Leash Free Living

16/08/2024

Our Annapolis Student of the Week is Pepper the golden retriever! Pepper has been a Leash Free Student for two years now and began attending Day Training at our Annapolis location back in February. She has quickly become a favorite among staff there!

Pepper is a sweet and mellow girl during playtime and is often a go-to dog when we are temperament testing new students. Pepper is great at playtime recalls and always tries very hard during training - she just recently was helping one of our newest trainers hone his skills. Pepper's absolute favorite thing in the world is a belly rub and she's always rolling over on her back to give ultimate access to her VERY fluffy belly. We all absolutely adore Pepper!

16/08/2024

Happiest of birthdays, Maggie!

Don't miss the cute video in the comments!

14/08/2024

Every week is Back to School week for our canine students! 🎓

13/08/2024

It's hard to put into words the impact Rugby had on my life. I will miss him every day.

5/17/08 – 8/11/24 OTCH Mister Rugby Sevens UDX2 OM3 VER RA OA NAJ TKA Rugby’s size was the only thing small about him. He never met a stranger. He loved having an audience. He walked into every room like he owned it, often also announcing his presence when he did so. He loved hanging with…

05/08/2024

Just a heads up that LFL will be CLOSED for lessons, classes, and Daycare on Labor Day - Monday, Sept 2nd.

We hope you have a great holiday weekend before the summer officially comes to a close!

02/08/2024

Happy Friday! Another great week with the LFL canine students complete!

26/07/2024

We had a very special "Birthday Bagel Boy" today! Happy 1st Birthday, Bagel! 🥯

Don't miss the cute video posted in the comments!

19/07/2024

Our Millersville Student of the Week is Atlas the Swedish Vallhund!

Atlas is a quirky, smart, and sassy boy! Atlas started with us back in November of 2022 with puppy lessons and workshops. He then started day training and graduated our Basic Obedience group class with his parents. Atlas is a star student who loves to tell you he thinks he’s the boss. He has truly improved so much; from walking backwards on leash to now learning off leash heeling. He loves to tug (anything and everything) and is a professional with "leave it" and "give" now.

Atlas gets an individual training session anytime he is here and has mastered pretty much all of the tricks, basic obedience and is learning how to retrieve now - what a star!! Training is tiring, so you’ll often find Atlas napping on place during his group activities.

Atlas is best friends with absolutely everyone - he may be small but he’s always down to wrestle with some bigger pups. Atlas is a pleasure to have and always keeps our days full of excitement. We also like to use him as our demo dog when training new employees, because he's easy to handle and knows pretty much everything!

Be sure to watch the video of Atlas playing with his buddies in the comments!

15/07/2024

Our Dog School and TagAlong students have been working hard, but still making time for both playtime and party time! 🤩

Dog School and TagAlong are similar training programs, but different formats:

Dog School is very popular with our clients because it combines the focused progression of Board & Train with the drop-off format of Daycare. Dogs usually attend our Dog School daycare program Monday - Friday for three weeks to learn a solid foundation in basic obedience and start behavior modification on common issues like leash reactivity, crate training, or body handling. Along with private lessons in handling their dog, many of our clients then continue with regular Day Training Daycare visits to keep their pup's skills sharp and provide regular structured socialization.

TagAlong is our home-based Board & Train program, where dogs live with one of our experienced instructors during their stay, and receive daily training in the home, in public, and at our Millersville Day Training facility. TagAlongs are usually 2 or 3 weeks long for new clients, but we can schedule shorter stays for returning clients as a refresher!

If you're interested in enrolling your pup in either Dog School or a TagAlong, please reach out to us through e-mail and we'll be glad to help! [email protected]

12/07/2024

Our Annapolis Student of the Week is Fiona!

Fiona started as a puppy back in December and her trainers have loved seeing her grow and learn! Recently she's been working on her confidence around strangers and big distractions, we are happy to report she's been making so much progress! When not training Fiona is an absolute party girl during playtime and always gets the fun started. Her best friend is Tolstoy the German Shepherd Dog and her go to move when playing is to jump over him! We love our athletic little leap frog, Fiona 🐸 !

12/07/2024

Sometimes our staff gets a little creative with the social media photos 🤣

04/07/2024

Happy 4th of July!

03/07/2024

We hope you all have a great 4th of July tomorrow! Our students this week had fun despite the heat.

28/06/2024

Our Student of the Week is Bella the French Bulldog!

This smooshy-face sweetie has been coming to Leash Free Living since 2020 and is everyone’s best friend! She can be playful with her more active friends, but her calm attitude always reassures more nervous dogs!

She’s amazing at recalls and placing, and loves to lie on the grass outside and get some loving from her teachers. She also likes to sprint towards the potty area to get her cardio, and she’s always trying to take her teachers on a quick "detour" to the nearby Subway for a sandwich because a girl's gotta eat after all that hard work! 🥪

26/06/2024

Leash Free Living Independence Day Holiday Hours

🇱🇷 CLOSED on Thursday, July 4th
🇺🇸OPEN on Friday, July 5th

We hope you have a safe and happy 4th of July!

22/06/2024

At the Novice level, the dog must walk next to you on and off leash, come when called, stand quietly while being touched by a stranger, sit stay and down stay. They must do it in a trial setting with lots of dog and people distractions, without food, without corrections, and without second commands.

That's a huge overlap with most of our clients goals. Showing dogs in Obedience is a requirement for Leash Free Living Instructors, so you can rest assured that we not only know how to train and prepare a dog for that level, but we are proving it over and over again with our own dogs and with client dogs too.

