TRAINING INFORMATION

I  offer in-home private training, which can happen in a variety of ways.   People have all kinds of different lifestyles, needs, constraints, and  availability so we can work together to find a (sometimes necessarily  creative) solution in order to help you and your dog toward a positive  working relationship.  I also offer dog walking, dog walking combined  with dog training, day training, and also dog boarding and/or dog  boarding combined with training on a select basis.  

I think that  most of us enjoy getting along socially and want to feel successful  with other members of our families and communities, and, since our pets  belong to both, I believe it's critical that we help them to do both as  well .     
So, good communication is key.  I think it's important  that we teach our dogs how to fit into our families and  communities...teach them what to do (and what not to do)...so that they  can be successful and we enjoy having them around.  Basic manners  (obedience) help our dogs to know what to do and, when communication is  good, we can all feel more relaxed and happy with each other.      
 

My  training is positive, including positive discipline and behavior  modification.  I train dogs so that they know what is wanted of them, so  that they know what is ok and what is not ok.   Dogs should have a firm  understanding of what is expected of them and abide by the boundaries  set by the human leaders. When this happens and is successful, dogs tend  to be very well behaved and feel much more at ease (since they can just  relax and let the humans make all the important decisions).    

Sometimes  training is about all the fun (for example, when you want to teach your  dog to participate in agility or learn tricks).  Sometimes there are  issues or challenges that come up; sometimes those challenges are not  such a big deal and sometimes they are a big deal.  I can help you to  have more fun with your dog and I can also help you to  solve problems.     
 

Finally, it’s super important that kids  and dogs (as well as dogs with other pets) have safe and, ideally, fun  relationships with each other, so one of my areas of focus is in doing  just that: helping kids and dogs (as well as dogs with other pets) to  interact appropriately so that they can live together safely and ideally  be good friends.    
With that, two areas where I have special experience, and are also often problem areas:    

• the relationships and interactions between dogs and kids
  
• the relationships and interactions between dogs and other dogs as well as dogs and other animals (such as cats).   
  

​It's  really important that everyone in a family feels and is safe.  I can  help make those relationships functional and, ideally, wonderful.