07/21/2025
Hello everyone! After over a year of trying new things, I have decided to eliminate my day training programs. I know I don't owe anyone an explanation, however I value every one of you that chooses to come to me for help so I will tell you why I have decided to ultimately stop this service for now.
The reason I started it was mainly to offer a way for people who were really struggling with training their dog to get the extra help they needed in what would hopefully be a very minimally stressful environment. When I first started training, I offered in-home board and train for puppies. While doing this, I saw how beneficial the stress-free lifestyle was for these dogs and how fast they were able to learn. I tried very hard to replicate this for the adult dogs in my care at the training facility. But I learned quite a few things along the way about the dogs I was working with, myself, and my family.
Here's what I learned:
1. It takes a very, very specific kind of dog to gain skills to help with a behavior problem in this environment at a rate the owners are pleased with. Although all of the owners are understanding, I can tell there is a sense of disappointment if their dog isn't learning as fast as they hoped.
2. It does cost a lot to send your dog to me, and I really wasn't making anything off of it. The mortgage itself is expensive, I use my own treats to ensure I can get your pup to work with me, there are other bills on top of it, and I care too much to squish 6 dogs in one day, I would rather make sure your dogs are getting what they need. This makes it very hard for me to tell an owner that their dog didn't want to work that day, because sometimes they just say no to everything and they aren't going to learn a skill if I force them into an uncomfortable situation, they're just going to learn to not trust me.
3. The basic obedience clients did great with me more than the behavior clients did! However, this is never what I set out to do. My focus has always been on behavior and I don't want to switch.
4. I hate being alone. Yes there is a groomer there, but she's generally working too and we are separated because I often work with aggressive and reactive dogs. Turns out, I love getting to work with dogs AND their people. I'm not opposed to having a mentee or an employee, but I just don't have the funds to do it at this time.
5. My dogs at home have a hard time without me. I'm gone from the house by 7 in the morning and on my earliest days I'm back around 6:30 and on my latest it's 8:30. That's a long time. Since I started, there's been an increase in behavior problems with me dogs at home, and I would like to address them and I can't while offering this service. I also miss seeing my husband and having dinner with him and helping him around the house. He had to take on a lot of responsibility when I started this and I was hoping I could come up with something to take a little off of his plate, but it never worked out that way.
To those that I have already discussed this service with, I will still be offering it for you! I hold true to what I say and I will see the programs through until the end. However, I will not be offering it to new clients. During the past 6 months in my mentorship program, I learned a lot and feel even more confident than I already was in my ability to coach my clients one-on-one in person and virtually!
Thank you all so much for your continued support, I wouldn't be where I am today without you ❤️
