Dog Obedience Training and Classes
Dog Leadership Training Program
Dog Leadership Level 1
We begin with the basics of leadership training, which focuses on you, the leader, providing your dog with a new language, instilling security and calm confidence in your communications with him through positive reinforcement marker training, and educating you about dogs' unique language and how to read what your dog is saying. Level I is an indoor or outdoor class on the North Shore.
We focus on real-world scenarios so that students may take their education out of the classroom and into their lives. Here of course, students are acquainted with the introduction to basic cues: sit, down, stand, wait, heel, recall, greeting (“go say hello”), this way, and behavior modification techniques. We focus on connection through leash walking with innovative positive reinforcement marker training techniques.
General Info:
Course length is 6 weeks consisting of 6 classes, 1.5 hours in length, plus one theory/orientation without dogs.
Maximum attendance is 6 dogs per instructor — an intimate number so that all pairs of paws get the adequate learning attention they deserve (this includes you, too!)
Dog Leadership Level 2
In Dog Leadership Level 2 teams will learn to generalize your Level 1 training to real-life settings and situations. You will expand your dog’s attention and connections to you at greater distances with increasing distractions. Our goal is to create confident handlers with dogs who are welcome in public areas.
Evolve your basic commands:
Introduction of new verbal commands
Basics of commands at a distance
Transitioning from one command to another in ‘drills’
Advanced heeling techniques
Advanced greeting exercises
Generalized recall with distractions
Dog Leadership Level 2 can be maintained or improved upon over time. Students must be approved to graduate to Level III.
General Info:
The course is 6 weeks long (excluding civic holidays) and consists of 6 Saturday afternoon classes, each 1.5 hours long.
Maximum attendance is 6 dogs per instructor—an intimate number so that all pairs of paws get the adequate learning they deserve (this includes you, too!).
Dog Leadership Level 3
Dog Leadership Level 3 is a demanding dog training class preparing for off-leash training. It is a course for those looking for a higher degree of focused attention and responsiveness from their dog. The focus of Level III is to deepen the student’s understanding of training concepts and the human/dog bond with higher levels of reward events for greater actions achieved by the dog.
Explore new territory:
. Commands at a distance
. Off-leash heeling drills
. Recall from distractions
. Stop or drop upon recall
. Advanced greetings
. Distraction training
General Info:
Often offered as a drop-in class on Sunday mornings.
Target Ready! With Kayleigh La Liberty
Targeting is one of the foundation skills for all training. It can help build focus, engagement, and confidence and is the start of many basic and advanced obedience skills. With a target skill, you can help reduce frustration in your training while giving your dog a fun way to interact with you and the environment.
This class will combine practical skills with tricks. We will teach dogs to target with both their noses and paws.
We will cover skills such as hand targeting, which can be turned into a fun game, the start of recall practice, polite greetings, and moving your dog without frustration.
We will also learn to target items such as a bed and other unique objects. Paw targeting can help with many skills, such as lifting your dog’s feet without added pressure, closing doors or pushing in chairs, and standing on objects (start of heel position). It is great for nervous dogs to learn to interact with their environment on their own terms.
Having solid target skills can help:
Move and position your dogs with precision
Get you from point A to point B with ease
Nervous dogs get comfortable near unknown or scary objects
Over-excited dogs greet politely
Over stimulated dogs
A target skill can be worked into fun games as well as have many practical uses. A foundation built on targeting skills is an excellent and fun way to start your obedience adventures!
Rally Obedience with Laurel Whatley
Join the fastest-growing obedience sport in a fun, alternative way to train the basic commands. Achieve increased engagement and improved response times and accuracy under the experienced tutelage of Laurel Whatley. Titles may be achieved online as well as at sanctioned events.
