Pawsonal Training

03/17/2025

Oh hi, long time no see! You may be wondering where the heck we’ve been and I promise, we had great intentions 🐾

Alesha and I ventured all the way down to Columbus, OH to attend a service dog seminar! We went down to learn the ins and outs of choosing dogs, teaching tasks, working with disabilities, and learning legalities from an incredible, notable, accomplished instructor. Leslie Horton owns Most Fine Canine, and not only runs a service dog training company, she’s a registered nurse, therapy trainer/certifier, and even testifies in court proceedings as an expert regarding ADA laws and service dog lawsuits. This was going to be amazing!! My first time off with NO dogs in my care outside of my own since May of 2024, and I was THRILLED to be gaining more knowledge.

Unfortunately, 3 hours into the seminar, norovirus decided to take a stronghold and we both spent the next several days quarantined in our little Airbnb sick as, for lack of a better word, dogs. While we missed out on the in-person education we were so thrilled to experience, we will be going over it all virtually (thanks again to Leslie for her understanding). It wasn’t a total loss though! It was a great team-building experience, it gave us time off with our own dogs (who quickly turned into our caregivers), and it was a stark reminder that if you don’t make time to take care of yourself and rest, your body will shut down faster than a Windows 95 computer with too many tabs open 😂

We’re back to our regularly scheduled programming now, so enjoy some old and new faces as we catch up on content! And if you haven’t recently… wash your hands, the world is gross 🦠

03/07/2025

Blue is a GRADUATE!! 🐾

Blue is a bit of a different case. He came to training with quite a bit of obedience having done a previous board and train and having worked with another trainer, he had tons of titles in various dog sports and events, and he has a VERY dedicated family. Despite all of this, Blue lacked confidence, impulse control, and the ability to relax.

His entire life prior to training had been spent filling gaps with MORE, MORE, MORE. He was constantly hiking or training or trialing or chewing chews or playing with toys and he was rarely doing nothing. There’s a quote that I love from my colleague Stephanie McCabe with Training Between the Ears that says, “Reactivity will not be solved by an inordinate amount of exercise or getting really good at obedience. Reactivity will be solved by changing the dog’s state of mind and creating feelings of wellbeing.” That is exactly the missing component that Blue needed!

Blue’s entire brain was focused on staying busy, acting defensively, and seeking conflict. He took movement around him as a threat and it resulted in reactive/aggressive outbursts toward people, children, dogs, small animals, bikes, cars, you name it. He could lay down on command, but his brain could not settle. THAT was our focus.

After 4 weeks together, Blue wasn’t just obedient, he was calm. He was relaxed around strangers and other dogs, not freaked out by car traffic, not ready to lunge because something got too close. He actively sought me out when he wasn’t sure how to handle something, he began greeting strangers in a curious, relaxed manner, and the tension in his brain and body finally began to ease. He even got a full professional groom (thank you Pawsitive Vibez !!), including nails, for the first time with no muzzle or issue!

At the end of training his family and I took an outing to prove to them one of the most difficult things for owners of reactive dogs: The dog’s old triggers are not the dog’s current triggers. The dog’s old triggers are now the human’s triggers. Thus began the final phase in training: relaxing human anxiety 😂

Blue and his family did incredibly well and I know they’ll continue to improve. Fantastic work, Blue and family! 💙

03/05/2025

Luca is a GRADUATE! 🎓

This boy was quite special. He came into training as an almost 6 year old dog with many years of compounding bad habits and a brain that not only worked against his family, but worked against him. Luca was spunky, playful, and full of life but also had quite a bit of anxiety, fear, reactivity, and even aggression. He didn’t appear outwardly nervous, but all of his actions were him playing defense to protect himself and his things. He’s resource guarded his whole life and his parents shaped their life around his bad choices, but this couldn’t continue when they brought a baby home and he showed aggression.

As soon as I met Luca I knew he had a lot of potential sitting right beneath the surface. He was SMART and MOTIVATED, but unfortunately those two things weren’t being utilized. We spent his initial couple weeks of training working through his relationship with me, and his relationship with the world. He was so uncomfortable with the world! So we worked very diligently to teach him that the world is a fun, rewarding, exciting place to be explored, not feared.

