At Great Dog! my job is to make you the trainer. The process of teaching the basic instructions listed below forms the architecture needed for behavior modification and brings clarity to the question of social heirarchy. In other words, "Who's the boss?"

Basic instruction includes:

- Leash Training & Recall

- Sit/Stay

- Down/Stay

- Heel to Side

- Walking in Heel

- Door Training

- Behavior at the Park.

Training plays a critical role in establishing a healthy relationship with your dog. Defining the social heirarchy and opening communication between owners and their dogs. My approach is not "one size fits all" but does employ both classical and operant conditioning. It's important that lessons are fashioned to the dog and it's owners so that common sense objectives can be determined and achieved. The sessions are fun and build positive bonds that last with these amazing and intelligent animals.

An important part of each week involves working with both the dogs and the great group of volunteers at the Warwick Animal Shelter in Warwick, RI. The shelter provides me with an opportunity to gain new insight and develop new ideas. It's also a chance to help the dogs look their best before the families thinking about taking one of them home. Ironically, properly trained dogs rarely end up in animal shelters. According to the ASPCA, approximately 8-12 million companion animals enter animal shelters nationwide every year and approximately 5-9 million of them are ultimately euthanized. Many of the dogs represented in this figure end up in these shelters for behavioral issues that would have been avoided with early training or addressed with behavior modification.