You can read more about our accomplishment with dogs on our About Us page.
https://leashfreeliving.com/about/

"I don't need that show dog obedience. I just need my dog to stop barking at the mailman!"

Yeah, ya do. Not only that, you need someone who can help you navigate your dog through the distractions it values more than it values its relationship with you.

Although competition may not hold any attraction for you, the same obedience expectations you see being used in the ring are the same expectations you should have in the home, and your instructor should know how to get you there.

The idea of competition may not matter to you, but it should matter in your selection of instructors because it currently represents the only means with which to measure a dog trainer's competency.

I know there will be many that argue that point, but it's true.

We are an unregulated industry. There is no measure of what constitutes a trained dog outside of what we, ourselves, create. There are thousands of "pick me's" but only a handful capable of extracting performance-level obedience out of the average dog.

That same performance level is what's gonna save your dog from dashing off after the kid on the bike and becoming road pizza.

If an instructor is teaching others how to get their dog to stop pulling on a leash, to come when called or to stay motionless, it would occur to me that they themselves should be able to demonstrate that.

It becomes less about tools or philosophies when it actually focuses on the ability to arrive at a destination without any aids. The ability to walk into an arena, adjudicated by a peer, to demonstrate competence with no more than a leash, a collar, a dog, and your voice.

The dog certainly doesn't know the difference between the ring experience or navigating the vet's office at peak hours, and your instructor should be able to help you successfully navigate both.

If you aren't capable of taking your dog in public, maybe you should be seeking a trainer that does that show dog obedience, since those dogs are in public and making contact with total strangers without biting and losing their minds every weekend.

On purpose.

If your goals include lounging at the local outdoor diner with your dog, weekend pub crawls with your dog, or traveling with your dog, pursuing folks that actually do that with their dogs is going to get you to your destination faster, even if you think it looks like show dog obedience.

If your goals are to help your behaviorally challenged dog feel more comfortable in the presence of other dogs, strangers, or strange places, that show dog obedience is just what the doctor ordered.

It's all the same obedience.

17/06/2024

Our Annapolis Student of the Week is Shelby the Golden Retriever!

Shelby’s been a LFL Student since she was a puppy, starting with our Puppy Private Lesson program, then group classes, and regularly attending our Day Training Daycare. She is 3 years old now, and in the last few months has been showing so much improvement! Her recalls have improved so much that she can finally get her leash dropped during playtime and run around even more with her friends! Like most Golden Retrievers she is very social.

She’s an incredibly sweet girl who makes friends super easy and is really good at bringing dogs out of their shells! Some of her best friends are Henry, Butter, and Elvira!

Her teachers absolutely love her and we all love to have her at school!

13/06/2024

Our students this week are working hard and having fun, too!

10/06/2024

Our buddy Atlas is still looking for his forever home! If you are interested, you can inquire about adoption through RescueWell!

http://www.rescuewell.org/available-dogs-rg/?fbclid=IwAR0lpcRMxX_6VNdbZXm3j2q2AvFFrzZhx0RYVSc_xpB6u0tu_MJUXPih_M8 =pet&animalID_0=20533951&petIndex_0=4

07/06/2024

Happy Friday, LFL friends! So many cute pictures of our students this past week, we have to share!

03/06/2024

We said goodbye to Jayna's Star today for the last time, at age 15. Star was able to live a long, spoiled life as a treasured companion, thanks to training. Spend some time working with your dogs today in her memory. I’m going to guide my dogs’ training today with two of my favorite Star lessons in mind.

1) The real magic of training is found in consistency. It isn’t always in flashy or glamorous, but daily conversations with your dog are the key to achieving great things.

2) Oftentimes, the hardest challenges are the most worthwhile.

We said goodbye to Star today for the last time, at age 15. Star was able to live a long, spoiled life as a treasured companion, thanks to training. Spend some time working with your dogs today in her memory. I'm going to guide my dogs' training today with two of my favorite Star lessons in mind.

31/05/2024

Our Millersville Student of the Week is Atlas the pit mix!

Atlas is a Day Training and Dog School student who has progressed so fantastically in the past few months! He is a foster dog of one of our regular clients, and is still looking for his forever home. He is getting along well with his foster dog brother, but has too much drive to live with cats or small animals.

Atlas is overall a fantastic boy. Since coming to us for training and daycare, he has rocked basic obedience and his leash walking is so much nicer! He's very biddable and loves to please. He also has quickly been promoted in his "placing" skills (staying on Place), and his play manners have improved immensely from some initially being overly-excited when greeting dogs, to being (mostly) polite!

We think Atlas will make a great companion for someone who wants a dog that is always ready to play and is willing to continue his training to keep his mind engaged. Don’t get us wrong, he loves some snuggles as well, but he’s a high energy goofy boy who deserves a person of his own!

29/05/2024

Starting June 10th, we are expanding our private lesson programs to include addresses within 30 minutes of either facility. We are excited to bring training to more of our neighbors. To keep our instructors running on time, addresses will be categorized into zones for booking purposes. Check out the blog to learn more.

https://leashfreeliving.com/expanded-lesson-availability/

28/05/2024

It’s graduation season, so we’d like to send some congratulations to our latest Beginner Group Class! Investing time into a shared vocabulary with your dog so you can communicate clearly with them is invaluable. These teams put in the work to create a strong foundation with their pups.

Our next Beginner Group Class starts this Saturday, June 1st at 9:00 am. Graduates of the Beginner Group Class get access to our intermediate, advanced and elective classes, and they are eligible for discounted Day Training and Tag-Along (Board & Train) rates! Reserve your spot through our client portal!

https://leashfreeliving.com/congrats-grads/