
Puppy Zen – Virtual Puppy School
There is a critical time in a puppy’s life called the Formative Period, where training is essential as they can learn skills and social behaviours quickly and easily. Miss it, and you could have a lifetime of problem behaviours. Make the most of it, and you will have a happy lifelong bond with your pup.
My online Puppy School is designed to teach you everything you need to know about raising and training a puppy! While traditional puppy schools are fantastic for socialisation, there’s little opportunity for learning with all that fun and chaos of multiple pups in a room together.
Whether your pup is 8 weeks or 20 weeks, this school will be critical in establishing training foundations for life. Learn to train your pup the right way (in a way your pup actually understands!) and set yourself up for a relaxed, enjoyable and stress-free life with your new pup.
Cost $75/month (equates to $18.75/week).
This is a monthly subscription so you will be charged monthly, you can unsubscribe at any time.

Unit 1: Overview
- Choosing the right breed and individual puppy
- Preparing for your pup’s arrival & bringing them home
- Learning about the critical Formative Period of 3 – 16 weeks
- Learning State (your pup must be in it to learn)
- Shared Language (how you and your pup speak to each other)
- Essential rules to set up a successful training session
- Key training tools & techniques
- Puppy temperament test
Units 2 – 6: Foundations
- House training
- Basic commands & creating a shared language
- Destructive behaviour
- Biting, nipping & resource guarding
- Vocalisation (whining & barking)
- How to avoid separation distress issues
- Socialisation (the most important thing!) and work-around options for the limited socialisation opportunities while your pup is in its vaccination period
- Building resilience to noise, novelty and change to prevent phobias developing
- Enrichment, play and exercise options
- Creating a tight bond with your pup


Units 7 – 10: Integrating & Proofing
- Hard-wire the behaviours you’ve taught your pup through lots of practise as they become older and more externally focused
- Extend your training into increasingly complex and distracting environments (when your pup’s ears seem to switch off)
- Ensure all your commands work at home AND out and about
- Cross-foster with other species, such as cats, chickens & stock animals
- Identify some common training mistakes and how to fix them
- Desensitise your pup to more new experiences and stimuli
- Proper socialisation when your pup is out of the vaccination period
- Proof & fade the clicker so you no longer rely on it!
Units 11 – 15: Troubleshooting
Troubleshooting your unique experience – every pup is different! E.g:
- Fearfulness
- Lead-walking
- Hyper-excitability
- Shaping calm behaviour & learning state
- Recall
- Dog sociability
- Nipping
- Jumping up
- Destructive behaviour
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Ensure your commands are working at all times
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Fade your training tools so you’re no longer reliant on clicker and food rewards to get the behaviour you want from your pup

Now more than ever it’s critical you lay down these essential foundations.
Set yourself up for a happy, well-behaved and well-bonded dog for life!
Throughout the Virtual Puppy School videos, you’ll watch Mark raising two border collie puppies so you can see what Mark does when to raise a happy, bonded, stable pup.
What you will get:
- Access to exclusive content (members only)
- Step by step guide per week
- Access to Mark’s Senior Dog Trainers to ask questions as you go
- Weekly Facebook Live sessions to ask Mark questions and get responses directly in real time
Who is this for?
- Puppy owners (pups up to 5 months of age). Older pups should join our Virtual School for Teenage Pups
- Puppy school trainers wishing to extend their knowledge
- Prospective owners preparing for a new pup
- Anyone who loves dogs and wishes to extend their knowledge (puppies not compulsory!)