Dog Training for Behavior and Obedience
Build reliable skills for everyday life. These classes focus on improving listening, addressing common behavior challenges, and creating clear communication between you and your dog. Whether you’re moving beyond the basics or working through specific issues, you’ll find structured training that delivers real-world results.
This training is a good fit if you:
- Have completed a beginner or puppy class
- Want better focus and listening in real-world situations
- Are dealing with common challenges like pulling on leash, jumping, or reactivity
- Want to strengthen communication and consistency
Basics and Canine Good Citizen (GSC)
Do you and your pup have the basics down?
Is your pup ready to tackle more advanced behaviors and reliability of existing behaviors to prepare for the Canine Good Citizen (CGC) title or maybe a career as a therapy dog?
Theses classes are what’s next after a solid foundation of basic manners.
Canine Good Citizen Prep
This 6-week class series is designed to prepare you and your pup for the AKC Canine Good Citizen test. It is also ideal for anyone who wants to expand their skills, teach their dog advanced behaviors, and build reliability of existing behaviors at a distance and around distractions.
🚫 Reactive dogs (dogs that aggressively bark, lunge, or growl at people or dogs) are not eligible for this class, but may be suitable for Reactive Rover. Please contact us for recommendations.
✅ Prerequisite: Successful completion of one of our Companion Manners classes or instructor approval
ℹ️ AKC registration is not required for the class or test, but would be required to receive the Title Certificate from AKC.
Intermediate Companion Dog Manners
If you’ve completed a foundational manners class and would like to continue training to take your dog’s skills to the next level, this is the class for you. This 6-week class focuses especially on polite people greetings, consistent loose leash walking, reliable recalls, and more advanced stays, along with other helpful daily life skills.
🚫 Reactive dogs (dogs that aggressively bark, lunge, or growl at people or dogs) are not eligible for this class, but may be suitable for Reactive Rover. Please contact us for recommendations.
✅ Prerequisite: Successful completion of one of our Manners classes or instructor approval
Connected, Confident, and Calm
Help your dog turn stress into confidence and distraction into focus! This 4-week class will get your dog prepared for staying connected and focused during high-energy dog sports as well as the challenges of everyday life. It will help dogs that are having difficulty focusing because they are anxious or overexcited about people, other dogs, or other things in the environment. This class also provides strategies for preventing dogs from becoming reactive due to anxiety or excitement.
🚫 Reactive dogs (dogs that aggressively bark, lunge, or growl at people or dogs) are not eligible for this class, but may be suitable for Reactive Rover. Please contact us for recommendations.
✅ Prerequisite: Successful completion of one of our Manners classes as well as Canine Good Citizen Prep or Sports Prep. Your dog will need to be able to stay on their station (mat, bed, or platform) and be proficient with sit, down, stay, hand touch, and recall.
Therapy Dog Prep
In this 6-week course, you and your dog will learn the skills necessary to volunteer to visit hospitals, special needs centers, schools, nursing homes, and other facilities. Therapy dogs need to have a calm and gentle disposition. They must be good around other dogs, calm when strangers pet them all over, not jump on others, walk on a leash without pulling, and not be startled by things such as strange noises, smells, and medical equipment.
This course provides specific instruction to prepare for testing with Alliance for Dogs (formerly TDI), which is an accredited therapy organization through the American Kennel Club (AKC).
✅ Prerequisite: An appropriate temperament and completion of Companion Manners or a similar class. Canine Good Citizen (CGC) test completion is a plus, but not necessary.
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Doggy Life Skills
Are you ready to up-level skills like recall and loose-leash walking so you and your pup can live your best lives together?
Do you have a dog that loses their ever-loving mind reacting to other dogs, going deaf to your verbal cues for them to be quiet or be nice?
Doggy Life Skills builds on a solid foundation of basic manners, and it can also offer a refresher for older dogs who have maybe picked up some bad habits since completing basic manners training.
Reactive Rover
Does your dog bark, lunge, growl, snap at, or pull towards other dogs while on walks? Does your dog suddenly stop being able to listen when another dog appears? This 6-week class is designed to help fix on-leash reactivity towards dogs when out and about in public and on walks. You will learn management skills, focus and attention techniques, and other routines to help your dog be successful and walk more calmly when seeing other dogs. You will also learn to read dog body language, techniques for relaxation, and helping your dog perceive other dogs as something positive through counterconditioning and desensitization.
This semi-private class is limited to just four (4) dogs. The first class is lecture-only, so NO DOGS during the first class.
🚫 Dogs with a bite history are not eligible for this class.
Rapid Recalls
Does your dog refuse to come when called? Run away or play keep-away when you try to catch him at the park? Or do they chase after squirrels or other dogs even when you call them? Learn how to teach your dog to reliably come when called, in any scenario! In this 4-week class we will be going over fun games and exercises to help your dog learn to listen in controlled training scenarios as well as real life situations.
Special Equipment Needed:
- Lots of treats ranging from medium- to high-value
- A 12-15’ leash, or two leashes clipped together (not needed in Week 1)
🚫 Reactive dogs (dogs that aggressively bark, lunge, or growl at people or dogs) are not eligible for this class, but may be suitable for Reactive Rover. Please contact us for recommendations.
✅ Prerequisite: None
Wonderful Walking
Does walking your dog feel like a shoulder workout? Do you want a walk in the park to feel easy and fun? In this 4-week class, you’ll learn how to teach your dog to walk on a loose leash. We will be covering fun games and practice scenarios to help teach your dog to walk nicely with you to prep for neighborhood walks, walking in a store, walking on a trail, and more!
Special Equipment Needed:
- Collar
- Well-Fitted Harness (such as the Ruffwear Front Range or 2 Hounds Freedom No-Pull)
- 4-6′ Leash (no flexi/extendable leads)
- A lot of pea-sized medium- and high-value treats (jerky treats or freeze dried meats work well)
🚫 Reactive dogs (dogs that aggressively bark, lunge, or growl at people or dogs) are not eligible for this class, but may be suitable for Reactive Rover. Please contact us for recommendations.
Clicking this button will open a new browser tab to our scheduling and registration system in BusyPaws.