Training Philosophy: Always Positive as our name implies
Compassion:
Didn’t you feel great when your Dad or Mom helped you with just the right words and praise in learning to ride your bike when you were little? Did you start with training wheels that they gradually raised to help build your balance skills on the bike? Just like people, we believe that our pets learn best when they are treated with compassion and feel safe as they are taught new skills. Just as you gained proficiency with your bike riding as the training wheels were raised, our training is paced so your pet remains successful. We never use corrections, force or physical manipulation. Besides being inhumane, corrections and force can lead to your pet having aggression and fear issues.
Consistent communication:
Don’t you wish your dog or cat could understand what you were saying to them? Well, with positive reinforcement and clicker training we can help you bridge the gap in communicating with your pet. We will teach you how to use a clicker or verbal marker to tell your pet they did something you like so that these behaviors will be repeated. Behaviors you do not like will be ignored, managed by changes to the pet’s environment or incompatible behaviors will be trained instead. We can also teach you how to recognize what your pet’s body language is saying. Being consistent about how you and your family communicates with your pet is important to their learning and understanding of good behavior.
Properly timed rewards:
How often would you be willing to go to work and not collect a paycheck or other compensation? Our pets too, are motivated to work with us when we give out rewards they enjoy. The key is to present the reward immediately after the pet offers the behavior.
Once your pet has learned the skills you desire, you can eventually fade to a random reinforcement schedule to maintain the behaviors. You can also use other rewards, such as petting or praise, in addition to the high value ones you used in training.
Time to train:
How many different ways have you heard the old adage of the effort you put in equals the success of the end result? With pet training this applies as well, but rest assured with a little effort on your part you will be able to teach your pet basic skills. Depending upon your goals this could be a couple of minutes a few times a week to daily sessions. We provide you with handouts and written training steps so you know what to practice in between lessons. Don’t have the time to do the training? Let us do it for you (applies to most, but not all dog training issues).
Well behaved and happy pet:
Both positive reinforcement methods and clicker training will help you integrate compassion, consistency and good reward timing into your training. All you need to supply is training time, until your dog understands the concepts you have chosen to teach. However, if you don’t have the time, we can even train your dog for you! Then we simply show you how to communicate with your dog, and how to maintain the behaviors. We believe all pets can be well behaved and happy.
Tessa starting to play "101 Things To Do With A Box".