With dogs like these (and so many that I train) I focus our energy on behavior more than obedience. I want him to make good choices, not blindly follow orders, as lasting change occurs when he’s actively making good choices. My role is to shape better behavior, guide him through challenges, and to be his biggest fan.

After a few short weeks, he was so much more relaxed. He could confidently work around previous triggers like people, kids and other dogs, looked to me for guidance and support, listened to direction consistently, and (most importantly) was still spunky, playful, and full of life.

We also addressed his resource guarding and through a mindset overhaul, some intentional exercises, and a fun new outlet of BARN HUNT (post to follow with that!), he learned that relinquishing control of things was okay! In fact, he would voluntarily bring me high value items to “share” and would immediately back off rat tubes during barn hunt runs excited to continue the game.

I’m so proud of Luca and the hard work his family has done, and I’m honored to be a part of their journey 🐾

03/04/2025

Support small, local businesses as much as you can! Our family is fully supported by 2 small businesses as my husband and I are both small business owners. We are so grateful for every single family we help. Every single person makes a difference to our lives, so THANK YOU to those of you who have trusted me with your pups! ❤️

I have a lot I could say about this photo, how franchises don’t dedicate the time you think they do to your dog. How it’s one size fits all for them. How their goal is more dogs scheduled, more dogs in their facilities, more dogs, more dogs, more dogs.

When you go to a privately owned, small dog training business, you select someone who is not in it for the money (because this industry isn’t a get rich quick scheme, and you’d be hard pressed to do so). Choosing a small business means you choose someone who’s dedicated to your dog, dedicated to you.

When you pay a franchise, you pay a ceo who buys cybertrucks, mansions, second houses, etc.

When you pay a small business owner, you put food on their table, you keep their lights on, you pay for their kids new shoes, their modest vehicle payment.

I am grateful for those who chose me.

Choose a small business owner.

02/28/2025

Barn hunt trial is happening THIS MAY!! To all of my clients who have let their pups try barn hunt during training or boarding, this is the facility they train in! If you’d like to try out a trial, I will be there all weekend to support you and help if you decide to give it a try. If you want to enter but have questions or need help, don’t hesitate to reach out. I’d LOVE to see you all here! 🐾

Our “Paws for Patriots” May Barn Hunt Trial opens this Saturday at 6pm. Online entry at secreterrier.com or enter by mail.
We are honored to have Taylor Featherstone Carigon joining us as the event photographer.
The premium can be found in both the BHA site and Secreterrier

02/20/2025

Handsome WINSTON came back for a quick refresher and we got to introduce him to our favorite game! Winston is a 9 month old GSP who (like many working breeds) could use an outlet for that extra energy. He caught on to barn hunt very quickly with the amazing help and direction from our friends at Scent Savvy Canine Center LLC and had SUCH a blast in his lessons.

Looking for a new sport with your dog? Want added enrichment during their stay? Let us know you’d like to try it out and we can get you scheduled during your next boarding, training, or refresher! 🐾

02/16/2025

Introducing our newest board and train student: Luca!! 🐾

Luca is a 5.5 year old Yorkie mix enrolled in our 4 week reactivity board and train program to address his dog reactivity, human reactivity, resource guarding, and overall obedience.

Luca has been reactive/aggressive from a young age. At 3 months he began resource guarding to the point of bites and to this day will guard food, toys, and anything he deems to be “his”, even if they don’t belong to him. At 4.5 months, he was attacked by a dog on a walk and has been reactive to dogs on leash ever since. Luca is mostly good with new people, though he is selectively reactive.

Luca has recently moved here from a very big city and his family has also recently welcomed a new baby into the family. These significant changes, combined with his pre-existing anxiety, reactivity, and resource guarding had his family wanting to seek training to have better control over his behavior. Luca is very successful at biting to get his way, and ignoring his owners to do what he wants. He has successfully practiced guarding behaviors to maintain resources, reactive behaviors to maintain space, and selective listening behaviors to maintain freedom for almost 6 years. There hasn’t been many strong boundaries given to Luca prior to training, nor have there been many consequences to his dangerously poor choices or, more importantly, leadership to help him make better choices. This has all led to a dog who is anxious, fearful, reactive, and stressed.

His time in training will be spent focusing on that brain of his 🧠 as we will be working to build his confidence, introduce some MUCH needed impulse control, and teach strong obedience that he won’t just ignore. Luca is SMART, but that brain has not been put to good, healthy use yet.

