PHILOSOPHY

We have a genuine interest in the lifestyle, abilities and resources, of each client, recognizing that each brings unique circumstance, which must often be met with creative, yet practical and compassionate recommendation.

Our techniques are force free and intimidation free, with a focus on customizing and shaping our strategies & training recommendations to fit the needs and motivations of each individual dog. We do not have any “one fits all” methodologies.

We strongly believe that respect & understanding go a long way in achieving goals. We teach that structure, boundaries and solid communication are essential in a healthy and balanced relationship.

Because dogs are social creatures having evolved with humans for what some scientist believe now to be over 15K years ago, the implications of this evolution process can not be overlooked.

Teaching our clients how to establish balanced relationships, without the use of intimidation or force, what “dominance” really means, from an ethological perspective, and how to exploit environmental rewards are just a few of the fundamentals you will learn with us!

As opposed to an interest in competitive obedience or dog sports, our focus is on building lasting foundations & relationships, in our day to day, with the dogs we share our lives with.

We help our clients learn how to incorporate the training tools they gain with us, into their day to day lives with their dogs, as opposed to scheduled “training time” scattered randomly throughout the day. We strongly emphasize that every single interaction we have with our dogs, effects immediate and future behavior, and how this can be powerful in teaching & changing behaviors.

Its all to easy to forget that the experience that our dogs may be having on a daily basis as they go through life with us, is likely much different then we realize. They are experiencing the world largely through an artificially selected set of traits, predominately driven by their nose (sense of smell), accompanied by relatively poor eyesight, not to mention the fact that many of our dogs, are constantly being consumed by the hyper-vigilant “working” traits we often admire in our canine companions, but are far to often problematic in the urban settings in which we live in today.

We strive to help you better understand your dog as an individual but also as a species. We consider factors such as how your relationship & daily interaction with him may be effecting his behavior, as well as other factors such as breed tendencies, environmental components, past learning experiences, your dogs ability to deal with stress as well as other components.

As devoted as we are to all of this, we also feel that life is short! Life is already full of enough stress & building a relationship & training your dog should not be one of those! A positive attitude & outlook on life is guaranteed to be part of your experience with us!