Our first goal is to teach you how to understand what your dog is communicating to you. Through that understanding, we are then able to modify their behavior because we can then communicate back to them in specific ways they understand. With this solid foundation of understanding each other, communication and learning is most effective because it becomes a two-way street. Not just you “barking” out orders. Teaching your dog in this manner, combined with positive methodology, promotes accelerated learning, and nurtures the development of an unbreakable trust between you and your dog. It also promotes the development of an emotionally healthy animal, that through that trust –can learn to rely on you for emotional support and direction, so they can focus on just being a confident, happy pup!

Dogs learn in two ways – by association, their emotional response, and by consequence, by doing. Through a series of positive or negative, reinforcements or punishments, these learning methods can be manipulated to teach dogs nearly anything from a choreographed dance, to herding sheep, to sniffing out cancer or detecting bombs. Some of those methods utilize pain or fear to decrease unwanted behavior. And some methods utilize rewards to increase good behavior. While we use several teaching methods, those that use pain or fear will NEVER be used on your dog. We feel very strongly that dogs need patience, understanding, confidence, and a gentle touch when it comes to learning.

 We do not use (nor support the use of) tools or methods that involve pain or fear. This includes: prong, choke, or pinch collars, bark, shock, or e-collars, citronella collars, spray bottles, air-spray cans, air horns, yelling, hitting, leash snapping, or anything else deemed a “correction.”

We can’t say that the methods using pain or fear don’t work. Humans have been using the same punishment style techniques for centuries and getting results. However, the study of canine behavior and how to effectively train and teach animals has evolved tremendously just in the past decade. We have learned that the methodology using pain or fear causing tools & tactics come with major risks. Many studies over the past few decades have proven the negative emotional & psychological damage  these training methods  can cause.  They can damage your dogs ability to trust you, exasperate aggressive behaviors, increase fear and anxiety levels, and suppress warning signals indicating escalating aggressive behaviors that can cause injury to others, or the dog itself. Those methods just aren’t conducive to creating and nurturing trust or raising an emotionally well-balanced dog. And they just aren’t necessary for results. By keeping up to date with the latest studies and information in the field of canine behavior and psychology, we can teach you how to manage and change your dog’s behavior using a kinder, more gentle approach.