We say it all the time, a dog who is reactive, anxious, or aggressive is NOT comfortable with their environment or with their life. Our job is to allow them to finally relax and feel better 😌

Stay tuned to watch his progress! 🐕

02/16/2025

Did you know we offer PUPPY TRAINING?! 🐶

We have several training options for puppies to help set you and your family up for success! We offer board and trains, private lessons, and virtual sessions.

In these training programs we offer help with:
🐾 Potty training
🐾 Crate training
🐾 Recall/“come” command
🐾 Sit/Down/Stay
🐾 Name recognition
🐾 Basic manners (no jumping, mouthing, etc)

Need help with something not listed? All of our training is fully personalized. Our expert trainers are here to help! Reach out with questions or to get started! 🐕

02/14/2025

Happy Valentine’s Day!!! ❤️💞❤️💞

Just a quick check-in regarding where we are for board and train scheduling for those who are planning to schedule some training! We (somehow) have one opening remaining for either a 2 or 3 week program that can begin this month. After that, we’re booking into May. We also are mostly booked for July and about halfway booked for June. Summer spots are flying!! If you think you’d like some training sooner rather than later, message me regarding this upcoming opening. If you think you’d like training for this summer, don’t wait too long! Training spaces are filling quickly this year.

Lessons have some availability at the moment as well, and we try to be very flexible and accommodating with scheduling for those, but it’s always best to let us know your scheduling preferences ASAP.

As always, I am so grateful for all of the love and support from our community. I hope each and every one of you spoil your dogs today! 🐾

02/12/2025

Introducing our newest board and train student: BLUE!! 💙

Blue is a 4.5 year old Australian Shepherd enrolled in our Reactivity Board and Train program. Blue started his training at a young age with a board and train program at 5 months old. After graduation, his mom worked very diligently to continue and expand his training back at home. Blue is also a very active boy and participates in many dog sports, regularly goes on hikes, has earned many titles and ribbons, and is consistently doing new things and going new places. Despite all of this, Blue and his mom struggle to manage his reactivity. He is selective with dogs and, though he does have a few friends, growls and reacts to strange dogs as they approach. He is also very reactive to people, including children, and has some resource guarding tendencies. He is reactive to anything that moves quickly like kids, bikes, and cars, which can be common with herding dogs but of course needs to be managed.

Blue’s family would like him to gain some impulse control, confidence, and develop neutrality around strangers, kids, dogs, and fast moving objects. They also want to improve his leash walking, cut out his bad habit of counter surfing, and improve his overall listening skills and recall.

We had to move very slow and steady with this boy as he is very human reactive and can/has become aggressive when pushed, but the moment he let his guard down, he became the most goofy, sweet, happy boy who was very eager to please. Make sure you follow along to see his progress! 🐾

02/09/2025

Let’s hear them! 🐾

What's your superbOwl name?! 🏈

02/04/2025

Does your dog love people? Do you want to find new ways to give back to your community? Let us help you and your dog to become a Certified Therapy Team! 🐕

🐾What are therapy dogs? Therapy dogs are dogs who volunteer with their owners/handlers to bring comfort to people in settings such as schools, nursing homes, etc.
🐾 How can we become a therapy team? In order to bring your dogs to these places, your dog MUST be registered with a specific therapy dog organization. Each organization has their own regulations and requirements. You CANNOT simply take an obedience class or a therapy class and call your dog “certified”. The certification must come from a nationally recognized therapy organization.
🐾 How can my dog become a therapy dog? If your dog is 1 year old or older, friendly to adults and children, neutral/friendly to other dogs, and is overall confident and comfortable in new situations, there’s a good chance they can become a therapy dog!
🐾 Is a therapy dog a service dog? NO, therapy dogs are NOT service dogs. Therapy dogs do not have the same special access as service dogs, which means they can’t go on planes, in restaurants, etc. just because they are therapy dogs. Service dogs are dogs who help an individual person who has a disability. Service dogs are permitted in public places. If you’re interested in service dog training, we would love to help point you in the right direction!
🐾 Why choose Pawsonal Training? Pawsonal Training is an elite, local, small dog training company focused on you and your dog. Our focus is ALWAYS on quality, not quantity. This means we offer individual, personalized lessons and programs tailored to you. We work with a small number of families at any given time to ensure everyone receives our undivided attention.
🐾 Who are you certified through? We are certified through Therapy Dogs United, a nationally recognized therapy organization, which helps streamline our certification process and gets you through the doors and helping your community faster. While other places offer training OR testing OR certification, we offer it all under one roof. We are also certified AKC CGC evaluators and trainers, which is a required test for many therapy organizations.

