The Pawsitive Dog

We brought our deaf dog to Pawsitive Dog for over a year and a half. While our dog did gain noticeable confidence around people, thanks to the controlled environment Pawsitive Dog provided, many other issues persisted despite our dedication inside and out of the classroom. One of his biggest problem areas - fear of walking outside - actually worsened despite our dedication to the Pawsitive Dog training. Feeling frustrated we decided to do some research and found that much of what we were learning was based on out-dated science. Given what we read from multiple scholarly sources, we decided to see a different trainer with a positive reinforcement approach rooted in current behavioral science. Within two visits at the new place we learned that what we had been taught to do at the Pawsitive Dog - "desensitizing" him to being outside by having him outside all of the time, feeding him outside, etc - was actually solidifying our dog's fears and rapidly dissolving his trust in us. We threw out the pinch-collar Pawsitive Dog had strongly suggested everyone use (admittedly, we were never that comfortable with in the first place) and went with the new trainer's suggestions. After less than a month with the new trainer our dog was actually able to go on night time walks with much less anxiety,(literally) stopping to smell the flowers. It was an amazing breakthrough. He is at the point now where he is even able to tolerate people walking across the street from him. Leaving Pawsitive Dog and switching to training methods based in more up-to-date behavioral science has tremendously helped our dog, as well as our relationship with our dog. While we did learn some useful information from the trainer at The Pawsitive Dog, I am not likely to recommend it based on our experiences there. For the sake of fearful dogs like ours, I truly hope Pawsitive Dog has updated their methodology since we left their program.