strong foundations for real life
Tailored Coaching for All Ages & Stages
Whether you're raising a puppy, navigating the teenage months or working with an older dog, building a strong, solid foundation is the key to a well-behaved, confident and happy pooch. Private dog training programs are designed to develop essential life skills while strengthening the bonds within the family.
We look at the whole picture - your dog’s personality, your family’s lifestyle and goals, and the unique challenges of your environment and build a customized program that sets you and your dog up for success. While every plan is unique, we focus on the essential skills that make life together easier, including:
Polite Manners at Home: Addressing jumping, counter surfing, and door dashing.
Recall: Building a reliable recall so you can enjoy your time outdoors with confidence.
Calm & Focused Walks: Mastering loose-leash walking and helping your dog navigate distractions like squirrels, bikes, or other dogs without lunging or pulling.
Reactivity & Confidence: Supporting dogs who feel overwhelmed by their environment and helping them find calm in the chaos.
Family Safety & Harmony: Specialized support for child and dog safety.
Environmental Confidence: Helping dogs of all ages build confidence and resilience.
Cooperative Care: Help your dog feel comfortable with handling of all kinds to make nail trims, vet visits and medication administration easier for everyone.
Don’t see your specific challenge listed here? Every dog and household is unique. I am always happy to tailor a plan to your specific concerns and goals to ensure you get the support you need.
Smart goals for tiny toes
Puppy Program
Welcoming a new puppy into your home is a fun, exciting time but it can be challenging! Whether you're a first time dog guardian or it's been a while since you had to consider all the ways life changes with a puppy, we've got you covered with our puppy training essentials!
The Life Skills Blueprint
We tackle the essentials of living in a human home - things like potty training, crate comfort, and learning what is (and isn't) a chew toy. We turn daily routines into opportunities for your puppy to learn how to thrive in your household.
Building Environmental Bravery
The world is a big place for a small dog. Using my experience in confidence-building, I’ll show you how to introduce your puppy to new sounds, strange surfaces, and novel objects in a way that creates curiosity and positive associations instead of fear.
Connection
This is where the magic happens. Attention is the foundation for all future learning. We focus on building deep engagement, teaching your puppy that when they tune in to you, the world becomes a more rewarding and exciting place.
Adolescent manners and life skills
Staying on the Same Team Through the Teenage Phase
Adolescence is often the most challenging time for dog guardians. It’s the phase where the world suddenly becomes much more interesting than the person holding the leash, and previously learned skills can seem to disappear overnight. Instead of fighting against your dog’s natural curiosity and enthusiasm, we work with it - transforming teenage impulses into willing engagement and a desire to work with you.
Calm in the Chaos - Adolescence often brings big energy. We focus on emotional regulation and impulse control, helping your dog learn how to greet people politely without jumping and walk on a loose leash even when they're excited to explore.
The Safety Net: Strengthening focus and engagement when the environment is distracting, ensuring your teenager chooses to tune in even when the world is exciting.
Bridging the Communication Gap: Refining your shared language to move past the selective hearing phase and back into a team mentality.
Behavioural Concerns
Supporting the Fearful, Underconfident or Reactive Dog
Dogs who react with barking, lunging, pulling or avoidance aren’t being naughty; they are simply overwhelmed and coping as best they can. In a dog’s mind, acting big or moving away often makes the scary thing disappear, so they repeat the behavior because it works. While these survival strategies help the dog feel safe in the moment, they are often out of harmony with the human world around them.
It's our job to help our dogs feel truly secure and provide them with better, calmer ways to navigate their triggers. Drawing on my experience with environmental sensitivities, I help you and your dog find calm, moving from a state of reaction to a state of connection.
Leash Reactivity: Helping dogs feel safe and focused when seeing other dogs, people, or vehicles.
Shared Pathway Navigation: Addressing reactivity toward wheeled items like bikes, scooters, and skateboards to make neighborhood walks enjoyable again.
Environmental Sensitivity: For dogs that are easily startled or hesitant. We will build confidence with novel objects, strange textures, and loud or sudden noises using positive reinforcement, giving your dog the self-assurance they need to tackle new challenges at their own pace.
Barrier Frustration: Reducing barking and lunging at shared fence lines or windows.
