Gentle Touch Pet Training

Upcoming Mini-Seminars

COME! Mini-Seminar

In this 3-hour mini-seminar (three 1-hour sessions), you will learn methods for teaching your dog a dependable, everyday recall. Plus we will have an opportunity to safely practice what you’ve learned. In addition, you’ll find out how to teach an “Emergency Recall” for dangerous or emergency situations. We’ll also have an opportunity to practice around some excellent distractions (llamas & goats!). Don’t miss this chance to teach your dog a recall you can trust!

HEEL
(Connect through Heelwork)

Instructor: Denny Pontes-Tull will show you how to enhance the bond between you and your dog by increasing your ability to connect and engage with each other through heelwork. Learn new skills to sense and build your dog’s attitude towards training. Hint: It doesn’t matter how well your behaviors are trained if you don’t have the attitude behind them. Learn how to build that joyful attitude for the ring. Although heel seems like “just another skill,” it is actually an indicator of a dog’s attitude and your connection with your dog.

RALLY-O Mini-Seminar

This 3-hour mini-seminar on a Saturday will give you a great introduction to the sport of Rally-Obedience (Rally-O). You will also learn what changes AKC has implemented for 2008. Rally-O is a fun, challenging sport that showcases the teamwork between dogs and their people and is a more relaxed competition than traditional obedience. It is often used as a bridge towards traditional obedience where the team learns to be comfortable in the ring doing prescribed exercises. Rally is like a board game where the team walks to each station in a heel position and completes the exercise requested. Handlers are allowed to talk and/or use hand signals to show their dog what is expected at each station. Dogs seem to enjoy this game because they can be constantly cheered on and praised for their efforts. All the exercises learned in Rally-O are useful to make you and your dog better partners in everyday living. Some people just like to work with their dogs in learning these exercises towards a stronger bond and some want to go on to compete for Rally-O titles. Rally-O is a sport that is open to anyone who wants to achieve a higher level of training with their dog but have a lot of fun while doing it.

I LOVE MY CRATE Mini-Seminar

We've all been told how important it is to crate train our dogs and to do it in a way that makes the dogs love their crates. The question for many has been how to do this. This mini-workshop (three 1-hour sessions) covers ways to train your dog to love their crate while building self control and drive at the same time. These are fun exercises that are easy for both you and your dog. We'll also work on free shaping with the crate and work with distractions all in a positive and fun atmosphere.

There are so many reasons to crate train a dog including: to help with housetraining; promoting an opportunity for positive "down time" for your dog; a crate-trained dog is much easier to travel with when visiting hotels and staying with friends and family; keeping your dog safe in special circumstances (for example, while remodeling or having workers in and out of your home); keeping your dog safe while recuperating after an injury; and an often overlooked reason to crate train your dog is that the Red Cross will not except a dog into a shelter during a disaster if it isn't crate trained. All of these situations are so much easier for you and your dog if you have a dog that is already comfortable in his or her crate.

TRICKS Mini-Seminar

In this 3-hour mini-seminar (three 1-hour sessions) you will learn how to teach your dog tons of tricks! These tricks can be taught and performed for fun, to keep your dog busy learning something new or to impress family and friends! Some of the tricks you’ll learn include: up-pretty, dance, bow, crawl, weave your legs, roll over, shake hands, high-five, wave, jump through your arms, and ah-chew! (Get the tissue when you sneeze) plus lots more.

Cavaletti Training Mini-Seminar

Kay Laurence, our favorite trainer from the UK, calls this “flexigility”. The Cavaletti training greatly enhances movement for all types of dogs through building strength, joint suppleness, and balanced movement. Cavaletti exercises develop natural gaiting, through strengthening the rear drive, teaching the dog collected balance and supple action. It develops confidence and self awareness, especially in socially challenged dogs. Come join us for this unique and useful training for either the performance dog or just for fun and confidence-building with your pet dog. (Three 1-hour sessions)

Doggie Skateboarding Mini-Seminar

Start from scratch shaping your dog to skateboard.  The mini-seminar will end with fun exercises teaching tricks with the skateboard to music.  For those of you who have already started shaping this skill in one of our Tricks or Clicker High Classes (or on your own!), the second-half of the mini-seminar will cover more advanced moves with tricks to music.  We'll have skateboards available or you can bring your own (since you'll want to do some more practice at home!) 

Click here for dates, times and cost