Dog obedience focuses on giving your dog a particular set of commands in which the dog must obey.  Dog psychology teaches people to honor a dog’s natural instincts, which allows you to communicate with your dog on a fundamental level.  My goal is to teach you why your dog acts in a particular way and why various unwanted behaviors manifest themselves and how to prevent or correct them.  While the two can be complimentary, unless you are training a show dog or service animal, I advise following the 80/20 rule.  Eighty percent psychology and twenty percent obedience.  A dog can be highly trained (obedient) but still suffer behavioral issues as only dog psychology deals with the underlying root causes of a dog’s behavior.

This is a popular phrase in dog training but truthfully there is no such thing as using only positive reinforcement.  The simple act of removing a treat, ignoring, or any other means of delaying affection is by definition negative punishment techniques.  That being said, none of my methods will injure a dog in any way.  My personal philosophy is I never use any device on a dog that I would not test on myself.  It is my belief that you should be able to challenge your dog mentally, not physically.  This enables even the youngest of children to be elevated to a leadership role.  However, I do believe in discipline and setting boundaries, no different than a parent would set for their child.

Untrained or new dog owners tend to make the mistake of “humanizing” their dog.  While I believe all dogs are part of your family, and should be treated as such, there are inherent physiological and psychological differences between humans and canines.  In order to understand your dog’s needs, you need to think like a dog.  This is where I come in.  I’ll teach you the difference between what a dog actually perceives versus what you believe the dog perceives.

In reality, my training is geared towards the owner.  Once the owner understands the dog’s perspective, any unwanted behavior from the dog can be modified or prevented.  In most cases, a dog doesn’t want to exhibit many of these unwanted behaviors but feels the need to do so because their owner does not take the proper leadership role.

The dog training world is highly fragmented.  There’s a running joke that the only thing two trainers can agree on is the third one is doing it wrong.

While I tweak his methods to my comfort level, I have found Cesar’s techniques to be the single most effective means of creating a balanced dog/human relationship.  Rather than scatter my energy, I’ve decided to focus my time and capital on utilizing his training techniques.

This doesn’t mean I’m not open to other techniques or other methods are wrong, there are many angles you can take to tackle the same problem.  But as a graduate of Training Cesar’s Way and a lifetime student, I want to be fully transparent about my training background and beliefs.

Absolutely not.  We all have different personalities, strengths and weaknesses.  This is not dominance training, my methods are catered to your level of comfort.

While I discourage the “alpha” mentality, assuming a calm and assertive leadership role is crucial for my training to work.

$50 per individual consultation.

The first consultation is typically 1.5 hours long as it includes a discussion of goals, initial dog assessment, and training.  Follow-up consultations are roughly an hour.

That’s just an approximation, I’m very flexible with time.  The dog dictates the amount of time each consultation lasts.  I’m more than happy to put in extra time if it’s needed.

Please feel free to email me at landon@manadogs.com or visit the about page where there is an online form you may complete to get in touch with me.