We are a husband and wife team who love all things canine. Our family has been involved in dog training and dog sports for 15 years. Laurie is a Certified Professional Dog Trainer (CPDT-KA) through the Certification Council of Professional Dog Trainers (see their website at www.ccpdt.org) and Ken is an approved trainer through the Ohio Peace Officer Training Academy. We offer K-9 obedience private lessons and group classes, behavior consultation, competition classes and support, daycare and boarding, and pet supplies.
We believe in positive reinforcement training for dogs. We have seen firsthand the extraordinary results that operant training brings about in dogs and the dog/handler relationship. Positive reinforcement training is scientifically based on canine learning theory and utilizes what we know about how dogs learn to teach them to live within our world. With that in mind, we help our clients develop individual training plans. In addition to hands-on training, the plans include goals, reinforcement schedules, ongoing training, recommended reading and suggestions on equipment (appropriate and humane use), food, and treats.
We believe successful training comes from understanding the dog's point of view. For that reason we use positive reinforcement to reward appropriate, desired behavior and teach proper and humane use of any equipment used by a handler. We believe dogs need to be treated as animals but recognize they are sentient beings in that they have feelings, things they love, and things they fear. They are as individual as the people who own them and must be treated as individuals when developing a training plan in order to best meet the handler/dog team needs. Dogs do not speak English and we have to find a way to communicate with them that is effective and rewarding to them. Our goal is to help our clients uncover the best way(s) to communicate with their K-9 companions for a lifetime.
We believe that all dogs are works in progress and to maintain their skills we need to be working, training, playing, and bonding with them their whole lives. In keeping with that philosophy, we maintain and improve our skills and knowledge constantly by training, reading, studying, instructing, judging, and attending classes, seminars, and workshops.
We have an open-door policy -- if you would like to ask us questions, visit a class, or talk to us about how we train dogs, please contact us. The secret to dog training is there are no secrets! We are always willing to talk with dog families and work together with them to improve their relationships and their lives together. We will be open and honest with you about how we can help you and what form that might take. We are part of a national network of trainers, animal behaviorists, veterinarians, and other animal professionals, and we all work together to be able to help more people and their dogs.