Observe
Temperament, energy, recovery, motivation and the family goals already known from matching guide the trainer's priorities.
Stokeshire Designer Doodles · Private Puppy Development
4-Week Doodle School™
A private, 28-day developmental residency for Stokeshire puppies, guided by an adult professional training team and documented through the Stokeshire Method™ and Companion™.
Stokeshire Doodle School™ · Since 2020 · Wisconsin
CareAdult professional training team
EnvironmentPrivate home residency
SystemStokeshire Method™
VisibilityCompanion documentation
The private-residency standard
One trainer home.One small cohort.One developmental record.
Not kennel boarding. Not a volume cohort. A four-week developmental residency inside the daily life of an adult Stokeshire trainer.
Stokeshire Doodle School™ has run continuously since December 2020: a breeder-run puppy school, in a trainer's home, from eight weeks.
Private in-home board & train
Your puppy does not visit training. Your puppy lives it.
Private in-home board & train. Not kennel boarding with puppies pulled out for scheduled group sessions. Meals, naps, crate time, visitors, grooming, play, outings and evenings become the curriculum.
01
A trainer's home, not kennel housing.
Doodle School is residential. Your puppy lives with an approved Stokeshire trainer in Wisconsin rather than being housed in a kennel and pulled out only for scheduled group sessions.
02
A small, capped cohort.
Each trainer home hosts a small cohort of Doodle School puppies. Capacity is deliberately limited so each puppy is observed, handled and trained as an individual.
03
Adult professional responsibility.
Doodle School placements are led by the adult training team. Children are part of the natural household environment in which Stokeshire puppies are raised; they are not substitutes for the puppy's assigned professional trainer.
04
A foundation, not a finished dog.
Twelve-week-old puppies are still puppies. We establish rhythms, associations, confidence and early skills that your family continues after homecoming.
The developmental difference
Eight weeks versus twelve weeks.
Doodle School does not skip the puppy stage. It gives those first weeks structure. The goal is to send home a puppy whose earliest routines have already been practiced in a real household with a trainer.
Area
Typical 8-week puppy
12-week Doodle School graduate
Crate comfort
New to separation and nighttime settling.
Crate routines introduced and practiced for sleep, naps and quiet time.
Potty rhythm
Needs frequent outings with little established pattern.
A structured outing rhythm has been introduced and documented for the family to continue.
Handling
Still learning to accept paws, ears, coat, teeth and grooming tools.
Early grooming and vet-style handling have become part of ordinary daily life.
Leash
Often no meaningful leash experience.
Collar, harness, leash pressure and early walking foundations introduced at an age-appropriate level.
Novelty
New environments can be overwhelming.
Calibrated exposures practice curiosity, recovery and settling rather than forced interaction.
Home rhythm
The family begins every routine from zero.
Meals, naps, training, crate rest, play and bedtime already follow a predictable pattern.
The mechanism
The Stokeshire Method™
Doodle School is not a list of commands sold as a finished dog. It is a documented developmental system: evaluate the puppy, shape daily life, observe the response, record the work, and transfer the same framework to the family.
Shape
Short training blocks are integrated with meals, rest, crate work, handling, play, socialization and household routines.
Document
Training records, milestone assessments, photos, video and trainer observations live in Stokeshire Companion.
Transfer
Graduation is a handoff, not a finish line. Your family receives the routines and priorities needed to continue the work at home.
Four weeks · one developmental arc
Built in layers, not rushed.
The first week earns trust. The second makes the day predictable. The third makes skills more visible. The fourth prepares the puppy and family to continue together. The pace changes with the individual puppy.
01
Week One
Orientation & Bonding
The trainer establishes safety, attachment and a repeatable daily rhythm. Crate introduction, potty timing, sleep, handling and calm engagement begin here.
Crate introductionPotty anchorSleep rhythmTrust
02
Week Two
Rhythm & Repetition
Predictability becomes the teaching tool. Socialization expands through carefully selected surfaces, sounds, people, vehicles and environments while early leash and cue work begins.
