Raising a puppy can be one of the most magical and rewarding experiences imaginable.

Or, it can be incredibly frustrating, challenging, and exhausting.

The right information can make all the difference.

We've been teaching people how to raise their puppies for over 40 years and we've helped over 125,000 families raise their pups. This course is filled with all the most important tips and tricks you'll need to get off to a good start with your pup.

Enroll now for free and you'll learn how to give your pup the education they desperately deserve!

Every Puppy Deserves an Education!

That's why we've made this course available to the public for FREE!

Enroll Now for FREE

All the most important and urgent concepts that any new puppy owner NEEDS TO KNOW!

Train your puppy the right way from the very beginning so you don't accidentally reinforce bad habits...

  • Toilet Training - Teach your pup to pee and poop in the right place, on cue!

  • Crate Training - Teach your pup to settle down happily and quietly in their crate!

  • Bite Inhibition - Teach your pup to be gentle with their jaws so they NEVER hurt someone

  • Socialization - Prevent adolescent-onset fear and reactivity with PROACTIVE socialization

  • Lure-Reward Training - Teach your pup to perform useful skills, on cue, reliably and promptly, using your voice, without an ongoing need for food lures!!!

Download Printer-Friendly Puppy Resources

Worksheets, Checklists and More to Help Train Your Pup!

Enroll Now for Free

Master the critical early weeks with your pup

Training your puppy shouldn't be a chore! When you know how to train a puppy the RIGHT way it can become the most FUN you've had in your whole life!

  • Enjoyable, reward-based, dog-friendly training techniques

  • Effective methods supported by science

  • Short, easy-to-follow video lessons

  • Downloadable, printer friendly documents

  • 2 Puppy Training + 2 Dog Training eBooks

Meet Your Instructors

The Dunbars INVENTED modern puppy training


In 1982,  Dr. Ian Dunbar  invented off-leash puppy training and socialization classes and revolutionized the world of dog training forever, when he founded SIRIUS® Puppy Training.

Since then, SIRIUS puppy training classes have been imitated all around the world, and at SIRIUS we have now trained more than 100,000 puppies! Ian has gone on to produce multiple books and videos, host a television program in the UK, found the world's largest professional association of dog trainers (The APDT), and give thousands of seminars and workshops about puppy and dog training.

In 2016, we created this website, Dunbar Academy to make our puppy and dog training content available online and on-demand, to students all around the world.

We have been refining and reinventing the best puppy training methods over the past four decades and now, with the Essential Puppy Training Course, Kelly Gorman Dunbar and Jamie Dunbar have taken all of our collective  puppy training experience and expertise and distilled it into a single, simple, easy-to-follow course.

This is the most comprehensive and cohesive puppy training course in the world, created by the same team that invented and popularized modern puppy training classes.

The Dunbars Have Been Featured In:

Forbes
The New York Times
NPR
Mashable

Course curriculum

    1. Welcome - PLUS The 2 Things Every Pup MUST Learn!

    2. Before You Decide to Get a Puppy (Skip this if you already have a puppy)

    3. Food in Training - Too Valuable to Waste

    4. New Puppy Shopping List

    5. Potty Training - The "Dos" and "Don'ts"

    6. Crate Training - Give Your Pup a LIFETIME of Freedom

    7. Puppy Biting - The MOST IMPORTANT part of Puppy Training

    8. Socialization - The Gift of Confidence

    9. Lure Reward Training - Now the REAL FUN Begins!

    10. Next Steps - Learning is Lifelong

    11. Help Us Help Puppies

    1. Downloadable Documents

    2. Better Than a Bowl - So Many Ways to Use Food to Train Your Puppy

    3. Shopping List

    4. Potty Training Log

    5. Weekly Schedule

    6. Teach Your Pup to Love Being Handled

    7. Luring Basic Positions

    1. BEFORE You Get Your Puppy by Dr. Ian Dunbar

    2. AFTER You Get Your Puppy by Dr. Ian Dunbar

    3. Dr. Dunbar's Good Little Dog Book

    4. How to Teach a New Dog Old Tricks

About this course

  • Free
  • 22 lessons