Dog training and obedience is a perishable skill that should be maintained throughout the life of your pet. We will train your dog in basic obedience and train you to continue and maintain the training. Maintenance training is a must and we will give you the skills and tools to continue maintaining the behaviors your dog has learned. Without maintenance training, your dog's level of obedience will diminish.
Food and treats are great motivators and the primary reward we use in training. Ideally, your dog will learn to work for their food throughout the day. This creates a dog who enjoys working and overall is happier to perform tasks.
We are balanced trainers who subscribe to B.F. Skinner's four quadrants of operant conditioning. That means we use rewards and corrections as motivators to accomplish training. Electric collars are just one tool in our tool box and we are skilled in the operation and application of this tool to establish a clear line of communication with the dogs we train.
Typically, we can train basic obedience in two weeks. If needed, the training will continue until we are happy with the results. In cases where the training goes longer, we don't charge additional fees.
We treat your dog like a member of our family and your dog will stay in our home. Dogs often enjoy training and using their brains to figure out how to get the "reward" in training. Dogs who are well trained are generally happier and get excited to train. A typical day in training involves 4-6 sessions, so your dog will have lots of engagement with our trainers.
Before we start protection training, we test for temperament and drive. Contrary to popular belief, a dog that barks and appears aggressive does not often make a good personal protection candidate. A well trained protection dog understands the context of bite work and training for protection will not change the temperament of the dog.
Protection training is a long road. Police dogs that I have trained start their protection training at 8 weeks old and are not ready for the street until at least 14 months which is very young for a police dog. The time it takes to fully train a dog in protection varies greatly and depends on temperament, drive, and consistency of training.
Yes, the younger the better. If the dog meets our standard for suitable training, it can start at a young age.
Personal protection training can be tailored to your goals with the dog. We train personal protection dogs, police dogs, and sport dogs that all have different levels of bite work and varying missions. We will discuss your goals and train your dog accordingly.
We recommend at least once a week and as much as three times a week. A good comparison is taking your kids to karate class. If they go once, they probably had fun and learned something, but if they want to be able to develop a skill set and master their craft, consistent training is needed.
No, personal protection training with your dog is only available as a private one on one hourly session.
