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Monday 8am - 8pm Tuesday 8am - 8pm Wednesday 8am - 8pm Thursday 8am - 8pm Friday 8am - 8pm Saturday 8am - 8pm

Pack Leader Help: Dog Training & Behavior

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United States
Alexandria, VA
Pack Leader Help: Dog Training & Behavior

We rehabilitate dogs and train people. Any breed, any age, any behavior.

11/03/2025

🚨🚨This Saturday’s group class is a special one because ALL the proceeds go to ALIVE! The largest Alexandria’s largest organization preventing food and housing insecurity.

I’m also opening this up to non PLH clients - anyone with a friendly non aggressive dog who has leash control over them are welcome to sign up and attend.

I want to make this my biggest group class yet to help the families in need in the area. Alexandria VA has been hit the hardest due to government layoffs and overall pessimism about trump’s economy.

I know it’s small but it’s one way we can give back and show care for those in need around us. Please share this as many people as you can ❤️❤️

10/28/2025

I wish I had the numbers of how many times a client has said “I never saw this behavior the first month”

That’s because you won’t. It takes time, usually months, for true behaviors to show- partially reactivity and aggression. Most dogs from shelters are so overwhelmed and shutdown or exhausted. Before you start taking that dog out and about, meeting new dogs people and new environments, spend the first month or two getting to know them, developing a relationship and for god sakes, hire a trainer 😭

So many preventable bites and additional trauma can be avoided. You don’t know that dog yet but you will. It just takes time.

10/27/2025

Iris’ grumpy ass face🤪 man, I love our Sunday hikes. Phones off, long beautiful drive, my favorite places in Loudoun County, VA and the most relaxing walk imaginable with my happy girl.

There are plenty of other posts about this but I’d like to throw my hat in the ring.

GET OUTSIDE WITH YOUR DOG. Find areas where they can run off leash, use Sniffspot, Ecollar train your dog for off leash.

I personally believe every dog would choose to leave how to respond to the e-collar if it meant they could be off leash more.

Dogs aren’t meant to live a life of stuck behind walls or small 10x10 yards. They need fulfillment, just like us which means when and where you can get your self and your dog outside.

For those who are physically incapable, that’s why something like a Sniffspot is a good option so you can sit and observe and may not be able to physically interact. Or work with a trainer who can help achieve more physical off leash control for you.

We all need more vitamin D but our dogs definitely need more opportunities to run at full speed and sniff like crazy in nature.

10/19/2025

There’s so many ways to tackle this but here’s a simple plan to get started now. You’ve got a month until Thanksgiving there’s a lot you can accomplish between now and then.

What are you working on with your dog?

10/17/2025

Another successful dog trainers hang this week🥰

hosted a beautiful sound bath with some amazing clients, friends and people. It just reminds me how much we attract the most incredible humans to our businesses. I’m feeling so blessed and lucky!

The dog world has brought me so much goodness and I’m grateful for everyone that has been apart of my journey.

Alana is taught me so much about what friendship and relationship can look like. A safe, supportive but honest place to land. I don’t know what I’d do without her! Thanks for a great week:)

09/29/2025

Okay sorry I click baited you!! I’m trying to please the Instagram gods 🙏🏽

Reactivity can be complex. It’s not always simple and may require a trial and error approach but there are things you can focus on to ensure you understand why your dog is reactive and how to help them.

Symptom management is the most common issue I see with clients.

Ex: My dog pulls and lunges so let’s stop them from pulling and lunging.

The problem with that is that it doesn’t address the underlying reason.

Need help with your dog? Shoot us a DM

09/24/2025

I’m soooo excited for this next month. If you’ve never done a sound bath, it’s relaxing, incredible and a way to really check in with yourself. 🌸

My incredible expert will be guiding us on:
🗓️ THURS OCT 16th 6:30pm
Location: Alexandria, VA Huntington Community Center
$35

DM me “sound” for the rsvp link spots are limited!

09/04/2025

🚨Socialization is making dogs WORSE.

I know you’ve heard it a thousand times: “Just socialize your dog!”
But ….⬇️

❌ Dog parks = chaos
❌ Daycares = over-arousal
❌ Forcing puppies into scary situations = flooding

That doesn’t build confidence.
It builds reactivity, anxiety, and even aggression.

Real socialization isn’t about more exposure, it’s about the right experiences. Calm, structured, and led by YOU.

The dogs I work with who struggle the most almost always victims of bad “socialization.”

📌 Save this if you’re raising a puppy
📤 Share with a friend who still hits the dog park daily

Because bad socialization is worse than none at all.

