Life-Skills and Obedience
Not sure which class is best for you?
Or maybe you want to work on something specific or prefer to train from the comfort of your own home!
We offer Open Session classes which allow casual attendance to either assess which structured course suits you best, work on a specific skill or just attend group classes with a less committed approach. Our Open Session classes run Thursday’s and Saturday’s on a fortnightly schedule. You can either attend as you would like on a casual basis or buy a package to book in for multiple dates. If you prefer a structured weekly class then see below for more information on what you will achieve in those classes.
Still not sure what you needs?
We also offer short private appointments to get started with some techniques, receive and assessment and personalised guidance to the best course of action to achieve your goals.
Level 1
Life-Skills and Obedience
Our Level 1 Life Skills and Obedience Course is the perfect starting point for building a strong foundation of good manners and essential skills for your dog. Designed for beginners, this course focuses on teaching basic obedience and practical life skills that will make your dog a well-behaved and enjoyable companion at home and in public.
Throughout the course, your dog will learn key commands such as “sit,” “stay,” “come,” and “leave it,” along with loose-leash walking and polite social behaviours. We also address common challenges like jumping, barking, and pulling on the leash, helping to set your dog up for success in everyday situations.
The course is held in a supportive group environment, allowing your dog to practice these skills around other dogs and people, improving their focus and confidence in social settings. Our experienced trainers use positive reinforcement methods to ensure your dog learns in a fun and encouraging way.
Whether you’re starting fresh with a puppy or looking to refine the basics with an older dog, this course is an excellent way to strengthen your bond and develop reliable communication. Enroll in our Level 1 Life Skills and Obedience Course today and take the first step toward a happy, well-trained companion!
During these classes, your dog will learn to:
- Make eye contact with you
- Walk on a loose lead
- Come when called
- Sit for greetings
- Sit, lie down and stand on cue
- Leave it
- Handling skills for grooming and vet visits
- Seperation Tolerance
- Self-Control Skills
- Muzzle Training
- Targetting
- Wait for food and doorways
- Stay
You will also learn about canine body language, environmental enrichment, life rewards, on lead manners around other dogs, using a clicker, and mat training. We will include some tricks to train too!
Level 2
Life-Skills and Obedience
This course is designed to refine some of the basic exercises from Level 1. Level 2 will focus on verbal and hand cues, and getting your dog to improve with duration, distance and distractions.
We will also work on reducing reliance on lures and moving towards more subtle visual or verbal signals instead.
- Recalls with increased distance and distraction
- Commands such as settle, mat (go to mat) and stay
- Settling after play
- Walking close in the heel position for passing dogs and people
- Walking backwards
- Emergency stop
- Increasing reliability and consistency with skills learnt in Level One Obedience
- and more
We will also teach your dog to follow targets and perform tricks. Dogs will learn to walk and perform at markers, handle and accept restraint, first aid, tolerance to separation and car safety. You will be finding out about how dogs learn and communicate, leadership and trouble-shooting skills.
Level 3
Life-Skills and Obedience
This course is based around the previous levels but with an emphasis on perfecting all behaviours that have been learnt. Your dog will be able to perform for you at home and in the community meaning that you will have a dog you are proud to take out in public.
The goal of these higher levels is to get your dog to a point that their behaviour is more reliable with distractions, distance, duration, better response time and the ability to listen reliably without you needing to rely on using rewards to get them to listen to you. There will also be the option for off-lead or advanced skills at this level.
In this class you will receive a logbook that your trainers will guide you through and mark off reliability of skills at a higher standard rather than one test at the end of the course.
Level 4
Life-Skills and Obedience
Our Level 4 Obedience is our final obedience course we offer and at completion you become one of our ABT Community Canines! You join our Adventure Class where we take the obedience and life skills you have learnt in previous levels and apply them into the real world at the highest level!
You will have another logbook to mark off where we are focusing on reliability of cues and focus on you when asked. Level 4 Obedience is where we tidy up and refine skills to help your dog to be well-mannered in public settings. An additional location you will visit that our Adventure Class does not is a vet clinic where we will continue to condition your dog to vet handling.
Are you looking for a space that genuinely cares about the wellbeing and progress of your dog?
We’d love to hear from you and see how we can help.
We will work on: