Puppy School Portsmouth

25/04/2025

New chews have arrived from a different supplier for our 'Welcome to Class' present for our new learners starting their courses at Milton Village Hall next week. We can't wait to meet you - and in the meantime, the very cheeky Tallulah has appointed herself Head of Quality Control. 🐶🐾😂

25/04/2025

✨ 121 Success Story - Mid-point Progress Update✨

A bit of a different post to usual with our 121 successes, as we're not quite finished with our package of 3 sessions. We’re halfway through our training journey with the lovely Boycie, and what a transformation we’re starting to see already!

Our journey of working together has really only just began but when I met him last week, Boycie was finding walks really overwhelming — pulling on the lead, lunging toward dogs and people, and going full collie-mode by freezing and creeping toward dogs in the distance. Getting his attention back in those moments? Super tough, even with high-value treats.

But… fast forward just one week, and things are really starting to shift. We’ve been building more engagement on walks through pattern games and making check-ins with his owners PAY in really cool ways, helping Boycie feel more connected to his handler even when the world is distracting. He’s starting to look back for guidance when he spots another dog instead of locking on and dropping to the ground. Lead walking is slowly becoming calmer and more thoughtful, and we’re seeing fewer lunges and more check-ins. Recall is still a work in progress (especially when other dogs are around), but we have a plan to help him do brilliantly in situations he can cope. We’re now layering in structured distractions and confidence‑building games to help bridge that gap to those situations where there is more going on.

Boycie’s definitely at that teenage, over-threshold, “I HAVE to say hi but don't really know how to manage these emotions!!?!" and his progress is a credit to the commitment and patience of his lovely humans. Keep going, team Boycie! You’re doing all the right things, and it’s paying off 👏🐶 can't wait for our next session.

25/04/2025

🎓🐾 Huge congratulations to our Bronze Skills Graduation group, Frank, Hadley, and Lincoln (who was unable to attend graduation class)! 🐶✨

What a great 6 weeks we've had on this course — full of laughs, learning, and some classic teenage dog antics! You've all worked so hard, stayed patient, and shown real commitment to your pups through the wobbly phases. Well done for sticking with it — your progress has been incredible, and it’s been such a joy to watch you all grow together. We’re so proud of you! 💪🐕

19/04/2025

Taking a little Easter break!🐣 Hope you all have a lovely weekend. We’ll be back on Tuesday!

16/04/2025

Did you know that when you sign up to Puppy School, you get the Puppy School manual posted straight to you at no extra cost!

The Puppy School manual is your step-by-step guide to everything you need to know about Puppy School. It contains a week-by-week recap of everything covered in class (so you don't have to worry about making notes while you're trying to listen to your instructor), alongside advice on socialisation, puppy play, nutrition, and loads more. Not only that, but it's written by bestselling author and Clinical Animal Behaviourist Gwen Bailey, so you know that all the information in there is reliable, trustworthy, and founded in the latest canine behavioural science.

Get yours today by signing up your puppy to our accredited, proven, puppy classes. Find your nearest tutor here: https://www.puppyschool.co.uk/find-a-class 🐾

15/04/2025

Does anyone want a cat tunnel for their cat/puppy? Available for free for collection Liss Road, Southsea. Approximately 80cm by 30cm.

Livie 🐾

10/04/2025

10/04/2025

🐾🐶 We post about our classes all the time, but did you know that we also do private training sessions? 🐶🐾

Last week, I had the absolute pleasure of having a 121 session with the gorgeous George Fredrick James... a big name for a small little Yorkshire Terrier puppy. His mum is absolutely nailing all the puppy training with this lil guy, but the one thing that she couldn't quite crack was having nights without him crying.

This is a very, very common problem for puppy parents, and it is understandable why. Imagine getting to sleep in a wonderful, cosy pile of your doggy mum, brothers, and sisters in a place that you are used to for the first 2-3months of your life and then SUDDENLY you are in a new house with all the unfamiliar sights, smells, and noises. I don't know about you, but I'd be pretty upset too and I would be super grateful if my human sought some advice about helping me sleep through the night!

To start improving things for George and his mum, we started by having a chat about what is possible and what the long term aims are. We came up with a plan about how we were going to help him feel more comfortable and confident about his sleeping arrangements by changing his current set up, and doing some proactive crate games during the day. We also have some steps to take in the future when he has even more success overnight and by starting some separation innoculation training during the day to help with sometimes during the day that he has to be alone.

My favourite moment was when George, who previously freaked out when asked to go in his crate actually took himself back to it to wait for more treats when we tried to move into the other room... and he looked super happy with himself whilst he was in the crate too! It was a delight to work with George and his mum. Can't wait to see you in class in a few week's time.

🐾🐶 Have you got a training issues that you'd like help with in a private session? Get in touch to see how we can help! 🐶🐾

08/04/2025

Finally, a big welcome back to our stunning Silver Skills class! We have loved having you in class again and are already super impressed by your talent. Clearly being super clever is serious business, judging by their faces in these photos 🐶🐶🐶

08/04/2025

And a whole bunch of new faces to say hi to in our Bronze Skills class too! It has been awesome to get to know these fun guys n' gals since they've joined. 😁😁

08/04/2025

Welcome to class to the gorgeous new pups in our puppy class! How gorgeous are they!? 😍😍😍😍

25/03/2025

Big congratulations to Mabel, Tavish, Sidney, and Tallulah for passing their Bronze Skills course! 🏅🐶 Tallulah wanted to also say a huge thanks to our class assistant Rob for all his help and asked me to reward his help this semester with a special assistant certificate and rosette. Well done, team! 🎉🐾

25/03/2025

Graduation day for our clever puppies yesterday! 🎓🐶 Huge well done to Mikey, Lottie, Zeus, and Nala (and Vinnie and Molly who were unable to attend last night) for smashing their 6 week course.

25/03/2025

Hi, Livie here. 👋

I met the gorgeous Gigi at the Stray Dog Kennels. When I met her, she was such a sweetheart, who wanted nothing more than cuddles and a fuss, and it was horrible to see her without a home of her own. Now, she and the other dog in the post are needing urgent surgery. The charity who is helping to find her a home is raising money for their potentially life-saving procedures. If you can spare anything, please consider donating! Thank you 🐾

We need your help🥹

Sadly our lovely Gigi in our care has been drinking excessively and after a vet visit, she’s been rushed into emergency surgery for Pyometra. This is common in unspayed dogs and sadly it means she has to have her uterus removed.

Poor Gigi was found as a stray which is sad enough, and we don’t know how long she’s been in pain for on her own.

With poor timing, we also have our recently rehomed Poppet in need of our help. Poppet was rehomed with Lola, with her family knowing she had some health concerns. These wonderful people have been giving an amazing life to them both and unfortunately yesterday, Poppet lost use of her back legs. She is in surgery today to see what they can do but we don’t want her family to be burdened with the costs when they already did so much by giving her a home.

Times like this, we really need your help, to make sure we can provide dogs in our care medical help.

Even if you can spare £1, if all of you did that, it would help! And if you can’t please share, so we can get these girls back to right 💗

Facebook wouldn’t allow us to select a fundraiser on here so we have created a link below

https://www.paypal.com/donate/?hosted_button_id=X58RDD7C6YJS4

Update- Poppets surgery alone is estimated at £7500