Next Level Obedience

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Next Level Obedience I am an independent dog trainer who specializes in teaching obedience and manners for dogs of all ages and sizes.
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I work in your home one-on-one with you and your dog to help you develop the best relationship you can have!

Today was the first Next Level Obedience day school ever! Two happy, tired, well-mannered dogs at the end of the day. ...
08/04/2025

Today was the first Next Level Obedience day school ever! Two happy, tired, well-mannered dogs at the end of the day. No promises they'll be well-mannered tomorrow 😄

Sweet boy Levi learning to wait at the door. It's such a simple skill but so important for safety and control. As expe...
03/04/2025

Sweet boy Levi learning to wait at the door. It's such a simple skill but so important for safety and control. As expected, Levi learned it quickly!

Yadi had a lovely time walking the park on his long line this week. It was very good to see him loosen up, even with lo...
02/04/2025

Yadi had a lovely time walking the park on his long line this week. It was very good to see him loosen up, even with lots of people and a few other dogs in the park!

I'm so excited to get this new program off the ground! I will be offering day school weekly on Mondays beginning next we...
02/04/2025

I'm so excited to get this new program off the ground! I will be offering day school weekly on Mondays beginning next week (4/7). Spots will fill quickly so please let me know if you want to register your dog!

01/04/2025

Hey everyone! There's a dog show at NIU this weekend. I'm not showing, but I'll be there for a few hours on Saturday morning. If you've ever wanted to go to a dog show or if you're curious about what I do with my dogs, I'd be happy to show you around! Text me if you're interested!

01/04/2025

Chomper having so much fun outside with some long recalls! This is what puppy training should look like!

26/03/2025

This week in bravery class we did a few exercises that made the dog/human relationships very apparent. Most of the dogs in bravery class are pretty soft dogs, and most of them are not impressed by the scary exercises we're making them do (like go find their owner behind a stack of cardboard boxes). But what is fascinating to me is the dogs that are obviously scared of the exercise but willing to do whatever they must to get to their owner. And this is where you see the dogs who have good relationships with their people compared to the dogs who don't. When some owners disappeared into a dark room behind a pile of boxes, their dogs started looking around at the other people or just leaned into me or the other trainer for comfort. You could hear them saying, "Well, I guess mom is dead to me. She went in there and I'll never see her again. Who wants to be my new owner?" On the other hand, there were a couple dogs who were visibly afraid but when mom disappeared into that room, they did what they had to do and they didn't give up until they pushed past the boxes to go find mom!

In light of all this, I've been thinking about relationships. What human relationships make you feel confident and supported and like you can conquer the world (or that scary wall of cardboard boxes!)? For me, one of those people is my dad. Just recently, I bought a new car, and my dad came along to help me. I feel pretty uneducated in how to buy a good car and I don't like the negotiation process at all, so I was thankful for him literally by my side to help in an anxious situation. He didn't buy the car for me. He didn't negotiate with the salespeople for me. He didn't hold my hand or offer me snacks or continuously tell me, "It's going to be okay, you're doing okay." What did he do? He coached me through it, he stayed calm and positive through the whole thing, and at the end, he told me I did a good job. I felt so proud! And yes, I ended up with a good car from a good dealership.

So what's the point of all this? (Besides letting you in on the fact that talking to salespeople makes me anxious . . .) Think about your relationship with your dog. Have you created enough of a history with them that they trust you? Are you reliable and safe in their eyes? And when they encounter a tough situation, do you touch them constantly, offer them snacks, or say, "It's going to be okay, you're doing okay"? Or do you relax, coach them through it, and tell them afterward that they did a great job? Do they feel proud when they conquer it? How can you do better to make them better? Food for thought . . .

I've been working on Finch's possession. I want him to be more possessive of his toys (yes, that's opposite of what you...
25/03/2025

I've been working on Finch's possession. I want him to be more possessive of his toys (yes, that's opposite of what you would expect) for two main reasons.

Reason 1: I want him to love tug and fetch. Right now he thinks they're kind of fun but he certainly doesn't love them. I should have expected to need to build this in him, because I had to do the exact same thing for his mother but I guess I forgot! Because I want to achieve high levels of competition obedience with him, I want him to love toys as a reward.

Reason 2: One of the things he'll need to do for competition is retrieve things on command, so he needs to be excited and proud to carry things in his mouth. I can force him to hold something in his mouth, but I can't force him to like it. That takes a lot more finesse and careful building.

So apparently something is going right . . . Two different times in the past two weeks I've been outside with both dogs using the chuck-it to throw the tennis ball (Dagmar loves fetch, unlike Finch), and Finch has snatched the chuck-it out of my hand and pranced around with it. He throws it in the air and catches it and then just holds it and literally shows it off around the yard. Yesterday when we practiced his retrieve for competition, he did the same thing -- he grabbed his dumbbell and showed it off and pranced around and showed how proud he was to carry it in his mouth.

I love it when something in training goes right!

Levi was supposed to be practicing his "leave it" command, but mostly he's just posing for the camera so that everyone k...
24/03/2025

Levi was supposed to be practicing his "leave it" command, but mostly he's just posing for the camera so that everyone knows how beautiful he is. 😄

I'm very excited to offer this new service! This is one of a few new things that have come out of my incredible trip to...
24/03/2025

I'm very excited to offer this new service! This is one of a few new things that have come out of my incredible trip to Victoria, BC -- so keep your eyes out for other things coming soon!

