Beginner Manners
Teach your pup to greet guests, sit and wait, and take treats gently.
You will learn how to lure and maneuver your pup without force.
If you have children, they should be present for one or several lessons. Your pup will learn to treat your children like royalty.
No more jumping, counter-surfing, or eating off the floor — we will practice impulse-control.
Pricing starts at $65 per 45-minute session, with 6 sessions recommended. You can also purchase a package of 6 sessions for $350.
Happy Hounds!
My Happy Hounds course is between 5 and 6 sessions, and goes through the best ways to ensure your non-human roommate has their most enriching life.
Session 1 will focus on the behavioral issues your pet is having in the home and how we can remedy those.
Happy Hounds includes brain games, snuffle mats, low-cost enrichment games, and new ways to connect with your animal.
Pricing starts at $60 per hour long session, or can be paid upfront as a 6-session package for $340.
Obedience 1 (dogs)
Just what it says! Your pup will learn sit, down, stay, come, and leave it! These foundational commands will allow you to live peacefully with your canine roommate, and worry less about what trouble they may get into.
Have something specific in mind? A behavior you’d like to change? Let me know!
The 1st session will focus on a basic sit and down, and will find out where your pup lies with desensitization to physical touch, sight, and noise. We will touch on all of this throughout the next sessions.
Sessions 2 and 3 will work on “stay” and “come”. We will use a long-line for this.
Sessions 4 and 5 will focus on impulse control! “Leave it” is a highly useful command that may just save your dog from eating chocolate or a grape dropped on the ground.
Session 6 looks a bit different — we will train with what we have already learned in different environments. Maybe that means busy streets, maybe that means the woods, on a trail, or on the beach!
Dogs are highly environmental learners, meaning even if they know how to sit in your home, they might not while out in the world. We need to transfer that information in different environments, with different levels of distraction.
Pricing starts at $80 for session 1, and can buy session by session if you’d like. The whole package of 6 sessions is $450.
Best Roommate
Best Roommate training is more species specific — do you have a dog that doesn’t get along with your other pets? Two cats that hate each other? Even better, are you getting a new animal soon and want to introduce them properly to their housemates?
New Cat! Introduce your new kitty to your current kitty with care and patience to ensure the best future relationship.
New Dog! Introduce your current dog to the new puppy or rescue entering your home! These lessons will take place outside, then move inside, depending on the anxiety levels of each dog.
My Services
Best Roommate (cont.)
New Critter! Introduce your current cat or dog to whatever critter they’re having trouble understanding. Prey drive can be a huge issue in a home, so if you have a hamster, guinea pig, rabbit, lizard, or small, quick-moving animal, dogs especially can become aggressive. I will teach you to manage these behaviors or, hopefully, teach your critters to get along.
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Walks are between a half hour and an hour, though more time can be added for those especially high-energy breeds! Walks include:
leash manners
focus-on-me tasks
sniffing and searching enrichment
active games, depending on ability/size/energy
Treats are provided during walks — if your dog has allergies, please include details when you book. Unless otherwise stated, a martingale collar is provided and used for walks, as it allows for the easiest and safest control of the dog. I do not use prong collars, choke collars, or e-collars.
Pricing starts at $40 per structured walk, or $210 for a six-walk package.
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As I do not currently have the facilities for boarding, I offer housesitting in your own home. Whatever critters you may have — cats, dogs, birds, lizards, snakes, spiders, ponies or goats, your kid’s hamster or guinea pig — I am happy to take care of your non-human family members as if they were my own! I have experience with dogs, cats, and birds primarily, but I also have experience with fish (I have my own 10 gallon and 2 gallon freshwater tanks), chickens and other outdoor-birds, and even pigs. There is no critter I’m not willing and even excited to meet and care for!
I am also a houseplant enthusiast, so if you’re a collector like me, you no longer have to worry about well-meaning relatives killing off your beloved plants!
Pricing
1 Dog: $75 overnight stay
2 Dogs: $85 overnight stay
Midday check-in (1 hr): $20
Morning/evening check-ins (no overnight stay): $25 for each stop, $50 for both morning and evening check-ins
Cats: $50 overnight stay, $15 midday check-in (1/2–1 hour).
Birds: $35 overnight stay, $55 for 2 hours of flock time (I give your bird company in the middle of the day).
Other critters: depending on size and difficulty of care, prices range from $25–$150 each overnight stay. Please reach out for more info.
My pricing starts at about half the cost of other trainers in the area, but with no sacrifice to quality!
Consultation
Basic
I require a consult before starting any kind of training with you and your critter. This is complementary, unless you are outside my range of 30min from Duxbury, MA, in which case consults are $20 for every additional 10min.
New puppy?
Looking into getting a new dog for you and your family? Book a consult with me to break down what you should know and look for when deciding to get a new companion. This will set you and your dog up for success, and minimize future problems.
Rescues
If you are a part of an animal rescue in the South Shore, particularly one that partners with shelters in the American South and Texas, please reach out to me for training and placement help — I am conducting research on many of these dogs, and am experienced in the different behaviors of what I have begun calling North American Free-Ranging Dog (or NAFRs).
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Blog posts, general thoughts, and information on dog ownership and anthropology.