The UltiMuttessori School for Dogs FAQs

Daycare is a wonderful choice for social dogs to come and play in a fun, enriching environment all day while supervised by professional dog handlers. Day School (sometimes referred to as “day training” ) is a program that allows your dog to come spend the day with us and participate in structure, training and socialization throughout the day. Boarding School is structured like Day School but allows to dog to stay overnight and really focus on his studies.

Puppies take a lot of work! They need attention and guidance. They depend on us, their pet parents and teachers, to be their best friend and advocate to teach them the skills they need to be successful in our human world. Proper early socialization and training are a puppy’s best chance at growing up to be an enjoyable, well-adjusted lifetime companion. The sooner you can teach your puppy basic skills and manners, the better chance you will have an adult dog you can take anywhere.

We prefer to call it a Commitment: a commitment to helping your dog be the best dog that he/she can be and helping you, the pet parent, be the best pet parent you can be. Sometimes, behavior issues are complex and require more intensive training and management (such as with aggressions, separation anxiety, reactivity). However, most often (especially with puppies) much of the success of any training program lies with the pet parents’ commitment and effort to consistently practice and enforce proper behaviors. Just because the dog behaves for a trainer, does not guarantee that the dog will automatically behave appropriately with the owner unless the owner is committed to doing the work involved.

Most dogs, especially puppies, are able to learn foundation obedience skill fairly quickly. Their brains are like little sponges! However, it truly does depend on the individual dog, the breed, as well as the participation of you, the pet parent, in following up with the training at home.

Dogs are always learning! They go thru life experimenting with behaviors and discovering what is fun and rewarding. Simple stated: in a dog’s world, behaviors that are reinforced will continue and behaviors that are not reinforced (or prove to be fruitless) will be abandoned. So, our job is to simply pay attention and make the behaviors we prefer the fun and rewarding ones for the dog. If the behavior is fun and rewarding to the dog, it will be repeated. If it provides nothing good for the dog, the dog will abandon the behavior.

We use a lot of treats in our daycare and training programs. We find that using a wide variety of food for rewarding behaviors is a powerful motivator for most pups! However, we also use a lot of other rewards with our students as well. This can include food, toys, treats, praise, petting, play, and attention. When teaching a dog or a puppy and new cue or skill, food is often the first choice as a reward because of how powerful it can be for the dog. Over time, we begin to “shape” the behaviors we want and begin to fade out the food reinforcement with other reinforcers.

Your dog will meet lots of different people at our facility. All of our team members have been extensively trained in dog handling, group play and safety. We often alternate trainers and handlers so that your dog will get to meet lots of different people. We find that it allows dogs to generalize their behavior better, which also makes transferring the behaviors to you, the pet parent, even easier.

All daycare, day school and boarding school courses are held on our 17-acre campus (with the exception of off-site field trips). We are set on a 17-acre farm, complete with some horses, a few kitty cats, big trees, numerous big play yards, a wooded nature trail, an indoor swimming pool, various activity rooms, a fitness gym, a doggie movie theater and much, much more!

Dogs and puppies attending any of our Daycare, Day School or Boarding School programs rotate through a very structured selection of lessons and activities with other dogs and or people. They will work on training cues and have enrichment opportunities, balanced with scheduled meal and snack breaks and age-appropriate rest and relaxation sessions.

Your dog should arrive at school wearing his/her regular fabric or leather collar, snug enough so it cannot slip off. We do not permit choke, prong or chain collars. Some pet parents like to send lunch and or special treats for naptime. Boarding School pups should bring enough of their own food to last them for all meals while they are with us.

In our courses, we help dogs learn to walk nicely past other dogs. Most puppies do very well during group play and socialization activities. However, dogs that have issues with dog-to-dog socialization will need to enroll in a class that addresses these challenges.