I do not want to or need to see your pet performing the unwanted or unsafe behavior, especially for fear and aggression cases.

Behavior Consultations are discussion based, where we can get to know each other, dig into your and your pet’s history, set up management/safety strategies, and talk about any training or medical clearance needed before a first in person session (for example, I will sometimes require muzzle training or a vet check before we can begin in-person training), OR any shopping or preparations to the house before you bring your puppy home.

Meeting virtually also removes any potential bite risk for aggression cases and prevents a scary presence in the house for extreme fear cases. No matter the case type, Behavior Consultations work incredibly well on a virtual platform!

After the consultation, when appropriate and agreed upon, the next step for local clients is usually an in-person session.

It’s important to try out multiple kinds of treats to find what your pet loves the most. We also want to remember that VARIETY is the spice of life! Always have multiple flavors, brands, sizes, and textures on hand. Generally, I don’t recommend biscuit style treats like Milk bones, especially when working on harder behaviors or in more distracting environments. Your pet gets to decide what they find the most reinforcing, so audition a whole lot of treats and make a list of their favorites, then cycle through them so your pet does not get bored. 

·      Wiggles and Wags at Petsmart. Get the Poppers style, pork or beef liver, liver and sweet potato.

·      Stella and Chewy at Critters and Me. Lamb hearts, chicken hearts, beef hearts, beef or lamb liver, Wild Weenies (different than freeze dried).  

·      Vital Essentials at Critters and Me. Everything from them! Tripe, rabbit bites, salmon, duck, more! 

·      Rachel Ray treats at Petsmart.  Junk food for dogs, these are GREAT. They’re large so you can either give them whole for a big treat or break them apart easily to make multiple bites. Go for the chicken roasters, turkey bites, and burgers.

·      Bocce’s at Petsmart. Love the Pulled pork, Surf N Turf, Bac’n, egg, and cheese.

·      Full Moon at Critters and Me. Chicken, Apple, Sausage, any of their savory bites. 

·      Human food, too! Boiled or baked chicken breast, boiled or baked turkey breast, all kinds of cheese, sausages.

·      Churu cat and dog treats for dogs.

The short answer is, you don’t really need to decide before booking a consultation! This is discussed during the consultation, and I will usually recommend the type and number of sessions depending on the issues at hand. Even for clients who do mostly 1-on-1 sessions, there will always be family sessions to transfer the skills and information. 

Nope! Everyone in the house is encouraged to join and participate for Family sessions, but 1-on-1 sessions are where it’s just me with the dog/cat. For many of my clients, these sessions are perfect ways to break up a long day for their pet while they’re at work. You do not need to be home for 1-on-1 sessions but do need to join family sessions. 

It depends! We discuss your pet’s progress and ongoing needs when we wrap up our package and I will make recommendations for further training, both training to do on your own and how many more sessions with me). Some clients may want to move to doing bi-weekly or monthly check-ins, and sometimes we continue with 1-2 sessions a week. Sometimes, we are all done with what’s currently needed and clients may come back for more help a few months or more down the road. However, if it’s been longer than 6 months and it’s a significant change (different behavior to work on, new dog, dog is now an adult, etc), another Behavior Consultation will be required.

No, training sessions are 60 minutes. For the Empowered Puppy Package, outings will often be around 90 minutes. I do not take puppies for a full day.

Yes, sessions/packages expire 3 months after purchase date. Due to the nature of animal learning and behavior, it is not conducive to our training if we have a significant break in our work together. I recommend a certain number of sessions to be done within a short time frame for most efficient training. If we do 3 of your sessions, then 6 months later we continue with the remaining 3, we will likely need to start over.

The short answer is, it depends! If your dog has bitten and injured a person or another dog, for the most part, your dog is not a good fit for a group class. Some classes are specifically set up for nervous dogs, and sometimes we can accommodate dogs who are reactive towards other dogs.

While Baskerville muzzles are the easiest to find and often the cheapest, they are not fully bite proof and may not be appropriate in every scenario. I do highly recommend them to begin your muzzle training.

For dogs who will need to wear a muzzle for longer periods or who have serious bite histories, I recommend:

Trust Your Dog (the Vinyl muzzles for serious bite cases) muzzles

Big Snoof wire muzzles

Harnesses -
I prefer most dogs wear well-fitted harnesses to remove pressure on the sensitive neck area. For big dogs, reactive dogs, dogs who pull hard, I love the Freedom Harness, clipping the leash only to the front attachment. I also recommend the Balance Harness.
For tiny dogs and puppies, I recommend soft, vest style harnesses like the Puppia brand.

Leashes and longlines -
I recommend a fixed 6-8 foot leash for your regular walks, whatever texture you prefer. For small dogs, be sure to use a leash specifically for small dogs which has a smaller/lighter clip. I prefer leashes I can easily wrap/gather in my hand when I need to shorten the leash, so I personally don’t like thicker leashes.
For special outings like park trips and hikes, I highly recommend a biothane longline from High Tail Hikes! A 10, 15, or 20 foot longline will give your dog a lot more room for adventure.

I use tug so often for training games, mental and physical stimulation, distraction/redirection, and just good fun!
My two current favorites are:

This circular tug toy from Clean Run.

This extra long tug toy from Tug-E-Nuff