NORTH TONAWANDA, N.Y. — Most Buffalo is celebrating a new business that just opened in North Tonawanda.
It's a new indoor dog playground and enrichment center, and we got to visit with some of the dogs who were there Wednesday morning and their humans.
"What makes it unique is there's a number of things all in one place that we can do for your dog. So there's training, there's a dog wash, there's the playgrounds that we're in right now," said Mary Lou Perry, owner of My Lil' Pawdise.
Mary Lou Perry just opened My Lil' Pawdise this month in North Tonawanda.
"The weather in Buffalo can be a little iffy no matter what season we're in. So it could be, you know, a very rainy day, it could be a very cold day, and you don't know what to do with your dog. Your dog gets bored. They start to, you know, misbehave sometimes because they're not getting the proper exercise. So you want a place that you can be able to take them all year long and do different things and keep their minds stimulated as well as their physical stimulation," said Mary Lou Perry.
Perry is a certified dog trainer and says in her experience, a lot of times, people wait too long to train their puppies.
"You can start training dogs immediately when you get them. In fact, they're sponges. So it's better to really train them early on. The other thing is waiting too long to leash train them. As you see, we're doing a lot of leash training today. These are going to be really big dogs, so you want to make sure that they are listening to you, that they are following your lead, they're not pulling. And the other thing is socializing. You need to socialize your puppy," said Mary Lou Perry.
Markus is one of the three puppies going through training right now and his owner says the classes are helping.
"I think they learn better and they've got distractions from other dogs being here, so they can catch on quicker," said Cindy Wynkoop.
When she's assessing a dog, Perry asks what the issues are at home and what the routine is.
"People like to go, oh, let's go for a walk, let's go for a walk. Well, that's getting your dog into a real heightened sense of excitement before you even walk out the door. So I say that you make sure that they're calm before you even put a leash and a collar on them. You go out the door first, and then they follow you," said Mary Lou Perry.
She says she can't stress the importance of socializing your dog enough.
"Taking them into different environments is very, very important, and starting them early, like early, early, is my best advice for people," said Mary Lou Perry.
At My Lil' Pawdise, the puppies get shorter training sessions of 15 to 20 minutes at a time before they get a break. Those breaks are key and help to make sure the dogs aren't over-stimulated before they go back home for a big nap.
"That's my victory lap. When I can make them that tired that they go home and go to sleep and that their parents can go and do other things, other than chasing them around and keeping them out of trouble, then that's what we're here for," said Mary Lou Perry.