FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

This is such an important question and one more people should be asking! The pet training industry is an unregulated one in the US meaning you could end up working with someone who causes you more harm and sets you even further back from your goals. Our trainer and founder, Jordan, is certified through the CCPDT and regularly attends conferences to keep that title. He specializes in behavior meaning he works with those more difficult cases and focuses his energy on continuing to perfect his craft with problem behaviors and with preventing them. He also works closely with other qualified professionals including a veterinary behaviorist to help provide his students with as much help as possible! Don't just let anyone help you with this important task, trust us to get you there!

We work with every behavior under the sun! It doesn't matter if you are looking for basic manners skills like jumping, counter surfing, or leash pulling or need to work on something more complex like resource guarding, aggression, or separation anxiety; we work with it all and have pretty much seen it all too. We also don't discriminate against breed and will work with all breeds excluding wolf-hybrids due to state law. Although breed specific traits can play a factor in your pet's behaviors, rarely does it require something completely different be done with your dog. All animals (including humans) learn the same!

We use what is called "force-free" or "science-based" training methods. This means we utilize the positive reinforcement and negative punishment quadrants of Operant Conditioning. We do not use force, intimidation, or corrective tools (e.g. e-collars, prong or choke chains, etc.) during our lessons as research shows these tools and methods cause more harm to your pet. It's something we've seen all too often ourselves. We follow the recommendations of the scientific community, the ACVB (American College of Veterinary Behaviorists), and the AVSAB (American Veterinary Society of Animal Behavior) when it comes to the methods we use. 

Have you been using aversive tools and want to try something better and kinder? We believe so strongly that you don't need these tools that we created the Aversive Purchase Program where we will buy aversive tools from you for $5 per item. no limit. Choke chains, prong collars, e-collars, retractable leashes, e-fence collars, and more are included in this program!

Your first step is to register for a private consultation either in person or virtually. From there you'll be guided through a private training plan consisting of a certain number of follow up lessons based on your goals and the specific behaviors your dog is presenting. Follow up lessons are both virtual and in-person (some behaviors are better trained virtually or in-person so we like to do what will provide the fastest results) and are 45 minutes long. Most people use a lesson every 3-4 weeks. We don't generally recommend going longer than 4 weeks between lessons unless your trainer has specified this will be okay.

We don't like to think of these as competing types of services but as two pieces to a whole puzzle! We use both types of lessons in all of our training plans. There are many benefits to virtual training over in-person training, mainly that the trainer isn't a distraction or changing the context of the training lesson. For some dogs who struggle with people aggression/fear this also allows them to feel safe during the training lesson. We've seen faster and better results with our behavior cases since adding virtual training to our program! Sometimes being there in person (in home or somewhere neutral) is also helpful to mix things up and add in more distractions as your dog progresses through the training plan. Not sure how to use Zoom? No problem, It's as easy as clicking a link! Our trainer is happy to help get you started with this too.