If you have a dog with some ingrained bad habits, or you're dealing with reactivity that you don't know how to handle, or you just want to get your dog started off really well - this would be a good fit for you!

22/03/2025

Sunday is National Puppy Day! Show me all your dogs when they were babies!

22/03/2025

I've been experimenting with biking Finch for the last couple months, being very careful not to push him too hard because he is so young. Today for the first time we went out to the Great Western Trail, and he thought it was amazing! I had to tell him it was time to go home and get some water, or else he would have just kept going! (Oh, and Dagmar wants nothing to do with the bike. She prefers her exercise through fetch and long off-leash walks. 😄)

What is with all these puppies growing up so fast?? Barrington used to be a little fluff ball and now he is becoming a ...
18/03/2025

What is with all these puppies growing up so fast?? Barrington used to be a little fluff ball and now he is becoming a dapper little man!

Sweet and spicy Indi gets to be a bit of a groundbreaker for me! I'm just starting to offer new services, including sol...
18/03/2025

Sweet and spicy Indi gets to be a bit of a groundbreaker for me! I'm just starting to offer new services, including solo training with me while the owners are still at work, and Indi is my first one! Please see my website or message me for details if you're interested.
Anyway, today Indi got to deal with her reactivity in her neighborhood, notice my dogs in their crates for a brief minute, and blow off some steam on a long line. She had a blast!

My little buddy Chomper is growing up! He's such a looker already! #
15/03/2025

My little buddy Chomper is growing up! He's such a looker already!
#

Get yourself a puppy who loves you the way Charlie loves his human! He's only 5 months old, and he's infatuated with hi...
13/03/2025

Get yourself a puppy who loves you the way Charlie loves his human! He's only 5 months old, and he's infatuated with his person. Didn't care about the people passing on the sidewalk, didn't care that I had treats, he needed his mom (who had disappeared inside the house for all of two minutes)!

13/03/2025

This is much of the reason why I spent a week with Monique this spring and why I respect her work so much.

For all of you owners with your own dogs, please know your dog deeply, learn to love them and to like them, and train the dog in front of you.

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Videos

Chomper having so much fun outside with some long recalls! This is what puppy training should look like!

I've been experimenting with biking Finch for the last couple months, being very careful not to push him too hard because he is so young. Today for the first time we went out to the Great Western Trail, and he thought it was amazing! I had to tell him it was time to go home and get some water, or else he would have just kept going! (Oh, and Dagmar wants nothing to do with the bike. She prefers her exercise through fetch and long off-leash walks. 😄)

Brooks thought the puppy tunnel was an absolute blast!

Indi's first introduction to loose-leash walking. Her owner has already put in a lot of work with this girl, and it shows! Indi picked it up amazingly quickly! . . . . . . . . . #dogtrainer #dogtraining #reactivedog #looseleashwalking #walk #dogobedience

Barrington's adorable puppy recall! . . . . . . . . . . . . #dogtrainer #dogtraining #puppytraining #recall #miniaussie #miniamericanshepherd #miniaustralianshepherd

Charley has already come a long way! This video is last week, practicing his recall away from my dog. Look at his sweet attentiveness! It's not perfect, but it's good work! . . . . . . . . . #dogtrainer #dogtraining #collie #roughcollie #rescuedog #dogobedience #recall

Yadi and his owner started with me because he bit someone for knocking on the front door. This week we set him up with a complete stranger at the door and in the house, and he showed off just how far he's come! . . . . . . . . . . . #dogtrainer #dogtraining #obediencetraining #aggressivedog #fearfuldog #pittie #pitmix

Nala showing off her impressive loose-leash walking skills. Can you believe this sweet girl is only 9 months old??

We started increasing the difficulty on Chomper's recall this week as he's growing up. Who can spot the exact moment when he realizes his dad is by the couch? 🥰

Walter working on front door manners. Currently his normal routine is to be ushered into his crate when someone knocks on the front door, but his humans don't want to continue doing that, so we're teaching him to sit and stay instead. Walter has good self-control and good work ethic, so he's fun to teach! . . . . . . . . . #dogtrainer #dogtraining #goldendoodle #frontdoormanners #sitstay #obediencetraining #dogobedience #doodle #dogmanners #gooddog

Look at Chomper learning his baby recalls! It's so easy to build an excited, motivated recall in a young puppy -- there's no reason to wait until you already have problems with your dog to begin training! . . Also, side note, look at his gorgeous trot! This boy is from show lines, and you can see it in how he moves. 🥰 . . . . . . . . #dogtrainer #dogtraining #puppytraining #puppy #labpuppy #labradorretriever #blacklab #recall #recalltraining

Puppy training 101: sometimes you have to make do with what you have! In this training session with Finch, he offered me something brilliant that I wanted to reward excessively. I had a few pieces of food but my toy was several yards away in the garage and I didn't want to break the moment by walking away from my puppy. So I reached in my pocket and grabbed Finch's puppy collar, and he got to play tug with that! It's great to have exactly what you want on hand, but real life doesn't usually work that way -- so don't break the moment, and just make do with what you do have!

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