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  Daycare and Boarding Services If you are interested in our daycare or boarding services please text or email to set up a phone interview. In a brief 15-20 minute call, we will determine if your dog is a good fit for our facility, and if we are a good fit for you and your dog. You can also look at our rates and policies beforehand to see if our schedule and rates will meet your dog care needs. We take a very limited number of dogs into our care each day and strive to provide for each of their...

When potential clients call me because they're having problems with their dog, they usually try to convince me that their dog is actually really smart. The thing is, I never doubt the intelligence of the dog, because almost all of them are extremely clever and eager to learn new things. Learning, however, isn't the dog's problem. Dogs with behavioral issues (as judged by the human) usually have a limited capacity to deal with stress. Therefore, I'm not concerned with the dog's ability to learn their obedience commands, what I want to know is: How can we increase their emotional capacity? Increasing emotional...

Photo by Justin Veenema  Expectation: Your dog will enjoy walking in a straight line at the exact same pace as you. Reality: Your dog wants to sniff, roll, dig, run, play, and zig-zag in 1,000 different directions.  Solution: Let your dog sniff! Let him orient to new environments, situations, and stimuli. Orienting is an important biological function of the nervous system, and your dog will often stop, freeze, and orient before feeling safe to move forward. Try not to interrupt this process.  Allow your dog to roll and have some fun on this walk. If you are on the beach or someplace where...

Follow these simple tips to see BIG changes in your dog's behavior The Energy Equation:  Don't add energy to a problem behavior which already represents an energy overload.  Examples of adding energy: "Positive punishment" (this means adding stimulus/punishment) of unwanted behavior, this never works! It may seem like it's working in the short term, but in the long term you are literally adding energy to the very problem you are trying to extinguish.  Another example of adding energy: puzzles and other games and toys that add "mental stimulation" to a dog who is already over-stimmed. If your dog is truly...

Are you bringing home a new dog? Here are few helpful tips to remember:  Have a cozy crate set up in a quiet area of the home. This is especially helpful for puppies and rescues. If they become stressed, they can retreat to the crate. If you’re bringing home a second dog, take the dogs for a walk together, and walk head-to-tail to let them sniff each other. A head-to-head introduction can be stressful, especially indoors! The best way to walk them is if one dog sniffs the other dog’s backside. Doing that gives them a lot of biological information,...