RoutineSocializationLeashEarly cues
03
Week Three
Skills & Confidence
Short sessions introduce and reinforce age-appropriate foundations such as Sit, Come, Down, Kennel and Wait. Grooming and vet-style handling continue as routine rather than an event.
SitComeDownKennelWait
04
Week Four
Transition & Home-Life Rehearsal
The trainer reinforces routines in varied contexts, finalizes progress documentation and prepares the family for the first 48–72 hours, the first week and the weeks that follow.
ReinforcementGraduation recordFamily handoff
Entrusted to professionals
Meet the adults responsible for the work.
The training team combines canine behavior education, puppy-development leadership, animal-science education and clinical communication. We describe each person's actual background rather than implying that every professional holds the same credential.
01 · Development & program oversight
Katie M. Stokes
Co-Founder · Director of Puppy Development and Training
Katie leads puppy development and training across Stokeshire. Since 2020 she has overseen litters from whelping through go-home, including early neurological stimulation, socialization, Doodle School™, Bootcamp™ and family handoff.
Her role creates continuity: the puppy's earliest developmental history does not disappear when formal training begins.
Founder-level program oversight · Puppy development · Socialization · Doodle School™ · Bootcamp™ · Family handoff
02 · Behavior & professional dog training
Karlee Batchelder
Behavior Modification Trainer · Educator · Virtual Training Consultant
Karlee trained at Highland Canine School for Dog Trainers in its Obedience and Behavior Modification Program and is a Certified Professional Pet Dog Trainer based in Medford.
She works with Stokeshire families after Doodle School and beyond, helping owners understand the dog in front of them and continue building reliable, relationship-centered behavior.
Highland Canine School for Dog Trainers · Obedience & Behavior Modification · Certified Professional Pet Dog Trainer · Small Business Entrepreneurship
03 · Goals, observation & communication
Korby Wipf
Bootcamp™ Lead · Speech-Language Pathologist
Korby leads Bootcamp™ intake, daily training, family updates and handoff. A speech-language pathologist by profession, trained at the University of South Dakota, she brings a clinician's habit of clear goals and documented progress to puppy work.
That mindset fits the larger Stokeshire standard: observe what is happening, define what comes next and communicate it clearly to the family.
Clinical communication background · Goal-setting · Documented progress · Family updates · Bootcamp™ leadership
KW
04 · Education, animal science & individual motivation
Lisa Kopp
Doodle School™ Trainer · Board and Train
Lisa brings more than a decade of animal-science education to the team. She has served as an agriculture educator and FFA advisor at Medford Area Senior High School since 2014 and holds a B.S. in Agricultural Education from the University of Wisconsin–River Falls.
Her training philosophy mirrors good teaching: read the individual, find what motivates them, create structure, reinforce success and build confidence without forcing the learner past their threshold.
B.S. Agricultural Education · Agriculture educator & FFA advisor · Horse and dog training · AKC Rally, conformation & agility experience within her household
The distinction: Stokeshire puppies are raised in a family environment, including natural exposure to children and household life. Doodle School training responsibility belongs to the adult professional team shown above.
A day in residence
Training does not happen only during training sessions.
The residential model matters because the puppy's entire day can become coherent. A cue practiced for three minutes is useful. A calm household rhythm practiced all day is transformative.
Morning
Wake + immediate potty
The day begins with the same predictable destination and routine.
Breakfast
Meal + calm engagement
Food, attention and simple interaction become part of relationship-building and regulation.
2–3× daily
Short focused training
Age-appropriate cues and foundations are practiced in minutes, not marathon sessions.
Throughout
Crate naps + quiet recovery
Rest is protected as part of development, not treated as time away from training.
Active blocks
Purposeful play + enrichment
Toys, simple problems and supervised play build curiosity without constant overstimulation.
