Dog Training
In-Person Services are offered in San Francisco and nearby areas.
Virtual training over Zoom is offered anywhere in the U.S.
In-person handler coaching at your home
Virtual handler coaching over Zoom
1:1 Training & Socialization at your home or outside
Board-n-Train (on a limited basis, in our home)
We help people and dogs thrive together.
We go beyond behavior management by addressing the underlying emotional state, helping dogs self-regulate, recover, and build resilience from the inside out.
Emotionally Intelligent Training Informed by Neuroscience
You’re not handed a list of cues…you’re guided in understanding your dog’s needs. From fluency in reading your dog’s body language, to responding with calm, confidence and clarity.
Human-Centered Coaching That Builds Lasting Skills
More than just a mindset, it’s the foundation for our method. Our entire approach is built on cultivating safety, mutual respect, and deep connection between dog and human.
Our P.E.T. Framework is a Trust-building Blueprint
The P.E.T. Framework:
Partnership, Empathy and Trust
Partnership
We help you strengthen your bond with your dog, by creating open communication and clear understanding of each other’s needs
Empathy
We help you unlock the meaning in non-verbal communication, so you can hear what your dog is saying and respond to their needs
Trust
When you understand each other and work together, behavior and relationships improve, and everyone’s more at-ease
Key Focus Areas
Leash Walking: walks should feel like a conversation and a relationship, not a tug-of-war. A leash should feel like connective tissue between human and dog, not a last resort preventing something from happening. Having an easy loose-leash relationship helps keep stress at a minimum while walking.
Recall: at home, at the park or on the trail, recall is one of the most important skills to master. We will help you develop a strong recall to ensure you and your pup can safely explore the world.
Anxiety/Bravery: we’ve spent a lot of time with anxious and shy dogs over the years, helping them unlock their confidence so they can calmly explore and interact with other dogs, people, and the world. It takes time and consistency but when the dog’s true personality comes out, it’s a feeling that can’t be beat.
Reactivity: it’s essential to understand the underlying emotions and motivations that cause a dog to growl, bark, pull or lunge when they see a scary trigger. And it’s equally as important to understand the handler’s role in modeling calm during high-stakes moments. We offer a collaborative process of both short-term management and long-term desensitization that allows the dog to relax and “just be” while trusting their parent for support.
New Puppy or Rescue: we help teach good behaviors in the home and in public that help make dog owners more comfortable taking their pup anywhere.
Obedience: going beyond the basics, we introduce a wide variety of “tricks” and learned behaviors that provide mental stimulation to the pup, while allowing proud pawrents to show off their smart doggo.
Our Training Approach: Teaching People to Speak Dog
Resilience isn’t just about obedience, it’s about emotional fluency on both ends of the leash.
We teach pup-parents to understand the physical and emotional needs communicated through their dog’s body language. We help people create mutually-rewarding routines that strengthen their relationship with their dog. We help parents understand why problem behaviors are happening in the first place, so they can respond to their dogs with confidence, clarity, and compassion.
We do not embrace “dominance theory.” We don’t use punishment-based training techniques. We do not recommend punishment-oriented training equipment (eg: prong or shock collars). We believe these techniques are counter-productive towards reaching a state of partnership, empathy, and trust.
We do believe the concept of “no” is just as important as the concept of “yes” in dog training, but we can establish these boundaries in a gentle, humane and stress-free way.
For clients who want more than good behavior…for people who want a deep connection, mutual trust, and lasting transformation, resilience is the way we get there.
Our Process
Book a Free Consultation: our first step is a free consultation, to understand your goals and ensure we’re the right trainers for you and your pup.
Training Plan: next we outline the recommended training plan, including number of sessions, pricing, roles and responsibilities. Once we’re aligned on the training plan, we’ll get started.
Pay-As-You-Go Training Sessions: we don’t require long-term contracts. Simply book an appointment at a time that works for you, using Acuity Scheduling. No penalty for making changes or ending the program.
Kickoff Session: our first session is all about the foundations. Positive Reinforcement, Body Language, Calming Signals, Behaviorism, Focus-on-Handler, Variable Reinforcement Schedules - and the list goes on. It helps us establish a shared training vocabulary, a clear picture of the dog’s communication, and bullet-proof focus on handler.
Handler Coaching Sessions: Hands-on training for the pup-parent, 1-2 hours in length, as frequently as you need. After each session we give you a Recap & Homework document to support your daily practice.
1:1 Sessions with Your Dog: To help lighten your load and give the dog the reps and reps they need to create change, we work directly with your dog.
Your Own Daily Practice: We’ll provide detailed step-by-step guides as well as video . But remember, a sheet of paper can’t train your pup - you get out what you put in.
Services & Pricing
In-Person Services are offered in San Francisco and nearby areas.
Virtual training over Zoom is offered anywhere in the U.S.
In-person handler coaching at your home
Skills development and practice for you and everyone in your household.
In-person coaching focuses on training the pup-parent to be an even better handler.
As part of the process, we review and analyze video of your dog’s behavior, demonstrate new techniques hands-on, and coach you while you practice.
We provide detailed step-by-step homework documents after every session.
Housecall service - we come to you.
$150 per hour
Virtual handler coaching over Zoom
Skills development and practice for you and everyone in your household - just done over Zoom instead of in-person.
Zoom-based training is perfect for dogs with “stranger-danger” issues in the home, reactivity to guests, fear of noises, over-stimulation, shyness/bravery, and challenging care and grooming routines.
You get all the same benefits as in-person training - video review, skills and techniques, real-time coaching. And take it from our Virtual Training clients, it works just as well as in-person.
$125 per hour
1:1 Training & Socialization at your home or outside
We work 1:1 with your dog, an hour at a time, in your home or outside.
Perfect for dogs with longer-term behavior transformations such as shyness/fear, sensitivity to noises, stranger-danger in the home, stalling and freezing on walks, over-stimulation and leash pulling, leash reactivity, resource guarding, body-handling/grooming/care, dog-dog greetings and play, and off-leash recall.
We come to your home, and either work with your pup inside, or pick them up and take them on a training adventure. Video, photo, and SMS-based insights, learnings and next steps provided after every session.
*We also offer volume discounts for this service, which can substantially reduce the hourly rate.
$120 per hour*
Board-n-Train (on a limited basis, in our home)
On a limited basis we will take no more than two Client dogs into our home.
We’re not a doggie daycare, and we don’t operate a traditional boarding facility. We don’t say “give us your dog for 8 weeks and we will send them back fixed”.
This is a supportive add-on service for existing Clients who are already working with us on a training program, and need some time away but don’t want to lose momentum.
Please mention board-n-train as part of your overall training plan, during your free consultation.
$175 per day
