Pawsonal Training

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! 🐾

01/24/2025

This question was posed by some friends of ours and sparked a fun conversation, so I’m curious to hear your answers!! 🐶

What breed(s) have you owned in the past?
What breed(s) do you own now?
What breed(s) do you hope to (or dream to) own in the future?

My answers:
Past: German Shepherd/Collie mix & Alaskan Malamute/Collie mix
Present: German Shepherd/Husky (and several other things) mix, German Shepherd, and Leonberger (the photo is of my current 3, my old man/mutt turned 8 today 🥰)
Future: More German Shepherds, perhaps a Rottweiler, Swedish Vallhund, Alaskan Malamute, perhaps something teeny tiny like a chihuahua or a toy poodle, and my absolute DREAM would be a greyhound 😍😍

What about you?? 🐕🐾

01/23/2025

Wienifer is a GRADUATE!! 🌭

Wienifer worked HARD during her second week putting all of her new obedience to the test and braving lots of cold, snowy weather. She even got to visit her family during training at her second home at !!

She did SUCH an amazing job working around people, other dogs, and so many challenges while handling them like an absolute champion. She may have been slightly spoiled with toys, a new hoodie, heated seats, and snuggles, but how could I resist? 🤣

Great work, Wienifer 💜💜💜

01/14/2025

An important reminder! My favorite things to teach to puppies are name, recall, sit, and after that… the art of doing nothing. Natural relaxation is a CRUCIAL part of puppyhood in my opinion, one that’s often forgotten about and replaced with activity, activity, and more activity. If your pup is able to respond, recall, and relax, you’re doing just fine! 🐾

01/13/2025

Introducing our newest board and train student: Wienifer!! 🌭

Wienifer is an 8 month old miniature dachshund enrolled in our 2 week basic obedience board and train program! I know what you’re thinking, Wienifer is perfect, and while you’re correct there are a couple things her family wanted to work on with her. Wienifer loves to use her mouth in inappropriate ways. She mouths/bites for attention, chews and steals things she shouldn’t have, and can even resource guard toys on occasion. Wienifer also can be a bit timid when meeting new people and dogs OR over the top excited. Her recall is next to 0 and has resulted in some scary situations when she has slipped her collar and run off into the road. Her family has touched on a little training with her, but she’s very inconsistent about it.

During her time in training we will be focusing on teaching her better manners, making her commands more consistent and reliable, giving her better alternatives instead of mouthing/stealing things for attention, and building her confidence around people, dogs, and new situations. We also had a little puppy play date with our friends at .unifursity, it was very cute 😭

Stay tuned to watch Wienifer learn!! 🐾

01/12/2025

Poppy is a GRADUATE!! 🎓

Poppy graduated from our 4 week elite obedience board and train program where we focused on her ability to be off leash reliable, listen to commands at a high level around distractions, and we even got to bring her to 3 scent work lessons with our friends at !!

Poppy did an unbelievable job in training. She LOVED learning, she loved earning her rewards, and she loved that she got to run around off leash! She spent time with her family at the end of her program running through everything that she knew and we’ve already heard back from them that walks at home are so easy now. This girl loves to please and I knew she would be a huge success story. Great work, Poppy! 🐶

Do you have aspirations of off leash obedience? We have programs for you! Off leash reliability can be achieved in as little as FOUR WEEKS! Call or message us today with questions 🐾

01/11/2025

Padme is a GRADUATE!! 🐕

This smart girl spent 2 weeks in training in our basic obedience board and train program to help get a handle on her over-excitability. She knew quite a few commands and was very food motivated, but she struggled to relax and focus when there was any distraction present. This made walks and visits from friends quite difficult to navigate between the leash pulling and the jumping!

We spent her two weeks focused on not just obedience, but mindset! We worked to make sure she knew how to focus and knew how to win her reward even when distractions were present, which helped naturally improve her impulse control and allow her to relax on her own. We spent time allowing her to make her own decisions and celebrating the good choices to make her WANT to listen. She did such an amazing job, and I know her family will only continue that success!

Great work, Padme 🐾

01/09/2025

Take a look at a few of Poppy’s adventures half way through her training program!! 🐶

Poppy’s main goal, amongst other things, is off leash obedience and recall. In order to achieve those goals, we have to work on quite a bit of exposure in new environments! Poppy is a bit of a timid, cautious girl. When she’s first experiencing something new, she’s very cautious and slow, very observant, but can be a touch flighty if pressured. So as we train, we focus on positivity over everything and slowly work to build her confidence and make every new experience as fun as possible.

She absolutely excels in training and even began doing some scent work lessons with our friends at ! Stay tuned to continue watching her progress 🐾

01/05/2025

For all my west Michigan people wanting to try barn hunt, there’s officially a location open and waiting for you!! Get signed up to try out the sport! It’s very fun and enriching for your dog and VERY beginner friendly if you’ve never tried dog sports before 🐾

UPDATE 2: Sunday March 9th has an added Intro to Rats and a Novice/Open class 🙂

UPDATE: SUNDAY FEB 9th has been opened up with another intro to rats clinic. Thank you so much for the overwhelming support!

