Puppr is a popular new dog training app. It was released in July of 2017. The app is free with the option of in-app purchases in the form of trick education packages. Sara Carson and The Super Collies deliver trick education. Sara Carson is a dog trainer that had been in the top 5 finalists of America’s Got Talent.
How to Use Puppr
Puppr is a mobile application. You can go to the App Store on either iOS or Android platforms to download. The app is relatively popular with over 100K Android downloads in under three years. In the store, you will find a description of the application as well as customer reviews. From this information, you should be able to decide if you want to download the app or not. There are no reviews referring to malicious software, so the app is safe.
Once you have downloaded the app, go ahead and open it up. It will first ask you what your dog’s name is. Next, you will register; this can be done using Facebook or your email address. You can also skip this part to use the app anonymously until you decide to make a purchase or want more information.
Registering will allow you to keep track of your dog’s training progress while using the app. The app uses clicker training. Clicker training is a scientifically proven positive reinforcement-based training style. You use the clicker when your animal does something that you have asked.
Clicker training is all about timing. When you engage in training games with your dog, cat, or yes, even bird, you need to be sure that you have the clicker ready to mark the exact behavior that your pet is going to be rewarded for. The clicker sets a point in time for the animal and allows them to remember what it was that gained them the reward more easily.
When you first enter the app, you will start off learning to use the clicker with a simple eye contact game.
- Make sure the sound on your phone is turned up.
- Call your dog’s name.
- Click the button when they make eye contact and give them a treat.
- Do this as much as possible, in the house, on walks, and anywhere else you can think of.
- You can stop using the clicker for this when your dog makes eye contact with you automatically after calling his or her name.
Eye contact between you and your dog releases oxytocin. It’s kind of like an air hug and will keep both you and your dog happy. Once you get past this exercise, you enter the rest of the training app. Puppr offers many free training modules for you to try with your furry friend. As you and your dog make progress, you will earn badges, and you can keep track of your pet’s new abilities in the training progress area. You can also add multiple dogs to your account.
Free training modules include:
- Basics
- Sit
- Down
- Stay
- Come
- Leave It
- Touch
- Silly
- Roll Over
- Silly 2.0
- Tell me a Secret
- Hide in suitcase
- Charming
- Shake Hands
- Circus
- Hooped Arms
- Circus 2.0
- Scoot
- Performer
- Figure 8
- Useful
- Fetch Leash
Each module has about seven lessons. Lessons that are not listed above are paid for in an ala carte manner. You also have the option to buy each lesson pack. When you buy a lesson pack, it allows you access to any future lessons that are posted to that pack.
Each lesson goes through the training steps. Each training step displays Sara Carson demonstrating how she would execute that step.
Review
Overall the Puppr app is easy to use. It has a nice calming look, and there are no ads. The lesson packs are fairly inexpensive when you compare them to the cost of purchasing many dog training books. As long as you have your phone, the volume turned up and treats you are ready to go.
People’s preferences over the app really depend on how much they like the clicker training method and how vigilant they are about training their dogs. Some dogs are more easily trained than others, and some people might not understand the process behind clicker training.
Clicker training is thought to be the leading style of marker training because it uses the same sound to mark behaviors for your animal. Some trainers prefer to use words, but words can be voiced differently depending on the mood of the trainer. The clicker makes sure that there is no ambiguity when setting expectations for your animals.
There you have it! Puppr is an exciting new way to train your animals with your smartphone, and there is a lot of free content on it for you to get started with. If you decide to use it, I hope this was helpful and have FUN!