"Dog Training" has evolved over the last decade from a rarity to a necessity for responsible dog owners. Our pets have come to play a larger role in our lives; in many cases they have become an integral part of our families. To adapt them to our life-styles, we must remember that our behaviors are as strange to them as theirs are to us. For example, we shake hands and they sniff each other.
Dogs are not children but in many ways their learning ability is similar. Discipline with love, leadership with kindness, and consistency are essential.
In order to establish "house rules" that are workable for both human and dog, reasonable boundaries must be set. We feel that in order to successfully establish and maintain ground rules, we must better understand how to communicate from the dog's perspective. That is the goal of our classes.
Kathy Dunn has been training dogs and their owners for over 25 years. Her goal is to help the average "family pet" owner to understand and gain control over their dogs. She teaches using a "behavioral" approach from which we learn to develop communication skills with our dogs based on body language, posture, and voice tones as well as understanding the dogs perspective. These classes are designed to help you to establish your relationship to your dog based on principles of the pack. Thus enabling the dog owner to become the "pack leader". Although not your traditional "obedience" class, she also incorporates basic leash work and commands once pack structure has been established.
Our 6 week Puppy Classes include:
- understanding and establishing the pack order
- beginning leash work
- laying the foundation for the basics of beginning commands: sit-stay-come
- discussion of common puppy issues i.e. housebreaking,crate training, jumping, chewing etc.
- and plenty of free play as a socialization tool.
Our 6 week Adult Classes include:
- understanding and establishing pack order
- discussion of common behavior problems as well as individual issues i.e. "Why does my dog do ___?" (fill in the blank)
- basic leash work, i.e. learning to walk on a loose leash without pulling
- how to teach and reinforce the basic commands: sit-stay-heel-come
These introductory classes are the foundation for any further training you would like to do with your dog. If you are a first time dog owner, or need help understanding your dog and solving a few problems, or simply want to make your good dog better, please follow this link: Before You Register .