Does this sound like a good fit for you and your dog? Message us to get started! We offer training programs for those who need to nail down their obedience, mock testing/evaluations for those figuring out what they need help with, and testing/certification for those who feel they’re ready. So, what are you waiting for? 🐶

01/29/2025

Who remembers Beau?! 🐾

Beau is an INCREDIBLE golden retriever who started his training journey with us in January of 2024 where he was enrolled in our 3 week board and train program. Beau had a ton of anxiety when he came to training initially and despite working with 5 other trainers and utilizing medication from their vet, he would still pant, pace, and struggle to settle. He also pulled excessively on walks, even breaking his owners fingers to greet someone nearby.

Beau has been a frequent visitor of ours over the last year! He’s participated in a total of 3 refresher weeks to spruce up his existing obedience, as well as add new skills! He also participated in both barn hunt and scent work during his last couple stays and has fallen in love with both.

Through our training Beau has not only learned his initial obedience skills which helped get him off of his anxiety meds (yay!), but he has had a large amount of positive dog exposure to help boost his confidence after several off-leash dog charges. We also gave him a solid, reliable off leash recall, off leash obedience including heel in public spaces, and began working on his ability to walk without pulling on the leash, while still being free to sniff and explore.

Beau has done such an amazing job this past year and is a true testament to what can be achieved through maintenance of training. We love establishing a lasting relationship with our families, we love seeing our dogs return for boarding, and we REALLY love being able to build their skills to be the best they can be. Great work, Beau and family! Make sure you swipe 👉🏼 to see several video clips from his stays over the last year!

If you’re a graduate of ours planning on taking advantage of boarding, why not upgrade to a refresher? We can refresh old skills or teach new ones depending on your goals! 🐕

01/29/2025

Introducing the very handsome DREXEL!! 🐾

This sweet one year old boy joined us with his foster mom for a lesson to help set him up for success in his new home. He needed some help with being more comfy in his crate and being more comfy overall as he’s a bit nervous.

The most exciting part about Drex? He’s UP FOR ADOPTION! He’s being fostered through the humane society of midland county where you can put in your adoption application for him if you’re interested! Drex is a very sweet boy who LOVES his foster family, including their young son, and is a gentle soul. As an extra incentive, we are offering Drex’s new family a training discount of either one session for $60 OR 15% off the program of your choosing. We want to make sure he’s set up for success (and honestly, Alesha fell in love and wants to see him again 🥰).

Trainer Alesha worked with Drex and his foster mom for just one session and they made HUGE progress. He’s a smart boy! Swipe to the end to see what Drex’s foster had to say about the progress he’s made since our lesson 🐶

01/28/2025

Congratulations to our newest Therapy Dog team: Kristy & Athena!! 🐶

Athena graduated from our Therapy Dog program with flying colors. She earned her AKC CGC title and her Therapy Dogs United certification to officially become a therapy dog. This girl was MADE for this type of work, and will do such an amazing job bringing comfort to those around her.

Do you have a dog who would enjoy this type of work? Are you interested in helping your community by bringing comfort to others? Reach out today to get started! 🐾

01/26/2025

Introducing Murphy & Moose!! 🫎

These 2 Bernese Mountain Dog brothers joined us for a week. Murphy began his training with me with puppy lessons all the way back in January of 2023. In May 2023 he did a 2 week board and train program, and now he returned for a quick 1 week refresher! His family has had a lot of changes in the last several months including selling their home, moving to a temporary location, moving into the new home, and bringing home Moose! Murphy needed some refreshing on the basics to get everyone back on the same page with all the change.

Moose just turned 5 months old and, despite his very calm temperament, still could benefit from some basic obedience! So while he was here we introduced basic commands, worked on his manners, and even helped the two boys work together a bit.

Multiple dog households can feel chaotic, but training is crucial to help keep everyone on the same page and to help introduce the concept of “calm” to their brains, even with 2 dogs who LOVE to spend all day playing. Great work, Murph and Moose! 🐾