How We See Dog Training

We try to make very complex things, very simple. So, we’ve come to think of dog training in terms of Addition, Subtraction and Multiplication. Let us explain…

Addition - We need to ADD some new behaviors to your dog’s life: sit, down, stay, come, heel, go to bed, release, etc.

Subtraction - We need to REMOVE some behaviors from your dog’s behavior: pulling on the leash, pooping the house, jumping on guests, etc. (This, by the way, is one of the primary things that separates us from all other dog trainers. Because they don’t train dogs at the dog’s own front door, kitchen counter, favorite rug to pee on, etc - they can’t typically fix the problem behaviors of the dog…because they are training the dog AWAY from home.)

Multiplication - It’s easy to train a dog to sit and stay in your peaceful living room, but will she still obey with noise and traffic and distractions swirling all around you two? This is where the Wonder Dog Games come in. Each week we gather up a dozen or so clients and dogs to play games (seemingly), but what we’re REALLY doing is teaching your dog to obey NO MATTER WHAT is going on (plus it’s super fun for the humans).

The Goldilocks of the Dog Training World

Between training a dog too GENTLY (which works fine until the dog is tempted by a squirrel or some pizza on the counter) and training a dog too ROUGHLY (which works just fine except that it breaks a dog’s spirit), our healthy and balanced use of positive and negative re-enforcement is juuuust right, just like what Goldilocks found in the bear’s house.  That is…

We are often asked if we use pain or pleasure to train the dogs. This question typically comes from a person who’s read a few articles or watched a few videos by some celebrity. Unfortunately, those are simplistic, false categories.

It’s like asking if you raise your child with only encouraging words and hugs, or with only time-outs and spankings. Most parents use a healthy, balanced amount of all sorts of stimuli, depending on what each kid needs and what each situation calls for. Likewise, we do the same with our client’s dogs.

Like doing anything well, professional dog training is bit more sophisticated, which is why all of our Dog Pros get certified before they ever even handle any dogs. So…our answer is that we train you and your dog by COMBINING ALL FOUR QUADRANTS of operant conditioning as well as our own proprietary CRF METHOD (which is far more than just a bag of treats or a kick in the rear).  All of this seems tricky at first, but we’ll show you just how easy and fun dog training can be.  We think you’re gonna love this! If you want to read our “official” ethics statement, then you can find it here.

The CRF Method - The 3 MUSTS of IN-Home DoG Training

Consistency - We need you to be consistent like clockwork in your commands to your dog.  No flip flopping. No sometimes saying yes and sometimes saying no. All your back and forth will only confuse the dog and ruin all that we are trying to teach you guys, ok?

Repetition - Of course, repetition is the mother of all learning.  Like a steady drip of water on a rock over time, repetition makes a permanent impression. Does that make sense?  To train your dog right, you can’t just rely on the weekly lesson with your trainer as one and done kind of thing.   The training program will require YOU to do daily homework assignments (about 20 minutes a day) to RE-ENFORCE all that we are showing you, ok?

Family - Your dog needs all of the handlers in the house to be on the same page, otherwise, he will get one set of signals from one person and a different set of commands from someone else, only further confusing the eager little guy even further. To do this right, we need all parties learning and growing together, ok?