppies is very important, but also has to be safe and positive. I would talk to the instructor about your concerns and make sure you feel comfortable about that person's views and what they tell you they will do to make the class both worthwhile and safe.


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## glorybeecosta (Nov 11, 2014)

I never allowed my girls around large puppy's even now. The dogs they are around is at the most 8 pounds and very laid back dogs.


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## BentleysMum (May 22, 2016)

Ooooo I'm glad i wasn't being over protective. Guess I will keep looking until I find the right class/trainer. 

Lily CD re, I wish I lived in your area! Would love to sign up for your classes!

One of the classes I sat in on, the trainer had a lot of positive reviews, and I was really hoping she'd be the one I go with. But half of the class she was busy dealing with one high strung puppy, the other 5 just stood around watching. Until finally her assistant stepped in and did a few who can sit or down the longest, who can release from their down/sit the fastest competitions with them to kill time. Then, during the mini play times, one Boston terrier and another shepherd puppy was having a lot of fun chasing and playing with each other, but this one doodle would always be humping the Boston while it was playing with the shepherd. It happened at least 4 or 5 times within that hour, but each time all the owners and trainer just stood there and watch and the owner just kind of giggled and made an I'm embarrassed face. I only saw the trainer intervene once during the play and it was when two of the dogs started to get pretty aggressive towards each other, they had to pull the two apart. They were both big dogs so no biggie, but had it been a big dog vs a small dog, might not have gone so well.


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## vegas (Jul 5, 2014)

With my toy puppy DD I didn't try a puppy socialization class. Instead we took two puppy obedience classes, so we met two groups of dogs on different nights of the week. Most of the other dogs were pretty big, and because they were puppies and untrained, some of them pulled at their leashes and lunged at DD. They scared DD at first, but after the first class she was more comfortable. Fortunately, because these were obedience classes rather than social occasions, the dogs were being controlled most of the time. After the first class, I stopped arriving early, which is when most of the lunging behavior occurred. I would arrive with DD after the instructor had everyone in a circle and was inspecting the choke collars. (DD didn't use a choke collar, so we didn't need inspection.) Once class started, there was no more lunging behavior, because the owners were working hard at controlling their dogs. After class, we lingered briefly and socialized only when another dog seemed friendly and unthreatening. Some of the big dogs were quite nice. So overall I think it was a good experience for DD. She is now wary of big dogs but not terrified.


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