New to the Club? Start Here!

ABOUT THE CLUB

PCOTC is an AKC Member Club, started in 1940 in Port Chester, NY but now located in White Plains, NY, near Exit 6 from I-287.  The club includes basic training for puppies and dogs—which we call “Family Manners”—along with training in dog sports, including K9 Nose Work, Obedience, Rally, Agility, and some other specialties such as Therapy Dog training.

HOW TO GET STARTED

This depends on your dog’s age. If your dog is a puppy under five months of age when the class begins, you will start with a puppy class, either AKC Star Puppy or Pre-K Puppy. Otherwise, you should sign up for our introductory class, Family Manners Foundation.

PUPPY CLASSES

If you have a new puppy under 5 months of age, go to Class Registration and sign up for an AKC S.T.A.R. Puppy® class at PCOTC . Your puppy will learn to interact appropriately with different people, dogs, and environments. You will build the foundation for a friendly, confident, well-mannered adult dog. Your next step will be Family Manners Foundation class.

INTRODUCTORY CLASSES

If your dog is older than 5 months and has no previous training in a group class, go to Class Registration and sign up for a Family Manners Foundation class. You will be taught dog-friendly ways to train your dog to sit, lie down, wait, walk on a loose leash, come when called, and more.

THE NEXT STEPS

When your dog graduates from Family Manners Foundation, your next step will be Family Manners Skills. In this class, you will build reliability by training in an increasingly distracting environment and with gradually increased distance and duration, while fading lures and additional prompts. The goal is a dog that will reliably respond to your cues no matter what is going on around him/her.

From Family Manners Skills, you can expand in several directions, continuing on with Family Manners Unleashed, or going on to try Obedience, Agility, Canine Musical Freestyle, Rally Freestyle, Canine Good Citizen, and Therapy Dog classes.

DOGS WITH SPECIAL NEEDS

Some dogs may require individual or in-house training before they’re ready to participate in group training classes. Many of the club’s instructors offer private training; you can go here to read about the individual instructors or email registration@pcotc.org to ask what they would recommend.