Before you know where you are going you need to know where you are. People ask us all the time if we do evaluations, the answer is no, not in the traditional dog training sense. This usually means a trainer coming to your house, or worse, you taking your dog to them and then watching your dog behave and telling you what they think your dog needs and offering you a number of training packages. We sell one thing and that is results. Those results are based on what you can do without talking and treats, not what we can do. If that was the case we would be entertaining you, not training you.
We cut traditional training time by over 90% by not focusing on unwanted behaviors first, but instead showing you how your dog responds to us when we speak dog to them which is based on eye contact, movement, and touch. Then we turn it over to you and pressure test the training. How do we do that? It’s simple, our mindset is that after we leave your dog will be tested by every condition, in any environment. Remember, we don’t teach the dog anything, we only take what is natural to the dog and show you how to unlock it. Once we show you the principles of Focus Based Canine Training we do several service dog tests that are done after 6-18 months of traditional talk and treat training. This is our evaluation. It allows us to see how well we have transferred the information to you so that you can transfer it to your dog. What we don’t take into consideration is age, breed, size, or background. The reason why is that in public, if your dog acts out, all people see is an out of control dog. However, typically service dog testing is done when the dog is around two years old.
Here are the four tests we do with every dog-
1) Loose lead walk (being able to walk a dog of any size on one finger using the Immediate Correction & Traffic Lead that come with your appointment)
2) Off Leash Stay (5 minutes) the service dog testing standard is only 3 minutes and they make the dog sit, we allow standing, sit, or down.
3) Walk Around Test (with your dog in the heel position we walk around you both ways within arms reach, the standard is that the dog only mover their head and not the rest of their body)
4) Lunge Test (with your dog in the heel position we lunge at you, the standard is that your dog not put any tension on the leash)
During all these tests the only corrections used are the ones that are taught when we show you have to walk the dog on a loose lead. No talk (except praise and no treats).
This is how we evaluate dogs. After over 3000 we know a thing or two. All dogs perform ten times better than their owners expect.
We don’t make any excuses for a dog’s performance on these tests. They give us and you a full picture of exactly where the dog is and how to get them where you want them. This usually takes the first 30 minutes of the appointment and we often do more than one dog in an hour.
What I mean by not making excuses is that yesterday we had had a 12 week old Husky pass all the tests with flying colors. Many would not expect this due to age and breed, again excuses. This is an indication of the dog’s ability. With consistent training the sky’s the limit. All future training is done using the principles of Focus Based Canine Training taught and evaluated in the first 30 minutes of training. Whether you want the dog to do, or not to do something the same principles are used. This is made possible by removing the mistakes by the handlers that create variables. This allows the dog to always know what is expected and ensures success. This produces a confident dog and handler.
The rest of the hour is spent using the FBCT principles to work on the behaviors that we were called for in the first place. The interesting thing is that the majority of these behaviors disappear once the dog has rules, boundaries, and limitations. The reason a dog continues doing an unwanted behavior is that they have never before been told not to in their language of eye contact, movement, and touch. Once that happens they kind of look at you like “why didn’t you say so”?.
Your dog is not a special snowflake, they are a dog and all dogs are about two DNA points away from being gray wolves. They are pack animals and in a pack everyone except for the pack leader has a higher ranking dog they answer to for EVERYTHING. All we do is show you have to be a higher ranking dog. All without saying a word or giving them treats. A dog that knows who their higher ranking dog is and their rules, boundaries, and limitations is a calm, relaxed dog.
As you read through our hundreds of reviews keep in mind that in each and every case, what I have described above is what was used to get the results people describe. You are one hours away from having a totally different relationship with your dog. We love to work with more than one dog for no extra charge and we come to you.