What Credentials & Experience Do You Have?

Did you know that anyone can call themselves a dog trainer?  Yes, it is sadly true.  There is no governing body around what constitutes a professional dog trainer.  So, this means you have to do your due dilligence in picking a trainer to ensure that you are choosing someone with Experience and Education.  For a list of my education & experience, please visit our "About Us" Page.

What Is Your Training Philosophy?

So glad you asked as this is very important when it comes to choosing a trainer.  Please check out the "Our Training Philosophy" page.  

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Do You Guarantee Training Results?

Absolutely Not... and you should be wary of any trainer that does.  Dogs are individuals.  And as such a professional trainer cannot guarantee the behavior of a dog.  What you want to look for is a trainer who will create a training plan that is specific to your dog, not a cookie cutter cirriculum.  And you want a trainer who has more than one answer to how to teach something or work on a problem behavior.  This is because not all methods work for all dogs, so you want a trainer with multiple options in their "training toolbox".

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What We Will Is Something Better:  We offer ALL of our clients free follow up phone/chat consultations.  That means that once you are our client, you are our client for life and can always call or text us questions to help with your furry family member.

Do You Use Compulsory Training Tools?

Aka... choke chains, prong collars, electronic collars

Absolutely Not.  These tools are not for the everyday family pet, and are rarely if ever necessary.  I am not saying that compulsion training does not produce results, merely that it is inhumane and unnecessary.  If you want to know more about our training philosophy, you can visit the "Our Training Philosophy" Page

Do You Train Using Treats

This is a question I get ALL THE TIME!  The answer is Yes.  I do often use treats to train, especially when training with the owner because it quickly bridges the relationship gap as we start to teach you how to communicate with your dog and gets your dog quickly interested in training.  Are treats 100% necessary? No.  It is possible to train a dog without treats, but using treats tends to speed up the time it takes to get solid results.  

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Does this mean my dog will only listen to me when I have treats? And, will I have to carry treats around forever?

No.  We will work on phasing out the use of the treats as your dog gets more solid on responding to you.  The goal is to not need treats in the future.  One of my strongest beliefs is that you can only rely on always having only 2 things on you: your voice and your body.  Which means the end goal of training is for your dog to listen to your voice and hand movements.

Do You Sell A Package of Lessons?

Yes.  We offer discounts if you purchase groups of 3 training sessions.  We don't sell in more than 3 sessions at a time.  We don't do this because we never want our clients to feel stuck working with us if they feel they don't need more training or like they aren't getting the results they want.  We can decide together how many sessions to start with after an initial consultation.

How Many Sessions Will You Need For My Dog to Behave...

I get this question a lot.  And my first response is "I can't tell you that because every dog is different."  Some dogs learn faster than others, other owners are overachievers in working on their homework during the week.  What I can tell you is that after an initial consultation with you and your pup, I will tell you what I think you can expect from training.  

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The follow up question is usually, well what's the average amount of time.  Again this is a case by case basis.  I have multiple clients who only have to have 1 session with me and just keep me updated over the few following weeks.  Other clients I work with on a weekly basis for months.  It simply depends on your individual dog and what training you need and how far you want to go in your training.  

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Lastly on this note, please be vary wary of any trainer who will give you a set number of sessions to train something ahead of time.  Dogs are individuals, and just as a good trainer won't guarantee results, a good trainer won't be able to give you an exact time frame on training.