Obedience Training

We believe obedience training is learned by establishing who is the pack leader(between dog and owner), through correct communication (eye contact, hand and voice signals, praise and body language.) We have found that many people don't know that they are supposed to be the one making the rules, so there can be real confusion on both the dog's and the owner's part about what their roles are supposed to be. When you are the pack leader, the dog knows where he fits in, and wants to impress you through his actions.

That's where we help out - we'll give you lessons in how to start off right from the beginning or take back over with an older dog, and then you'll both be happier! In general, owners need the training - once the owner learns how to talk to the dog, the two learn together amazingly quickly. With owner education, we can often change a "problem dog" into a wel-loved part of your family. We advocate a fair, firm approach that uses plenty of praise for good behavior and immediate correction for bad behavior.

We offer several different options for training:

* Group lessons in Telluride

* Private lessons at your home, including special emphasis on household behavior and aggression problems, if needed

* When your dog stays with us, we work with him a little every day since 12-15 dogs in a group need constant attention and reinforcement. This work is included in our daily boarding rate.

* We can also give him individual lessons, while he's here, covering basic obedience exercises and, most importantly, learning to be calm in the house. If we do that, we will also arrange lessons with you when you return so you are ready to continue what we've started.

 

* "Boot Camp" - is our way of turning around a problem often young adult dog. We have had numerous clients send their dogs to us from around the country to give the dog a refresher course in good behavior. Essentially, we start from the beginning and retrain him in good behavior and appropriate in-home living. We'll teach him to "chill", and he'll learn that being quiet and calm in the house gets him lots of praise. Issues we've been successful in retraining in are barking, destruction, food aggression and submissive fear issues, among others. We also require lessons for the owner, often by phone, before sending the dog home, to ensure long-term success.