Canines At Training

Canines at Training is a great place! Nice facility and fabulous trainers who know how to make learning fun for dogs and humans. I have done many classes there over the years with several herding dogs, and we always have a positive experience. My current rescue Sheltie came to me with reactivity issues and after completing the Canines at Training "Reactive Dog" classes, he is a much more confident and calm boy who can participate in group classes like Agility and Rally.

Kirsten, Wendy and Shana have made me a believer in positive reinforcement training. I come from old school dog training methods with Rottweilers I have owned in the past. While they were very obedient, they were afraid of making mistakes so when we decided to start training the dogs we now have (many years later) we heard about positive reinforcement training and wanted to give it a try. I have a 2.5 year old female German Shepherd that started training here as a pup. She started off as a reactive girl and through the expert training at Canines at Training my girl has passed the Good Canine Citizen and AKC Temperament test. It has been a long road building the trust in a dog not prone to trusting anyones judgment but her own. I think retraining me on how to train my dog with positive reinforcement has been the most difficult and rewarding part. It turns out that dog training is mostly training you and they are wonderful guiding us in the right direction to successfully raise a dog that could have been an extremely reactive dog. It’s nice to see she is excited to figure out what her crazy humans are trying to teach her rather than afraid of doing something wrong. Both my dog and I love training now and the bond we have built is so special. Our girl is not just a dog but the coolest member of our family.

We had to write to HIGHLY RECOMMEND the great Reactive Dog classes! Owen really got a lot from them - as did we! - and he'll be coming back for DOCTORS classes later in the summer. We were very impressed that the trainers truly moved at the DOGS' comfort level, using only positive reinforcements, never overwhelming anyone but in the end moving us all along faster than expected. The class doesn't just set the dogs up for success at school - it sets up for real world success, like this: we took Owen for a walk last night, and from behind a fence there was a burst of unexpected, loud barking and the sound of a dog charging. Owen looked at the fence, but then immediately checked in and focused to get a treat, then just continued on, ignoring the dog behind the fence. we didn't need to distract or ask Owen to look or anything - he just heard the dog, checked and acknowledged it, then immediately checked back calmly. We know this is from the repetition and positive reinforcement from the class. It really works!