PUPPY TRAINING 101 AT THIS WORKSHOP

Organised by young Delhiites Nidhi Srivastava and Aishani Mathur, the training focused on commands and socialisation for puppies

Puppy training workshops are a popular concept in the West — they’re relaxing, informative, and result in a lot of bonding time for pets and their humans. So, when one such workshop, organised by young Delhiites Nidhi Srivastava and Aishani Mathur, made its way to the Capital, we decided to attend it. As the pet parent of an unruly eight-year-old German Shepherd, my hopes were instantly up, despite it being a workshop for puppies.

Pets in attendance included two Shih Tzus with their parents — Tim with Shweta Singh and Sidhartha Khanna, and the feisty Bob Dhillon with parent Khyati Dhillon, apart from the beautiful LabradorIndie mix Zorro. The session began with an introduction round. The parents were asked to speak of their and their pets’ goals, hobbies, and long-term plans. The exercise was aimed at helping parents set realistic goals for their furry babies.

By the time the intros were done, Bob had already decided his alliances. While he liked Tim, Zorro was greeted with growls and little barks. Luckily for Zorro, though, the next session on basic commands served to be quite a distraction for Bob. ‘Sit’, ‘stay’, and ‘come’ were practiced enthusiastically and while not all of the pooches mastered them, the commands surely made it to the #petgoals.

The part of the workshop that really made an impact was positive reinforcement training, where Nidhi and

AishaniA explained that scolding/hittingg may seem to get your attention,, and hence encourage bad behaviour. Reminded of all the times I had to stand with my back to Tyson to stop him from running away with a toy, I hoped these new parents would treat this advice as gold.

The last session for the day — puppy socialisation — was about why it was important for a dog to be its human’s dog. That as long as our pet has all its attention focused on us, it is okay if it does not get along well with other dogs. Having seen Tyson charging at harmless dogs to “protect” me from them, I wished I had a dog who knew how to ignore other pets.

If you, too, would like to attend or organise a puppy training workshop for your dogs, get in touch with Nidhi at doggiversity@gmail.com.

Nidhi Srivastava explains some important principles of dog training to the dog parentsNikita Saxena

at a game e Zorro trying his paw at the workshopSidhartha Tim with Shweta Singh and Khanna Dog parent Khyati Dhillonfeeds a yummy treat to her Shih Tzu, BobDhillon

Aishani Mathur with the Shih Tzu Tim