What are the opening hours?

Friday 10am - 2pm Saturday 9am - 5pm

Gentle Canine Fitness and Training

Home
United States
Holden, ME
Gentle Canine Fitness and Training

Cooperative training for health and happiness. She also stays current on the science of dog training through webinars and short courses online.
(3)

Founder of Gentle Canine Fitness and Training, Nicole Ireland, has been a licensed veterinary technician with a special interest in behavior for more than twenty years. She is a VSA-Certified Dog Trainer (Online) who practices positive reinforcement training methods

Nicole uses skills learned from her Fear Free certification (elite), Low Stress Handling University certification, and reading exte

nsively about behavior and training. Nicole is a Certified Canine Fitness Trainer thru the University of Tennessee, Certified Walk This Way Instructor thru Dognostics, Karen Pryor Puppy Start Right Instructor, and a Trick Dog Instructor thru Do More With Your Dog. Nicole's personal dog training philosophy is to care for the whole dog. She strives to balance dogs' physical, emotional, and mental well-being with the needs of their humans' household. Nicole lives with her husband, David, in Bradford, Maine. They share the love of four dogs and two cats. She spends her spare time competing in agility, hiking with her Australian shepherd, and exploring the world through her camera lens.

11/24/2024

Meet Mozzie. She is a sweet little peanut!

11/23/2024

Mickey is just precious. He got to explore my work bag and took a churu back to his bed. I traded a small chew stick for its return. Then we got down to the business of walking on leash and exploring the rainy day.

11/23/2024

Russett recently earned her Canine Good Citizenship. She has more work to do as she works to be a search and rescue dog. Here she is working on down stays.

11/22/2024

Intro to Agility

11/22/2024

Manners class
Awesome work everyone.

11/15/2024

Corwyn working on known behavior in a new situation. Chin rest is his favorite.

11/15/2024

Cutie patootie, Epsen joined me for puppy class last week. He is happy and outgoing. What a joy to work with.

11/13/2024

It is World Kindness Day!
Being kind to yourself, your dog, and fellow people is an important part of the Gentle Canine philosophy. Kindness promotes feelings of safety and trust. It can change emotional states. It is free, but priceless. Spread your kindness everyday.

11/11/2024

11/06/2024

Bring your puppies 8-16 weeks old for socialization, sensory development, early manners, and more!

11/06/2024

Flat work is great for all skill levels. Improve your handling and connection to your dog.

11/05/2024

A little quiet toy time after a wonderful session of noticing all the things outside while staying in his thinking brain. We accomplish this with various pattern games, allowing him the freedom of choice and maintaining a safe distance from his stressors.

11/02/2024

11/02/2024

The holidays are coming quickly and so is all the stress for both you and your pet. How can you prepare your pet for the holiday craziness?
https://hubs.ly/Q02V-Dn70

11/01/2024

Rally Obedience coming in 2025!

10/28/2024

Manners classes. The dogs not walking are rewarded for watching quietly. This is just as much socialization as playing together.

10/28/2024

Jasper, Oliver, and Pearl in Agility Intro. I was too busy having fun with Annabelle to record her.

10/23/2024

Enjoying the reward for teeter work. Some dogs need to learn how to enjoy a lotus ball, but Jasper is a pro.

Address

127 Main Road
Holden, ME
04429

Opening Hours

Friday	10am - 2pm
Saturday	9am - 5pm

Telephone

+12076317686

Website

https://www.gentlecanineft.com/, https://gentlecaninescheduling.as.me/schedule.php

Alerts

Be the first to know and let us send you an email when Gentle Canine Fitness and Training posts news and promotions. Your email address will not be used for any other purpose, and you can unsubscribe at any time.

Contact The Business

Send a message to Gentle Canine Fitness and Training:

Videos

Manners classes. The dogs not walking are rewarded for watching quietly. This is just as much socialization as playing together.

Jasper, Oliver, and Pearl in Agility Intro. I was too busy having fun with Annabelle to record her.

Kim and Rylie working the aframe.

Matilda finds a fish 🐟

Bode working on walking past objects. We start with low value items. As he learns, we can use higher value items. Bode is strong and knows he can pull mom to the item. By setting the scene at a level he can achieve, we practice success rather than unwanted behavior.

Corwyn and Arlo are just hanging out getting treats.

We have worked upto this. The idea is that Arlo is never close enough to reactive.

Corwyn frequently checks in with me on his own. When he was a puppy he was strongly rewarded for this behavior. Does that mean we never have to practice this again? No, I make sure he is still occasionally reward. Sometimes with a smile, sometimes praise, and of course a tossed treat here or there.

Arlo update. Just a boring stroll practicing pace changes and stops. We come to a stop over a couple steps so he has warning. Off camera We also practiced direction changes and walking past me without visiting. This is all about communication. Most important is to let him know his job is done by giving a be free cue. Sometimes he likes the game enough that he chooses to stay in position or moves back into position on his own. This has taken a lot of work by him and his human. I am so proud to help them on their journey

Shortly after starting the video Arlo's Mom asked a a question causing us to slow our pace. Can you see how this affected Arlo? . . . . . Arlo was ready to be done with his walk. He had done a lot of brain work and physical activity. He is getting tired. He knows we are heading toward the car and is no longer sniffing and exploring. By slowing down so much he had to alter his gait. He tried weaving back and forth, he tried a worried check in, but ended up taking progressively shorter steps while the humans missed it. Dogs have a faster normal gait than humans, so slowing to this point was getting uncomfortable and a bit stressed about it. What could we have done. Pay attention for one thing. I don't even recall why I started recording. Probably to catch his check ins. But it is obvious to me in the video that he was heading home. If we saw he was struggling we could have sped up to a more normal pace for him. But we were being humans. If he had had a longer lead he likely would have better compensated for the slow speed. We could have stopped while we talked so he could rest. This is strictly a case of human inattention. I normally catch these things. His Mom is normally very aware of him. It was just one of those things. I will be more aware of this next time. I like to learn from my missteps.

Learning to be ignored. When Bode and I first met he would jump on my front and back while grabbing my hands, arms and hair in frustration and over arousal unless he was in active training. Here we are practicing being ignored. We have spent a lot of time working confidence and independence. He did such a good job here thanks to his mom's dedication.