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For years, dog training was on-leash, and the syllabus was tiny, based on requirements for Kennel Club competition — basically repetitive on-leash obedience drills, plus a little off-leash heeling and a quickie off-leash recall with minimal distractions. Essentially, the classes trained people and dogs to pass an examination wherein all the questions were known beforehand. 

I can't say I competed in obedience, but I thoroughly enjoyed 'partaking of' obedience trials with my first Malamute, Omaha Beagle, often to the amusement of many judges. As a behaviorist, I have always been interested in monitoring Response Reliability Percentages, and in the Obedience Ring you learn very quickly, that a single non recall or busted Stay gives you a duck egg on the exercise and NQ for the trial. (So, you wasted all that money and effort taking time off work, driving to Santa Barbara, staying in an hotel and eating hotel food.) Similarly, a single \ non-response can be costly in real life, for example, should someone leave the front door ajar. 

Companion dog owners needed so much more to help them prevent predictable puppy problems and navigate adolescence and so, in 1982, I started teaching off-leash, puppy training and socialization classes (SIRIUS® Puppy Training) with a massive syllabus that comprised every conceivable aspect of behavior modification, molding temperament, and teaching basic off-leash manners that emphasised an ultra-prompt-and-reliable, emergency Sit or Down.

Why OFF-leash? 1. Because dogs live off-leash with their people at home and are often off-leash in parks and on trails, and 2. So that every step of the way, we could check that the dog is confident, gung-ho, and happy to willingly join us playing the training game.

Graduates of Puppy 1 could continue in off-leash classes throughout adolescence and then participate in K9 GAMES® classes and competitions held in dog parks and eventually, massive venues, such as the Long Beach Pyramid and the Toronto Sky Dome. 

In 1993, in my "Behavior" column that I created and wrote (for seven years) in the AKC Gazette, I proposed that we needed a new field of dog training — Companion Dog Training — and so founded APDTs in Canada and the US and unsuccessfully tried to do so in the UK. By then, most APDT members already taught off-leash puppy classes, largely championing Lure-Reward Training but also employing a
variety of other positive reinforcement techniques, such as Classical Conditioning, Wait & Reward Training, Shaping, Autoshaping, and Physical Prompting. The APDTs were intended as open educational organizations that accepted all trainers, especially those that most needed to learn about off-leash, reward-based techniques, i.e., on-leash trainers.

However, over the past two decades, positive reinforcement dog training has drifted away from preventative puppy classes, off-leash training, verbal instructions and guidance, copious praise, a bulging toolbox of multiple reward-based training techniques selected by the specific task at hand, and open
educational associations. As a result, there is no doubt in my mind that dog behavior, temperament, consent, and response reliability have all suffered, which has allowed on-leash training and shock to make a comeback, with the promise of, but usually non-delivery of, a 'quick fix'. (Please see previous blog, A Quick Fix?) 

I recently conducted a survey of some 500+ positive reinforcement trainers in the US, UK and OZ in terms of their offerings and training techniques. Only 15% offer classes at all, most are taught on-leash, and hardly anyone teaches off-leash puppy classes. (Hence the massive increase in adult stress, anxiety, fear, reactivity, and aggression.) Most trainers only offer individual consultations, many by Zoom, and the most common fields of interest are anxiety, stress, fear, reactivity and aggression, all of which could be more quickly and easily prevented by enrolling in an off-leash puppy class. Individual Consultations and/or Zoom are relatively ineffective platforms to socialize puppies with unfamiliar people and dogs to prevent predictable temperament problems.

Consequently, my most pressing project for 2025 is repeating what I did in 1982, promoting off-leash puppy socialization and training classes. We have created an international directory of trainers that teach off-leash puppy classes that is available as a referral resource for veterinary practitioners. I recently promoted the Directory at PacVet (San Francisco), VMX (Orlando), and last week at WVC (Las Vegas). 

If you teach off-leash puppy classes and would like to be included in the Directory, or if you would like to learn how to teach off-leash puppy classes, please email [email protected] and we will send you an application and very short questionnaire.