Daily
Socialization or outing
Novelty is selected and calibrated to the puppy's current threshold.
Evening
Reset + bedtime rhythm
Calm evening routines rehearse the kind of household pattern the family can continue at home.
Private-client transparency
Stokeshire Companion™
Luxury care should not require blind trust. Companion gives enrolled families a structured window into the work: daily training activity, milestone assessments, photos and video, and go-home preparation.
Instead of reducing four weeks to a handful of update texts, Companion becomes the developmental record that connects trainer observation to the family's next step.
Daily training logs
See which training blocks and developmental activities were recorded.
Milestone rubrics
Track progress against a consistent written framework rather than adjectives alone.
Photo + video
Visual updates are associated with the puppy's actual training period.
Go-home preparation
Schedules, setup and continuation priorities become part of the transition.
Companion™
Stokeshire Method
Day 18 / 28
Your Puppy
Doodle School™ · Wisconsin
Today's training
Foundation work logged by trainer
- ✓ Crate rest + settle
- ✓ Recall foundation
- ✓ Leash pressure introduction
- ✓ Grooming: feet + face
Milestone assessment
Week 3 progress
- Engagement · developing
- Crate settle · progressing
- Handling · progressing
- Door manners · introduced
Go-home
Family preparation underway
- Crate setup
- Feeding transition
- First-week rhythm
- Travel confirmation
Therapy-informed development
Train the puppy in front of you. Prepare for the life ahead.
Stokeshire's therapy-informed framework emphasizes confidence without flooding, recovery after novelty, human connection, handling tolerance, settling and appropriate arousal. For a small number of appropriately matched prospects, those priorities can be extended into a Therapy Track.
Therapy-informed foundation
The goal is not to make every puppy a therapy dog. The goal is to use developmentally thoughtful practices that also matter in excellent family companions.
- Calibrated socialization rather than forced exposure
- Recovery and settling after novelty
- Cooperative handling and grooming foundations
- Human engagement and relationship-first reinforcement
- Age-appropriate confidence building
Therapy Track
When aptitude, family goals and trainer capacity align, the program can emphasize foundations relevant to future therapy-oriented work.
- Environmental steadiness and recovery
- Comfort with structured handling
- Human orientation and calm engagement
- Foundation behaviors useful for later CGC or therapy preparation
- Documented continuation priorities for the family
Therapy Track is developmental preparation, not therapy-dog certification, and it does not assure future qualification. Formal therapy work requires later training, maturity and the standards of the certifying organization.
Graduation
The handoff should feel like a continuation.
The most important transition is not trainer to puppy. It is trainer to family. Graduation gives you the language, routine and priorities that allow the work to survive the move home.
Routine walkthroughYour trainer explains the puppy's daily schedule, rest pattern, potty rhythm and feeding flow.
Skill demonstrationSee the cues and foundations that were introduced and how the trainer has been communicating them.
Developmental recordReview what was practiced, what progressed and what still needs consistent work.
First 48–72 hoursPlan the transition so your puppy does not arrive home to an entirely different set of rules.
Continued Companion accessKeep the puppy's training history and go-home preparation in one place.
Extended-training family review. This image references a six-week Doodle School experience, so it is presented as an extended training example rather than the standard 28-day program.
Family evidence
The result is measured at home.
A beautiful training video matters less than what happens after the puppy crosses your threshold. The reviews we prioritize here describe the parts families actually live with: transition, crate comfort, confidence, education and continued training.
“Wonderful experience from start to finish. We did have our mini Bernedoodle go through Bootcamp and 4 weeks of Doodle School with Karlee, which was very helpful. She did a fantastic job.”Elizabeth Z.Zara's Family · Doodle School™
“His early training made a huge difference. He sleeps through the night, goes to his crate without a bribe, and has adjusted so well to our home.”Michelle BaileyWinston's Mom · Mini Bernedoodle
“Fantastic experience from start to finish. Stokeshire went above and beyond to support us in raising a future therapy dog.”Elaina P.Mobile Therapy Centers of Illinois
Limited placement
The investment is in your puppy's first month of formation.
