Science - Psychology - Common Sense

We have years of experience to help you fix common problems, including behavior modification for the toughest issues. The most important question we are asked is about our methods. It is also one of the most complex and misunderstood components of dog training. There are a lot of trainers who have not evolved, and continue to use the most archaic methods of dog training. There are others who have hyper-evolved, and believe that just using treats will provide the results you seek. Aversive training and “pure” positive treat based approaches tend to only last as long as the aversive or the food rewards are available – we prefer you live the “dog life”, which doesn’t mean managing your dog all the time, it means creating a thinking dog! Our **net-POSITIVE** system is proven, effective and is based in true science, psychology, and a common sense approach to building a relationship that lasts.

We are not advocates of using e-collars for training obedience as a single modality of training. We do not rule out any equipment as all of it has a purpose, we just think there is a better approach. We prefer to teach our dog owners how to build a good relationship based on trust and respect. Our training is not based on using food to illicit each behavior, although we will use food rewards to build a relationship with your dog, and to shape certain behaviors. A dog that only works for a treat quickly learns that it only has to listen when treats are being given so we eliminate the treats and transition to using praise as a primary reward. We do not believe a good relationship is forced or bribed into existence.

Interrupting your dog's inherent drives followed by proper praise yields the best results. Teaching proper interruption, and proper praise is part of the process. We call this **NET-POSITIVE** training because we focus on the positive. It is when their drives outweigh their intellect, causing them to be impulsive, they appear to be bad dogs. Teaching a dog to control its impulse to chase, jump, hunt, or react negatively is what we do. You cannot forget the drives, because they still exist. We teach you how to satisfy those drives through proper enrichment. In short, we teach you how to become a good leader! There is a time for correction, as good and bad are a reality that cannot be ignored. Teaching your dog what is right or good with balanced correction in order to maintain a proper relationship is our goal.

One key point to remember is that dogs are not human. Too many failures come when the pressure to "be human" is put on a dog. When you understand that dogs do not have the brain that humans have, and they have drives that control them, you can get to the core of the problems your dog is having much more effectively.