06/01/2025

Happy 10th birthday to the dog that built my life, my career, my everything. 🤩🌈

My entire career I’ve worked specifically with aggressive dogs and there wasn’t a single dog I did a board & train with or worked with that Iris didn’t make her friend. She is resilient, loving, passionate, serious, goofy, and the best dog anyone could ever ask for. She is every dog an owner wishes they had and I got so fu***ng lucky with her.

She is spritely and young at heart and I plan on having another decade with her. She has seen the ending of relationships, 4 moves, grief, joyous occasions, new friends, thousands of dogs, and an entire decades worth of memories. I don’t even remember a life without her at this point and I never want to.

What will she get today? A long hike (this is what most dogs want!) where she gets to enjoy the fruits of her labor, some sort of steak dinner and a massage for only as long as she prefers. I wish she could read so she can hear all of this but I will thank her by fulfilling her each day.

To end, a poem I wrote about her last year 🙂

Coffee-eyed glare, rich and not bitter
Suddenly I’m guilty for a treat I did not consider
“Not right now” a swift murmured excuse
Her knowing look, one not so easily refused
Remnants of expectancy litter the ground
Freshly cleaned flooring suddenly drowned
Moments to years, a face freckled with gray
Give the treat now, these moments won’t stay

04/07/2025

I meet and talk with clients daily who are excited about helping their dog and immediately ask to join group classes for their reactive pup.

What they fail to realize is, reactivity is a SYMPTOM often built, rehearsed and perfected at HOME. It’s just that those reactions are either smaller or less inconvenient so they’re not viewed as the primary “issue”.

It’s the small or minor responses that matter the most. These are often missed or pushed aside as less important.

“Well I don’t care as much that he barks at the door”
“Getting her to come when called isn’t our priority right now”
“I’d love for him to drop the ball on command but I want to focus on his leash reactivity”

If you’re unable to control your dog’s most basic impulses in a controlled environment like your home, what makes you think tackling an uncontrolled trigger and environment is going to be the best game plan? This is not to shame at all! Its only to bring awareness to the root cause. These little moments that add up throughout your relationship.

A training program focused on passing dogs, triggers or group classes first is one that will fail, in my opinion. The issue isn’t that your dog is reacting to those things, it’s a multitude of other factors contributing to the symptom in the moment.

What do you think?

04/01/2025

I don’t think it needs to be said but this is an April Fool’s joke despite me wishing it wasn’t!

The dog training industry has a long ways to go but at least in this corner, in my part of the community- a mixture of training methodologies, we don’t argue we stay curious.

Anyone who paints things as black and white, with very little regard to nuance, is a person I will never trust. This goes for both balanced and force free trainers.

They are ethical ways to train in both “corners” and unethical ways to train.

I have to believe the majority of people are doing the best they can with the information they have. They are ways of gently guiding someone to more kind, less forceful or physically punitive ways of training but it doesn’t include belittling, beating, and harassing trainers online.

I hope we can all do better soon.

03/30/2025

Is your dog reactive toward other dogs?
-Growling. Lunging. Barking.

It’s not bad behavior—it’s communication. And more often than not, it’s coming from a place of fear, not dominance.

The truth is:
Dog-on-dog aggression is common.
And better yet—it’s fixable.

This post breaks down:
• What actually causes it
• What triggers it
• Why it escalates
• And what your dog really needs

Whether your dog’s reactions feel random or rooted in something deeper, we’re here to help you move from chaos to calm—with empathy, structure, and long-term results.

Swipe through to learn more, and send us a DM if you’re ready to get started.

Address

Alexandria, VA
22309

Opening Hours

Monday	8am - 8pm
Tuesday	8am - 8pm
Wednesday	8am - 8pm
Thursday	8am - 8pm
Friday	8am - 8pm
Saturday	8am - 8pm

Telephone

+15715703395

Website

http://Packleaderhelp.com/

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Orgins of Pack Leader Help

Brianna moved back to northern Virginia after spending the previous 5 years in Pennsylvania for her undergraduate program in business administration with a concentration in small business development. After she moved back to NOVA, Brianna recognized the perfect opportunity to help dog owners and their pets. There was plenty of dog training facilities in the DMV area, but none actually addressed dog psychology or dog behavior, and none helped to create a harmonious relationship between dog and owner-a relationship based on trust and respect, instead of sending dogs off for intense training courses that don’t involve the owner and don’t create lasting and healthy results for behavior modification.

It was clear after the first few months of Pack Leader Help opening that the community desired a place where they can actually find results for serious behavioral problems such as aggression, over excitement, leash pulling, anxiety, etc. Brianna uses her arsenal of tools, which all stem from dog psychology and behavior, to inform owners on how to understand their dog, why their dogs do the things they do, and what they, as owners and pack leaders, need to do to fix and rehabilitate the behavior.