Dog Training | wmpet2012

Our goal

To help humans and dogs understand each other, and enjoy their peaceful life together.

Philosophy behind the clicker method:

Positive reinforcement--Behaviours that result in pleasant consequences, are more likely to be repeated

Board & Train vs Private Lesson

I currently only offer Private Lessons.

I did board and train a few dogs about two years ago, and achieved owner’s goals respectively, and I did include one single lesson for owner when the trainee went home, this served as a “user manual”, to let the owner know what they need to keep doing to maintain their preferred behaviours of their dogs. However, as time passed by, there was few people followed the “manual”, and the good behaviours diminished as consequence, what a waste of time and money. To change this frustrating situation, I decided that, I will teach YOU, the owner, how to train your dog, by yourself.

The 5 lesson curriculum is designed by Karen Pryor Academy, and after 2 years of practice I made changes and adjustments, to make it more flexible, practical and easy to learn for real dog owners that I’ve been serving.

Pros:

-Stronger bond between human and dog

-Accelerate learning

-Produce long-term recall

-Encourage creativity and initiative

-Forgive human mistakes

-Generate enthusiastic learners

What we teach in 5 lessons:

1. Give attention:

You want your dog to listen to you, and do what you ask him/her to do, right? But he/she is so easily distracted by all kinds of things. If he/she ignores you, it’s impossible to train. So, let’s get doggy’s attention first.

[Eye contact, longer duration, frequently check in with you when walking/playing/relaxing, come to you when called]

2. Settle down:

Puppies and young dogs are energetic, we humans might not be at the same energy level as our dogs. I can teach you various ways to make your dog be more tired than you are. And he/she will love to settle down in a doggy bed or crate.

[practice “quiet” behaviours, go lie down in a cage/bed/loop, fetch a ball and put it back in front of you (instead of you having to chase him/her around to get the ball out of his/her mouth), running/walking on treadmill, clicker training itself consumes energy]

3. Offer behaviour:

Once your dog realize how much fun this is, he/she will actively offer behaviours to you

4. Respond to cue:

We will look at how fast your dog responds to your cue, how much distractions your dog can tolerate and still respond to cue, what’s the longest distance between you and your dog when he/she will still respond to cue.

5. Target:

Dog contacts an object (could be owner’s hand, book, bowl, button etc.), with his/her body part (could be nose, paw, a specific paw, head etc.) This is fundamental to more advanced behaviours and really fun to practice. Imagine your dog gives you his/her left front paw when asked, or ring the bell to ask you for more treat, or sit down and waves a paw when your friend arrives (instead of jumping and scratching your friend, and your friend could be scared to visit again lol).

To summarize, behaviours we will include in the 5 lessons are:

sit, down, stay, leave it, come, nose touch, paw touch, settle in cage/bed.

The difficulty level of each behaviour you may reach eventually, will depend on your time input and your dog’s talent (it’s really how diligent you are that matters most, to be honest). For example, your dog sits down instantly as you say “sit”, is higher level than, your dog sits down eventually after you said “sit” 5 times and increased your voice.

The good part about private lesson is, the more you can learn, the more we can teach.

Our main focus is ordinary pet dogs and their parents, who have none or basic training experiences, not show dogs who needs to improve their choreography. Because we’ve met so many frustrated pet owners, we’ve heard about so many stories that somebody needs to find their dog a new home because he/she is too hyper, too destructive, barks too much, etc. We feel sad about it, and want to help, one dog at a time.

Price:

-$500 to be paid upfront

-5 lessons, 1 hour each

-Suggested completion time is 2 months

-Expires 2 years after first lesson

Benefit:

-Answer your quick training related questions by text messages

-10% discount to subsequent lessons, if you need repetition or need to work on some specific subject

-A written summary of your dog’s achievement and long term training suggestions