Hello West Side! This announcement is for you!!!

You have asked, begged and pleaded and we are delivering! Alesha and I are excited to bring you barn hunt in your neck of the woods. Scent Savvy and Michigan Barn Hunt Club are excited for this new collaboration with Mrs. Mary Jo Hennessey and Ryan’s Big White Barn in Delton, Michigan. Mary Jo has an absolutely beautiful facility that she has graciously allowed us to use. Thank you so much MJ!

During these next few winter months, we will be hosting Intro clinics, group classes and private lessons on select Saturdays starting in February. Come Spring, we hope to add some more days if there is a demand for them 🙂 This next part is dependent on you, we would love to host a trial or two there as well, but your participation is paramount for us to be able to schedule those.

🐀 Sign ups are now live on the website! Make sure you are signing up for the Delton location. Please shoot us a message or comment below with any questions. Here is the direct link for the Delton location https://scentsavvycaninecenter.as.me/westmi

🐀 Share this post and bring a friend!

01/03/2025

Introducing our newest board and train student: Padme!! 🐶

Padme is a 7 month old black lab puppy enrolled in our 2 week basic obedience board and train program. Padme is a very smart, sweet girl who LOVES training. She’s very food motivated and loves working for food… most of the time. Unfortunately like so many dogs, food doesn’t help much to maintain her focus if there’s more exciting distractions present. Padme loses all sense of focus around people, other dogs, and other new things in her environment. She pulls on the leash, jumps, and goes wild.

Through training her family hopes to teach a stronger, more reliable foundation for her obedience, better impulse control, and most importantly, keep her silly personality!! Stay tuned to watch her progress! 🐾

01/02/2025

Oakley is a GRADUATE!! 🎓

Oakley came to training with a unique problem. He knew a ton of obedience as he’d trained in several classes with various trainers, but he still struggled with reactivity, anxiety, a general lack of listening skills, and over-excitement. He barked obsessively out the window, lunged at barked on walks, jumps on people, stole dish towels and toilet paper for attention, and selectively came when called. He was the prime example of training to teach commands vs training to teach a mindset. He knew commands, but his mindset was all wrong.

We spent his time in training focusing on his brain. We identified the root causes of his issues, worked hard to make some big mental shifts, and set very clear, predictable boundaries. We taught him that his need for control could be used to control how quickly he got a reward, rather than controlling his family through inappropriate behavior or other dogs by barking.

He spent 3 long weeks with me working his little butt off. After his time in training, we spend a long 3+ hours with his family. They were thrilled! They continued to comment on his overall demeanor being much more relaxed, his lack of jumping even at their initial greeting, and his far improved obedience and listening skills. They worked diligently through command after command, challenge after challenge, to redefine their expectations with him. At the end we challenged them with a dog distraction and Oakley could not care less about seeing the new strange dog, he was just focused on his mom.

Fantastic work Oakley, and great work Oakley’s family!! 🐾

01/01/2025

I cannot believe that’s a wrap on 2024! 🐕

2024 was quite the year for this small business. It’s the year we fully opened our facility, the year we began offering lessons, my first year training dogs as a 100% full time working momma, the year we began dipping our toes into the world of dog sports (and offering it to students to make it more accessible with the help of our friends at ), and the year we continued to grow and learn more than ever before.

We helped a record number of dogs with behavioral issues ranging from anxiety to fear to reactivity to aggression. We saw many familiar faces return for boarding and refreshers. We met many new siblings of dogs we had trained. We made many new human friends who share our love and passion for dogs.

NONE of this would be possible without all of you. Those of you who have sent your dogs to us, thank you. Those of you who have liked and shared our posts, thank you. Those of you who have told your friends, family, and neighbors about us, thank you. Those of you who have decided our company wasn’t the best fit or the best timing for your life, thank you for checking us out and continuing to support us from afar. All of you mean so, so much to my family and this small business, and with your support, I can’t wait to continue to help as many dogs as we can in 2025.

Happy, happy, happy new year ❤️🐾

12/29/2024

Have a dog (or two) that could use some training? Did the holidays prove that your dog didn’t listen quite as well as you hoped? Want to be more involved in the process? Let us help you!! 🐶

We offer several training options ranging from virtual sessions to private lessons to board and trains to fit your goals and your lifestyle! We train all ages from puppies to adults, all temperaments from friendly to fearful to aggressive, and work with all goals from basic obedience to AKC titles to Therapy Dog certification to behavior modification. If you want to be hands-on in the training process, our personalized lessons are for you! Learn not only how to train your dog, but how to truly communicate with them. This training not only teaches your dog to behave, but deeply improves the bond between canine and handler. If you have multiple dogs, we can help them to work together as a team and create a calmer, more unified household.

Lesson days and times are flexible to help accommodate your busy life. Send us a PM with questions or to get scheduled! Check out our website www.ThePawsonalTrainer.com for more information 🐾

12/28/2024

Check out this 5 star Google review!! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

This one is from Nezzy’s family, the sweet black lab who graduated a few weeks ago! I knew they’d have nothing but success back at home 🐾