About This Class
Basics 1 opens our 3-course Adult Dog Obedience series, and it’s built for dogs starting from zero. Over 4 relaxed, low-pressure sessions, your dog builds real comfort around other dogs while you both pick up the leash handling and engagement skills everything else in the series depends on. Small classes (max 4–6 dogs) and two instructors mean your dog gets real coaching to refine our training mechanics, not just a spot in a crowd.
Real Coaching
Four to six dogs max, two certified instructors. Each team gets more hands-on coaching than a typical group class allows.
Calm Comes Before Commands
Every session opens with engagement and calm-arousal work, the Control Unleashed method, before skill demands increase. We teach your dog to think and cope around distractions and other dogs.
Strengthening Foundations
Basics 1 has no skill prerequisite, and is designed as everyone’s starting point. Learn obedience skills from scratch or strengthen foundations around distractions.
The Required Starting Point
Basics 1 comes first, and is the only way into Basics 2 and 3. We are working towards the obedience trial tentatively planned for graduates in 2027.
What You’ll Learn in BASICS 1
Loose-leash handling: walking together without tension on the lead.
Engagement games that build your dog’s focus on you, even with distractions nearby.
“Look At That” (LAT): calm, curious observation of other dogs instead of reacting.
Recall foundations: the start of a reliable “come when called.”
Sit, down and stand cues, with smooth transitions between them.
Foundational stays: sit-stay, down-stay and stand-stay, building duration over the course.
Matwork: settling calmly on a mat, even around mild distraction.
Basics 2 & 3
Basics 1 is the required first step. Basics 2 and 3 open only once you’ve completed it, so every dog in the room is building from the same foundation.
Basics 2: Stays, Recall & Heel Foundations
Introduces all five competition exercises in foundational form: sit-stay, down-stay, stand-stay, recall, and heel positioning, all at short duration and distance first.
Basics 3: Heel on Lead & Competition Prep
Adds heel on lead and brings every exercise up to trial standard with additional difficulty and distractions, finishing with a full run-through.
Class Details
What to Bring
Your dog’s current vaccination records, needed before the first class.
A flat or martingale collar or harness, a 2 to 3 meter leash, and a 5 meter leash for recall training. No retractable leashes or training collars.
Small, high-value treats your dog loves, in a treat pouch.
A tug or ball, if your dog is toy-motivated.
Is This Class Right for Your Dog?
Minimum age: 8 months and up.
Comfortable in a small group, near other dogs at a distance.
Not currently in heat, for the comfort of other dogs in class.
No obedience experience needed. Basics 1 is built as everyone’s starting point.
Have a dog who gets very reactive around other dogs? Reach out before registering. We may suggest a few private sessions first, to prepare your dog for a group class setting. We reserve the right to cancel your spot in the class if your dog’s reactivity is overly disruptive to the group.
Please note that there will be no interactions/socialisation between dogs in class, as the focus will be learning skills within the team and encouraging neutrality between dogs.