Happy Hounds Center

Happy Hounds Center We are a full service canine center. We offer behavioral training based daycare, boarding, training classes and private sessions and canine assisted therapy.

We are a full service canine center, from daycare and boarding to training we have you covered! We currently offer training classes and private training sessions in our Trainers Co-op. Join Sue for super fun Agility, get help with a reactive dog or build strong foundations with Alexo, Start your puppy of right or refine your dog's obedience skills with Finn, learn how to train your own service dog

or learn how to transfer the skills from the training center to the real world with Colleen. For people interested in animal assisted Therapy Colleen offers Paws for Joy Canine Assisted Therapy with therapist Cris Carl on Saturday mornings Nov-Apr. Our daycare and boarding is going back to our vision of daily enrichment, training, appropriate play and more individual attention for each dog every day. Our daycare and boarding area has over 6,000 Sq ft of climate controlled indoor play areas and outdoor fenced play areas. Staff trained in canine body language, appropriate play, and enrichment. Stay tuned for the new services to be added over the next few months! check our website for more details! www.heroesbts.com

Friday Fun! Finally got some space on my phone to resume pictures 3/28
03/28/2025

Friday Fun! Finally got some space on my phone to resume pictures 3/28

03/23/2025

Long but important post for public walks with reactive dogs!
The weather is starting to get warm and the snow and ice are finally gone which means we want to get outside walking and hiking more with our dogs! What we envision of a relaxing walk in the woods or down the street with our dogs happily sniffing and calmly checking out the world around them is not the reality for a lot of people. If you are one who struggles with a dog who is lunging, barking, can't focus on you, can't get called away from fixating on things in their environment or has a high prey drive this video shows where you can start making the change.
Lilly and Carlos haven't been able to go to many places over the last few years because of my schedule. When we did get to go it was so much for them to take in they were easily overstimulated during the walk. So they began to "back chain" the overstimulation to pulling into the parking lot.
Carlos is an internal red zone dog (he shuts down and gets very slow and stiff) and Lilly is an external red zone dog (she whines, barks and jumps). Although they are showing different signs they are both overstimulated. We never got out of the car at this visit . We played focus games and let Carlos and Lilly start to get used to seeing all of the activity from the car. After about 5-10 mins we left.
If you are seeing any of these behaviors in your dog they are not ready to get out of the car. If you do they will most likely be dragging to to sniff and see other things, ready to jump on people, chase squirrels and/or bark, lunge and fixate on other dogs.

Here's how to change it:
1. Break the walk down in sections and relax them at each stage before going on to the next. (Leaving the house, the car ride, pulling into the parking lot, getting out of the car, the trail head, the trail, seeing others, etc.)
2. Remove the novelty in each stage. If they get over excited leaving the house spend time neutralizing the triggers. Pick up their leash put it on, then take it off and walk away. Sometimes put on the leash open the door then close it, take off the leash and walk away. Sometimes put on the leash, go outside in the front yard for a few minutes, let them go to the bathroom then go in take off the leash and walk away. Continue this until your dog no longer gets over excited (panting, jumping, jumping on you or the door, barking, etc) when the leash comes out.
In the car spend time driving to fun spots but don't get out. Play the "Look at that game" by Leslie McDermott and let them watch things for a little but. Then drive away. If they are starting to jump around and bark when you pull in. Don't stop drive out, dive up the road, let them settle then try again.
3. When getting out of the car play focus games right away. Start this in your driveway at home. Put their leash on before you open your door to get out. Have a treat ready in your hand, open the door a Crack to allow you to get their leash, put your hand in with the treat right on their nose then let them follow your treat hand out of the car and around so they are facing you. Release the treat. Toss a treat in the car and let them jump back in. Repeat the game until you don't have to lure them out and around.
4. Get calm in the parking lot before taking a walk. This is where most of the activity happens so park as far away as you can to start. Play handler focus and leash games until your dog is relaxed and can be called away from looking at other things or scents. When calm go home. Build on this by making time there longer or distance between distractions closer.
5. Set your dog up for success. Short, positive, consistent sessions will get you the results you want.

Want help with this? Join the Life Skills class on Mon evenings at 6:30. Drop in class limited to 6 dogs (please reserve your spot ahead of time via email) we will be working on these skills outside as the light stays longer.

Ruby got to be special dog this weekend. She is loving her boyfriends Cosmos and Apollo
03/23/2025

Ruby got to be special dog this weekend. She is loving her boyfriends Cosmos and Apollo

03/19/2025
03/19/2025

Day 2 disengament from other dogs with Ferguson

03/19/2025

Here is the explanation of what Ferguson will be working on in the next video

03/19/2025

This is part 2 of the disengagement video for Ferguson. Here I am showing the variety of games and settling you can play to help your dog to start to ignore other dogs and things in their environment.

Mon fun 3/17 still struggling with phone storage. Hopefully I'll get to the sweetspot of deletions sometime soon. Sorry ...
03/19/2025

Mon fun 3/17 still struggling with phone storage. Hopefully I'll get to the sweetspot of deletions sometime soon. Sorry if I missed your dogs on monday

Izzy got to be special dog this weekend.
03/16/2025

Izzy got to be special dog this weekend.

Fri fun 3/14 I'm sorry if I didn't get pictures of your dogs today. My phone ran out of storage. Too many puppy pictures...
03/15/2025

Fri fun 3/14 I'm sorry if I didn't get pictures of your dogs today. My phone ran out of storage. Too many puppy pictures!! Guess I'm starting with my phone for spring cleaning this weekend!

Wed fun 3/14
03/14/2025

Wed fun 3/14

Wed fun 3/5. It is finally starting to feel like spring!
03/05/2025

Wed fun 3/5. It is finally starting to feel like spring!

