Sonia Says Sit’s new Helensburgh headquarters is a dog-training facility set up inside a huge steel shed behind Sunrise Nursery.
Inside, it’s like a cross between a children’s playground and a day spa. There are bright plastic tunnels, colourful cubby houses and big plastic shells filled with water. Fake grass mats dot the concrete floor. Candles and incense are burning, while tranquil piano music wafts from a CD player.
“Our focus is on calm,” says business owner Sonia Gregson. “We literally have a dog-calming playlist.” What kind of music calms dogs? “It’s interesting, research has shown that it’s reggae and classical,” Sonia says.
There’s no raucous barking. Instead, the atmosphere is gently playful. A floppy-eared pup frolics in the ball pit, searching for hidden treats – all part of the plan to stimulate the dogs’ serotonin levels by encouraging them to ‘hunt’ for food.
“Genetically and historically, dogs were scavengers and hunters.
They were designed to get that peak when they’re searching.” There are six dogs, including a young golden retriever, two kelpies and a cattle dog, at Puppy Playgroup on the day we visit.
Sonia will accept up to 10 pups at a time and ‘playgroup’ is only an hour long.
“We don’t do doggy day care, it doesn’t fit with our training and our ethos,” Sonia says.
“We’re all about encouraging calmness, and nice friendships.” A couple of pups are enjoying time-out on a couch with Sonia’s offsider, Bobbi Burgmann.
Both are long-time Helensburgh residents who have been training dogs for more than a decade.
“I’ve got 15 years of vet nursing behind me too,” Sonia says. “I’ve always loved animals. Even as a tiny child, I campaigned to my parents to get my first dog as a child, I wrote letters. I wrote songs. I did all this stuff to get them to get me my first dog, a poodle. Her name was Missy, a very old-school generic kind of name.” Today, Sonia says trendy names include Teddy, Bella and Coco.
Best name of 2020: a corgi named Locky for lockdown.
ISO DOG BOOM
Amid all of the unprecedented challenges of 2020, Sonia’s business has grown, partly thanks to the ‘iso pet’ phenomenon, which saw animal shelters emptied and puppies selling for record prices, as people seeking companions adopted dogs en masse during lockdown.
“In terms of Puppy Preschool, business has probably doubled,” Sonia says.
“We used to run five classes a week. We’re now running 10 or 11.
“We’ve added on extra elements, like the Playgroup. We weren’t offering that before Covid. We weren’t offering online. We’ve definitely increased our workload.”
Demand grew so much that, in July 2020, Sonia found a new, spacious home for her business in the shed behind Sunrise Nursery. The school is now attracting new clients from as far afield as Sydney and Wollongong.
As well as hosting classes for puppies, adolescents and adults, the space can be rented – for example, so owners of aggressive dogs have a safe space to exercise their pets.
“It’s been fantastic,” Sonia says. “Because we’ve had the opportunity to offer different classes.” One new offering is the Puppy Playgroup, when owners drop off the ‘fur kids’ for an hour.
“The first reason we set up the playgroup was because of Covid,” Sonia says.
“No one was allowed to go to a Puppy Preschool class, to attend in-person preschools.
“We were worried that all these puppies during the Covid period weren’t going to get the opportunity to see other puppies, to see strangers, to see anything new or novel.” The puppy play area is certainly novel – it looks like someone’s raided a preschool.
There’s even a trampoline, which the dogs use as a bed.
What’s the most popular toy? “They love the ball pits because it’s like a little sniff-fari – we sprinkle some treats and they’ve got to search their way through.
“They love the tunnels too.
“I’ve been collecting over the years in the hope that we could find somewhere we could do this. The tunnels are actually deconstructed slides from Burgh [Healthy Hub]. The shells and grass mats – the inside toilets – come from Bunnings.
“These novel objects, while they look colourful and fun, are also teaching body awareness and body confidence, and social etiquette.” Dogs go home nice and tired, and with a tummy full of high-quality treats, Sonia’s preferred means of reinforcing good behaviour.
“Dogs will repeat behaviours that are reinforced… Some people use a clicker. For marine mammals they often use a whistle. We say the word “Yes’. The word ‘Yes’ lets the dog know that they’ve just done something that I like. And then I can reinforce that. Reinforcement can be praise, patting, a game, food.
“But we know that reinforcement with food works really well with dogs.”
YEAR OF THE CAVOODLE
“During Covid, everybody wanted a cavoodle,” Sonia says.
“They don’t often shed, they’re quite small. Because it’s a poodle and a King Charles Cavalier mix, their personality is generally pretty safe.” Boston terriers and French bulldogs, aka Frenchies, have also been popular.
“They look more human because their faces are squashed.” Sonia uses her own dog – adopted from Helensburgh Country Companion Animal Rescue – as a demo dog on theory class nights.
“He’s about 18 months of age and he is kelpie cross Rottweiler cross poodle. His name is Grover, because he’s a shaggy muppet.
“Bobbi has a groodle, a mix of standard poodle and golden retriever, called Cydi.
“Cydi is from a John Williamson song, and Bobbi uses her for her theory classes.
“We were probably one of the first puppy preschools in the Illawarra that adopted the theory class. We said, we need to have a class where there’s no puppies, so you can concentrate.”
SET UP TO SUCCEED
The two kelpies at Thursday’s playgroup are both wearing bandannas sprayed with Adaptil.
“Adaptil is a man-made pheromone, it’s an appeasement pheromone, so it helps them feel more relaxed,” Sonia says.
“The relaxing music, the use of Adaptil – we want the environment set up for them to succeed.
“And that’s our training ethos, really. We are about setting dogs up to succeed… We’re all about saying ‘you’re getting it right. This is what we want you to do. Do that again.’” Another pup turns up for a treat: “Good girl, Trixi!” Sonia says as the pup sits politely.
“If I say sit… She puts her bottom on the ground and then she knows she’s going to get paid for doing her job. It’s not bribery.
“All animals want to work for their food because it’s hardwired.
We’re paying them to work and we’re helping them increase their serotonin.
“We’re trying to reduce the number of healthy dogs surrendered. The average age of dogs in Australia is three to four years – because it’s between the ages of six months and 18 months that they’re surrendered, and they’re put to sleep.”
That statistic is affected by the fact that greyhounds are often put to sleep, but many dogs are also given up because of their behavioural problems.
The take-home message: “Get in early and help your dog.
Training is what keeps dogs in their forever home.”