Building Confidence

August 11 – September 15, 2022
Thursdays at 5:30 p.m.

Instructor: Lesley Gurule

Building Confidence is a beginner to intermediate course for guardians who would like to help their dogs build confidence when interacting with the world around them. This class will focus on skills for the dogs, confidence building games and team building exercises for dogs and people. We will concentrate on overcoming fears, such as new environments, objects and noises. This is not a manners class and does not require any previous training. We will use a combination of exploring, games and play to help your dog learn how to feel safer when exposed to unfamiliar stimuli. We will help your dog think and make choices and use his or her body effectively. This is an excellent start for under-socialized, fearful, and “shut down” dogs.

While some of the exercises covered can be used to help introduce a wary dog to strangers, this class is not designed for dogs with known stranger issues. Dogs who are fearful of strangers are welcome to attend, however, they will also benefit from our Stranger Issues workshop.

Reactive dogs are welcome to attend this class with permission from the instructor after the dogs have received training, such as in our Managing a Reactive Dog class, which is specifically designed to better manage reactivity. Guardians with unprepared reactive dogs may not be able to complete this class.

All 6 classes are for dogs and people.  

6 session class in the first half of Smoky’s Training Center