Are you interested in a German Shepherd puppy, but want it started on its “dog training” journey before bringing it home? 

While some of our customers are eager to bring their puppy home as young as possible, many families prefer to include some preliminary dog training. When purchasing one of our German Shepherd puppies, will you be tackling potty training and basic obedience on your own? Or, are you looking for basic dog training to have been started before bringing your puppy home? Both options are available. Some families are ready and able to lay that foundation themselves. For others, it makes sense to get some help in readying their puppy to make the transition from our home to yours. Whichever option makes more sense, we can help. 

Dog Training Options

Puppy Boot Camp

Our puppy boot camp has two options from which to choose. Option one in our puppy boot camp is a 4 week training. Option two is a full eight weeks. Both training options start at 6 weeks of age.

Rather than going home at 8 weeks, we keep your puppy with us until either 10 or 14 weeks of age. During these weeks your puppy will be introduced to training designed to smooth your puppy’s transition from our home to yours. A well-trained puppy is a happy puppy. And a happy puppy makes for a happy owner.

What to expect from our puppy boot camp training?

Phase 1 of our puppy boot camp:

As early as possible, its helpful to name you puppy. Early on in our puppy boot camp, we introduce your puppy to the name you choose. In our boot camp, your puppy will be introduced to sit, down, as well as basic leash training. A big emphasis in our puppy boot camp is working on loose leash training. Our goal is for your puppy to be well on its way to walking beside the trainer without excessive pulling. Typically, most puppies will make great progress. Working on loose leash walking will be a big emphasis of our puppy boot camp. Phase II of our puppy boot camp continues what we start in phase I.

We additionally introduce your puppy to the heel command, showing your puppy the proper place to walk is on the left side of the person. Puppies are additionally introduced to a crate. Many of our customers elect not to use a crate after bringing their puppy home. Nevertheless, crate training can be a useful tool in potty training. The puppy naturally won’t want to pee or poop where it sleeps. So crate training is working with nature. 

Phase 1 training should be considered introductory training— nothing more. By 10 weeks of age most puppies are just barely learning commands. Very few will demonstrate proficiency. When the full 60 days is not possible, this short stint introducing manners to your puppy can be a helpful transition from our home to yours. This initial step where we start with thirty days of training by no means gets puppy across the finish line in its dog training journey. Not at all! Think of this like starting the marathon rather than the finish line. Your puppy should be making age related progress in these areas. In addition to starting these basic aspects of obedience training, your puppy will come into our home with the goal of socialization.

Bringing your puppy into our home continues the socialization process (We begin all our puppies with early neurological stimulation within a day or two of birth. The socialization in our puppy training; then, is a continuation of that process we begin at birth).

Phase 2 of our puppy boot camp:

Phase 2 of our puppy boot camp continues strengthening your puppy’s name recognition, loose leash walking, reinforcing the walk beside the person. Puppy obedience in sit, stay, crate training, potty training is also continued.

During this second phase, distractions are added to leash training. Depending on the weather and time of year, we may take puppies to Petco, Lowes, sometimes Home Depot. Lowes can be a great place to work on distractions. Forklifts and strangers wanting to pet the puppy will tax even the most obedient puppy. 

What our puppy boot camp is not.

Our puppy boot camp introduces your puppy to the concepts listed above. The puppy is not done learning these concepts. If you put your puppy in a sit, expect it to break the sit when you walk away. Various puppies will progress at different levels— yet one thing will be true, the puppy boot camp is introductory. Whether you plan on picking up where we leave off or continuing with a local trainer when your puppy comes home, your puppy’s training journey has just begun. At just a few months of age, this introductory training is just the start of the journey. The boot camp does not deliver a polished “obedience dog” all wrapped up in a 14 week old German Shepherd puppy whose ears may not yet even be fully up. Our boot camp is not service dog or therapy dog training. Such training typically requires a year or two of intensive training and will typically start at $20,000 (twenty thousand USd).

Trust us with your puppy and we’ll be spending hours with your puppy. We’ll be emphasizing loose leash walking, the sit command, down and potty training. If you have made it this far, we’d love to answer questions you might have. Blessings and we look forward to speaking in person. 

Custom dog training options

Some families will want more work than is available through our “puppy boot camp” options. For these families, custom training options can be available on a case by case scenario. At times, we can do an additional “third” month of puppy training. In other cases, we recommend the customer takes their puppy home at the end of puppy boot camp phase two, then return after 7-8 months for additional training. How we proceed with custom dog training options will often be determined by the level of training a family might be wanting. Are you primarily looking for a good family protection dog? Or, is your end goal a trained guard dog that is capable of doing bite work and will guard and bite on command. Once these kinds of questions get answered, we can map out a plan for custom dog training options.

Puppy Training Cost

Puppy Boot Camp Phase 1: $1500

Puppy Boot Camp Phases 1 and 2 combined: $2800

Our dog training goals during puppy training.

Our main focus in our puppy boot camp phases is to give your puppy the ability to better adapt to his or her new home and family.  Our dog training options give your puppy a jump start in  learning good manners. This goes a long ways towards setting the stage for a smooth transition from our home to yours. We don’t bring in employees to work with your puppy. A big part of our joy in raising working line German Shepherds is the time we get to spend with them as dog trainers. We typically limit ourselves to not more than three or four puppies at a time. we bring puppies into our home. They snuggle with us in the evening as we watch the news. They curl up at our feet under the table while we sit around the table. So if you are thinking of adding dog training when purchasing one of our working line German Shepherd puppies for sale, let us know early. This can help us get you on our dog training list. 

*** Our puppy boot camp ought to be understood as introductory. Your puppy will have learned basic obedience skills, but these are skills you will continue teaching and reinforcing when your puppy comes to your home. Many families will choose to continue with additional training as their puppy grows older. This is especially true for families interested in protection training. This sort of puppy training is typically not started even in its most basic forms until your puppy is 6-12 months of age.