Doodle School tuition is added to the puppy's placement price and confirmed at Match Day after matching. Trainer capacity is reserved in advance and availability is intentionally limited.
The 28-day program includes professional in-home care, structured training, socialization and developmental exposures, grooming and handling work, Companion access, progress documentation and the graduation handoff.
4-Week Doodle School™
$5,600
$200 per day · 28 days
Typical start8 weeks
Typical graduation12 weeks
EnvironmentTrainer home
Companion™Included
Extended training$200 / day
AvailabilityLimited
Questions families ask before enrolling
Private puppy training, without the hype.
Where does my puppy stay during Doodle School?
Your puppy lives in an approved Stokeshire trainer's home in Wisconsin for the duration of the placement. Depending on capacity and fit, that may be Katie's home or another approved trainer home. The residential environment is part of the program rather than simply a place the puppy sleeps between training blocks.
Is Doodle School the same as a traditional board-and-train?
Doodle School is closest to a private in-home board-and-train and developmental residency. It is not built around kennel housing or group-session blocks. Meals, naps, crate time, short training sessions, household life, handling, play and outings all become part of the shaping.
How long has Doodle School been running?
Stokeshire Doodle School™ launched in December 2020 and has run continuously since. The program page went live that month, the first families enrolled in early 2021, and the first client cohort entered a trainer's home in May 2021. The same program is now taught to other breeders through the Stokeshire Method™.
Who is actually responsible for training my puppy?
Doodle School responsibility belongs to Stokeshire's adult professional training team. The Stokes children are part of the natural family environment in which puppies grow up and may participate in ordinary household puppy care and socialization, but they do not replace the assigned adult trainer responsible for the training program.
Are all Stokeshire trainers certified dog trainers?
No, and we do not present them that way. Karlee has formal dog-training education in obedience and behavior modification and is described on our Team page as a Certified Professional Pet Dog Trainer. The broader adult team contributes complementary professional backgrounds in puppy development, animal-science education and clinical communication. You can review each trainer's background here.
Will my puppy be fully trained at 12 weeks?
No. Twelve-week-old dogs are puppies. Doodle School develops a meaningful foundation in routines, crate comfort, potty rhythm, handling, leash exposure, early cues, socialization and emotional regulation. Continued practice and professional training after homecoming are strongly encouraged.
What commands are introduced?
Most Doodle School puppies are introduced to foundations such as Sit, Down, Come, Kennel, Wait and a positive interrupter using age-appropriate reinforcement and hand signals. Reliability varies by individual and continues to develop after homecoming.
Will my puppy still have potty accidents after Doodle School?
Yes, that remains possible and developmentally normal. The program establishes and practices a potty rhythm; it does not promise full bladder control at twelve weeks. The family's consistency with the established routine remains important after go-home.
What is therapy-informed training?
For Stokeshire, therapy-informed describes a developmental framework emphasizing appropriate socialization, recovery, settling, cooperative handling, relationship and environmental confidence. It does not mean that every graduate is a therapy dog or that therapy-dog certification is included.
Can Doodle School prepare a future therapy prospect?
For appropriately matched puppies and families, a Therapy Track can emphasize foundations relevant to future therapy-oriented work. That is preparation only. Later maturity, advanced training, testing and the requirements of a therapy organization determine whether a dog ultimately qualifies.
What does my family see while my puppy is in training?
Doodle School families receive access to Stokeshire Companion™, the program's web app for training activity, milestone assessments, photo and video updates, and go-home preparation. See how Companion works.
How is enrollment confirmed?
Doodle School is available exclusively to Stokeshire puppies. Enrollment is normally confirmed and paid at Match Day after the puppy has been matched. Placements are limited by trainer capacity, so interest or a puppy deposit alone does not guarantee a Doodle School placement.
