The Northern Virginia area is overflowing with great family dogs of all sizes that have diverse levels of personalities and obedience training.  You see them out on walks or running around yards; some with “off-leash” precision, and other dogs with little control or ability to follow a command by its owner.  Everyone wants to be proud of their dog’s behavior and not be embarrassed by them pulling at every distraction when on a walk, jumping up on someone, being aggressive, or running off.

Dogs want to please you, be loved by you, and spend positive time with you.  Yes, they need to learn when something they are doing is not correct or not pleasing to you, but they need to learn it in a non-threatening and non-painful way.  They don’t mean to hurt your feeling, but know that you can easily hurt theirs.  We believes in working with each dog by providing positive praise (reinforcement) when earned and encouragement as need to do otherwise when needed in a non-threatening way.  Regular practicing of this with consistent wording will quickly teach a dog the language of good behavior and allow you to build one obedience command after the next into their vocabulary.  Various training methods will be used depending on the dog’s age and needs.  This could be treat-based at times, a leash with a training collar, or remote off-leash collar for communicating only and supported with positive praise for obedience.