FAQ

After you reach out through our contact page we will be in touch to have a phone conversation regarding the reason(s) you are seeking out a trainer. If the reasons you are seeking assistance is basic manners, and if you wish to move to on booking services, we would schedule our first session at which training would begin.

If the reasons you are seeking assistance are behavior based, and if you wish to move on to the next steps, the next steps would be a consultation. During the 1 to 1.5 hour consultation/assessment, I will gather all of the detailed information on the dog and the issues you would like to address in order to formulate a training plan. From there, together, we will determine how you would like to proceed and how many sessions may be needed to obtain your goals.

Regardless of the service provided it is imperative to understand that while I will work with both you and your dog during our sessions, it will be you that will be training your dog. Manners and Behaviors both are more effectively taught and solved by what you do in between our sessions rather than what we do at the sessions. We will build on what we started with each time we meet. You will receive the needed information to move forward on your own. You are a critical part of the human/canine team but know that we will provide you with the necessary tools and knowledge to succeed!

Contrary to popular dog training shows, training takes time and effort and cannot be resolved in one hour. The amount of time dedicated to training, the training goals, as well as the dog itself, will all factor in to how long training will take. 

You will be provided with the tools and plans to guide you through the training process. For basic manners, if you wish to teach your dog all available cues, you will need a minimum of 4 sessions. Daily training recommendations is allotting 30 minutes a day (three 10 minute sessions).  For behaviors, there is no average as the behavior and the individual dog will play a large factor in the progress. But make no mistake, if you put in daily efforts, there will be progress. 

Lastly, there is no one size fits all training plan. Therefore, if and as needed, plans can be changed and modified to find the optimum way for your team to learn and succeed.

All behavior services begin with a consultation/assessment will last between one to one and a half hours. During this meeting, I will meet you and your dog, and we will discuss your needs. There is typically more conversating than training at this meeting as I will be gathering information about your dog and your lifestyle, prioritize your training goals, and offer management techniques for any immediate concerns. The details from this meeting will guide the creation of the actual training plan.

For those looking to complete basic manners training with their dogs, assessments are not necessary.

Positive Reinforcement

Remember how happy you were if your parents gave you a dollar for every A on your report card? That made you want to do it again, right? That’s positive reinforcement.

For dogs, such monetary rewards come in the form of a food, attention, praise, toys or simply being permitted to run off-leash in the fenced yard; anything the dog finds rewarding. Because the reward makes them more likely to repeat the behavior, positive reinforcement is one of your most powerful tools for shaping or changing your dog’s behavior.

Using positive, force free, fear free methods avoids intimidating, hitting, yelling, kicking, giving correction with a pain-inducing collar, holding the dog down on its back or side, or grabbing the dog by the scruff, etc. These methods are not backed in science and can result unintended consequences such as aggression, anxiety and mistrust of the owner.  

No, not when used correctly. If you are offering your dog a bribe you would be intentionally offering something to the dog to get them to do something they do not want to do. In essence you are saying if you do X you can have this treat. A human association of this would be if your parents told you they would give you $10 for every A you brought home on your report card. A reward is a way of “thanking” your dog for doing X. A human association of this would be if your parents gave you $10 for every A you brought home on your report card without prior knowledge. 

Then there is the lure-reward method which is used to teach your dog new behaviors. The lure is used to aid in shaping the new behavior until the dog gains understanding. Once they have gained the understanding, the lure is slowly faded out and replaced with a verbal and/or visual cue instead. 

In short, with training, your dog is learning something and with management they are not. 

Management is the art of changing your dog’s environment to prevent them from being reinforced for behaviors you do not want. This is an extremely valuable piece of any good training or behavior modification program. Management, prevents the dog from practicing (and perfecting) the unwanted behavior while they learn a new and more appropriate behavior through training.

A simple and powerful example of this is when I hear people ask, “How do I stop my dog from jumping on people when they come in the house?” Dog’s jump to get the humans attention and getting that attention is reinforcing to the dog and hence the pattern repeats. The initial and simple answer to this is prevention. Prevent the dog from jumping on guests when they enter the home through management. Such management measures may include placing the dog in another room, in their crate or behind a baby gate with an interactive dog toy while the guests enter. Alternately, place the dog on leash or tether to prevent jumping as guests approach (allowing them to feed a treat once the dog sits nicely). And so on.

Too often we become focused on what we do not want the dog to do when the focus should be placed on what we do want them to do. Approaching it in this fashion rephrases the issue into an specific attainable objective to teach the dog. 

Do you want the dog to go to their bed and wait when guests arrive? Do you want the dog sit to greet guests? Identifying what you want the dog to do instead gives a clearer image of how to proceed which is where the training takes place. 

There are times when implementing management may make more sense than training. For example, it would be far easier to manage the situation by putting the toilet seat down after use then it would be to spend the time/energy to train a dog not to take advantage of what they perceive as a constantly fresh water source.  

The reality is that dogs are not stubborn, this is a human response and not a known canine response. In most cases, if the dog is responding in a “stubborn” fashion (not responding to a cue) the more likely answer is that they are overwhelmed by the environment. Or just as likely, your dog may not have fully learned or generalized the cue that is being asked of them. 

Dogs are contextual creatures. Learning to sit in your living room, when it is quiet and no distractions is different than sitting at a cross walk with people, traffic, other dogs and smells lingering about. So when dogs fail to offer a cue to us in a new setting, with all of the infinite number of distractions around them, they are not being stubborn or willful as some may believe. They are actually struggling to meet the pressure being put on them in that moment. It is up to us to help them be successful.

How do you help your dog generalize? Practice, Practice, Practice.  But it is not just about the quantity of the practicing, it is about the quality of the practicing. Work slowly from easy to more difficult. Train in environments in which your dog will be exposed to frequently in their every day life. Making such efforts will show your pup generalizing with your help in no time.

Breed has nothing to do with training a dog. All dogs, all breeds, have the ability to train and learn. We focus on the dog itself and find the best training approach for them. 

Certainly! Each dog would be trained as though they were the only dog in the house. Once they have an understanding of the new cues we move on to bringing them together. This will ensure that each dog gets to learn without distractions.

Yes! I will provide support via phone or email in between sessions. Additionally, support is provided after our session(s) have concluded provided the support being sought is related to the initial training that was agreed upon.