Customized Dog Training in Maryville, TN.

A well behaved companion is about more than just commands—it's about building a connection of respect and trust.
The journey to a harmonious life with a dog can vary widely in terms of methods, stress level, and lasting success.

Dogs are quite unique in their readiness to give us their unconditional loyalty and love. When we take the time to learn to connect and communicate effectively we can achieve true partnership and cooperation.

Play is not simply a fun activity to do with your dog. It is a primal instinct for any social species, and essential for healthy long term development. It fulfills dogs genetic drive, builds problem solving, social skills, trust, confidence and emotional regulation. Learning to play effectively with your dog is incredibly rewarding—it makes everyday life together more fun and engaging. But most importantly, play provides a very natural way to establish clear rules and boundaries for your dog, even while in high drive and spirits, and this rulebook directly translates to real world reliability, especially when it really counts.

Training with play, as well as engaging your dog’s other natural instincts, has the power to make behaviors self-rewarding and delivers the most satisfying, long-lasting results in behavior and obedience.

Training Approach

In our evidence based training, we first take the time needed to properly evaluate the dog before any training begins. We need to discover what truly motivates your dog—"what makes him tick”—and where the problem behaviors are rooted and then build a training plan that fits into your life using our expert training methods, tailored to your situation. In training we incorporate play, structured walks and activities, and various real-world outings to create experiences for your and your dog’s individual needs and situation.

Many training approaches use one-size-fits all methods and ‘solutions’ and rely heavily on food and/or strict control and suppression, often skipping the vital aspects of motivation and emotion. This so often only leads to ongoing struggles, emotionally flat, avoidant or aggressive dogs, with a need for constant management; an end result of frustration for both dog and owner.

In stark contrast, we emphasize taking the time to assess the dogs personality and natural instincts and work on a realistic training plan that works for you and your dog, bringing everyone onto the same team, resulting in a dog that behaves well because they truly want to—not just because they have no other choice.

I will work closely with you to meet your specific training goals and methods, always progressing at your dog's pace for sustainable progress, one lesson at a time. No fixed commitment to an overpriced and overpromising training package necessary.