Puppy pedicure day is coming this weekend! Saturday 3/8 from 9:30am-12:30. Cash only, $20 per dog. Difs must have curren...
03/05/2025

Puppy pedicure day is coming this weekend! Saturday 3/8 from 9:30am-12:30. Cash only, $20 per dog. Difs must have current rabies (if over 6/7months old)

03/05/2025

Building confidence to be relaxed when alone is an important skill. Especially for anxious dogs. Ferguson is working on being more secure when I am on the other side of the wall from him. He is searching for kibble which has been scattered for him to find. This gives him a job to focus on and the act of sniffing and searching helps calm his nervous system. Scatter feeding is a great exercise you can do inside or outside!

Mon fun 3/3
03/04/2025

Mon fun 3/3

03/03/2025

Nibali and Ollie are starting to work on their off leash skills together. This is just the beginning. Day one of natural heel, stop-back up-reset-reward, and spin together. They have both practiced these skills on their own for a few weeks. From this point we will work on refining the skills separately and practicing together.

Fri fun 2/28
03/01/2025

Fri fun 2/28

Address

203 Long Plain Road
South Deerfield, MA
01373

Opening Hours

Monday 7:30am - 9am
4pm - 6pm
Tuesday 7:30am - 9am
4pm - 6pm
Wednesday 7:30am - 9am
4pm - 6pm
Thursday 7:30am - 9am
4pm - 6pm
Friday 7:30am - 9am
4pm - 6pm
Saturday 7:30am - 9am
4pm - 6pm
Sunday 7:30am - 9am
4pm - 6pm

Website

http://www.happyhoundscenter.com/

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Videos

stopping reactivity on public hikes and walks
stopping reactivity on public hikes and walks

Long but important post for public walks with reactive dogs! The weather is starting to get warm and the snow and ice are finally gone which means we want to get outside walking and hiking more with our dogs! What we envision of a relaxing walk in the woods or down the street with our dogs happily sniffing and calmly checking out the world around them is not the reality for a lot of people. If you are one who struggles with a dog who is lunging, barking, can't focus on you, can't get called away from fixating on things in their environment or has a high prey drive this video shows where you can start making the change. Lilly and Carlos haven't been able to go to many places over the last few years because of my schedule. When we did get to go it was so much for them to take in they were easily overstimulated during the walk. So they began to "back chain" the overstimulation to pulling into the parking lot. Carlos is an internal red zone dog (he shuts down and gets very slow and stiff) and Lilly is an external red zone dog (she whines, barks and jumps). Although they are showing different signs they are both overstimulated. We never got out of the car at this visit . We played focus games and let Carlos and Lilly start to get used to seeing all of the activity from the car. After about 5-10 mins we left. If you are seeing any of these behaviors in your dog they are not ready to get out of the car. If you do they will most likely be dragging to to sniff and see other things, ready to jump on people, chase squirrels and/or bark, lunge and fixate on other dogs. Here's how to change it: 1. Break the walk down in sections and relax them at each stage before going on to the next. (Leaving the house, the car ride, pulling into the parking lot, getting out of the car, the trail head, the trail, seeing others, etc.) 2. Remove the novelty in each stage. If they get over excited leaving the house spend time neutralizing the triggers. Pick up their leash put it

Day 2 disengament from other dogs with Ferguson

Here is the explanation of what Ferguson will be working on in the next video

disengagement games with Ferguson
disengagement games with Ferguson

This is part 2 of the disengagement video for Ferguson. Here I am showing the variety of games and settling you can play to help your dog to start to ignore other dogs and things in their environment.

Building confidence to be relaxed when alone is an important skill. Especially for anxious dogs. Ferguson is working on being more secure when I am on the other side of the wall from him. He is searching for kibble which has been scattered for him to find. This gives him a job to focus on and the act of sniffing and searching helps calm his nervous system. Scatter feeding is a great exercise you can do inside or outside!

Nibali and Ollie are starting to work on their off leash skills together. This is just the beginning. Day one of natural heel, stop-back up-reset-reward, and spin together. They have both practiced these skills on their own for a few weeks. From this point we will work on refining the skills separately and practicing together.

Here is Tillie to show you the results of being consistent with Stop, Back up, reset, reward.

When working on leash skills this is one of my go to techniques. It is simple and effective which is why I like it! As your dog walks out in front of you or pulls ahead: Stop Back up Reset Reward Be consistent with this, start in areas with little or no distractions then build slowly, don't allow your dog to practice the behaviors you don't like. Before you kniw it you will have a dog who is great on leash!

Ferguson's second day. Today he gets to meet Apollo. Apollo is wonderful at helping new dogs settle in, start learning socialization skills and appropriate play.

Working with anxiety based jumping is similar to jumping in general. The difference is while discouraging the jumping behavior you simultaneously work on building confidence and teaching another way for your dog to get the comforting closeness they need to feel safe. I will be teaching Ferguson how to lean to get comfort instead of jumping when he is feeling uncertain.

Introducing a new dog to daycare
Introducing a new dog to daycare

I thought it would be helpful to show our process of settling a new dog into daycare. Monday was Ferguson's first day and like most dogs he was a little nervous and overwhelmed. This is why we like to do slow intros and let the dogs get comfortable in the daycare and around other dogs before having to share space with them. Let me know if you have any questions!

Sammie is fearful about being picked up so he is learning how to jump on the grooming table for nail trims on his own. If he starts off more relaxed and happy getting on the table nail trims can start being neutral rather than scary. :)

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State of the art climate controlled facility offering doggy daycare and boarding services, as well as a retail space selling products we use for our own pets!