Training Philosophy
Our training programs are personalized to meet your dog’s unique needs, utilizing science-based, evidence-based, and ethically focused behavior training. We exclusively offer private dog training, ensuring your dog receives our full attention to achieve your training goals. From leash walking down Lettuce Lake Park’s paved trails to practicing recall at Davis Island Dog Beach, we can train your dog anywhere in Tampa Bay.
Tampa Bay is full of dog-friendly places, and we want you to enjoy every moment! Have you wanted to enjoy a coffee at The Grind Coffee Bar and Cafe with your dog or have a pleasant stroll down Curtis Hixon Waterfront Park? Our team is here to accomplish these goals with you. We will design your training program to match your dog’s specific needs with the local training environment, whether at your home or neighborhood. Directed by Certified Applied Animal Behaviorist, Dr Echterling-Savage, and Certified Dog Behavior Consultant Sean Savage, our training programs are shaped by the most current research in animal behavior. Our goal is to create an environment with every dog we train that encourages a lifelong enthusiasm for learning.
Training Programs
This program focuses on teaching the highest level of obedience applied at your home and local neighborhood. The obedience commands include but are not limited to:
We design our 22-hour Obedience Training Program with scientifically proven training techniques to encourage the highest level of learning for lasting success. Our approach to one-on-one sessions and lessons results in a protocol with high treatment integrity. Treatment integrity is widely regarded in Applied Behavior Analytics and refers to how the prescribed protocols or planned procedures carry out interventions or procedures. Our Co-founder and Certified Applied Animal Behaviorist, Dr. Echterling-Savage, has published a paper on “The Effects of a Multicomponent Intervention on Treatment Integrity of Counterconditioning for Aggression in Dogs,” which describes the success that high levels of treatment integrity have on producing behavioral change as it relates to aggression. Our trainers will more efficiently teach your dog the desired behavior through consistent and accurate training. By incorporating weekly lessons with you, your dog’s learning is established for long-lasting success in the most practical environments. Dr. Echterling-Savage supports this further whe stating “The structure of our programs is designed for dogs to learn quickly, establishing new obedience behaviors that are sustained long-term in the settings that matter to our clients.”
Our 22-hour Obedience Training Program consists of hourly training sessions with your dedicated behavior consultant, Sean Savage, to teach high-level obedience and refined manners. These private lessons are conducted both in your home and across your local neighborhood; whether it’s learning “Stay” at Hyde Park Village, teaching leash walking at the Tampa Riverwalk, or teaching “Place” at your home, this variety of training environments ensures your dog’s success in real-world situations.
Each session is designed to maximize training effectiveness. Most sessions do not require the owners to be present, and the final session of each week is a dedicated lesson for you. In this one-on-one lesson, Sean will teach you how to reinforce the obedience commands and strategies your dog has learned, ensuring consistency and continued progress at home.
The 16-hour Obedience Training Program is an ideal way to begin obedience training; this program focuses on two to three pieces of obedience skills and manners to perfect with your dog. Obedience skills and manners that can be addressed include:
Practice manners, such as not jumping on people or play-biting
Respond to being called
Be well-behaved when greeting guests
Walk with a loose leash, even in the presence of people and dogs
Demonstrate high-level obedience in public, with commands such as sit, place, and wait
Remain in place when needed, such as during mealtime
We’ve developed our 16-hour Training Program using proven, science-based training methods to ensure your dog achieves its full learning potential. We will never use aversive techniques, including shock collars or prong collars. We prioritize your dog’s well-being and needs by focusing our training on ethical, positive reinforcement methods. Scientific research, such as Ziv’s 2017 study, shows that aversive training methods are less effective than positive reinforcement training. In the words of our Certified Applied Animal Behaviorist, Dr. Echterling-Savage, “Aside from being more ethical than aversive training methods, classical conditioning and positive reinforcement are also more effective in teaching dogs obedience behaviors and treating problem behaviors.
Our 16-hour Obedience Training Program offers one hour training sessions with our behavior consultant, Sean Savage, focused on obedience and manners. Depending on your training goals, these sessions can occur at home and in your neighborhood, such as teaching not to jump on strangers at home or learning loose leash walking while visiting Sail Plaza.
The final session of each week is a lesson for you. During this session, Sean will help you learn how to reinforce your dog’s behavior, ensuring lasting success from our training.
With our Board and Train Program, your dog receives comprehensive attention and training while living at your trainer’s home. They’ll be part of the trainer’s family, keeping your involvement minimal while providing your dog with the highest quality in obedience training. Rather than staying in a boarding facility, your dog will learn skills at the trainers home and neighborhood. We help with a range of everyday behaviors, including:
Through our Board and Train program, your dog will be exposed to various environments, both at home and throughout the Tampa Bay area, ensuring they can perform learned behaviors to a high standard in various environments. Unlike traditional dog training facilities, where dogs are often limited to a single environment, our program exposes them to the home, the neighborhood, and other public spaces to foster broader learning.
Training begins at our trainer’s home, where we replicate the specific problem behaviors being addressed. This allows your dog to quickly transfer its newly learned skills once it returns to your home. By training your dog across different environments, we can teach them be highly responsive to commands even with multiple distractions present.
Our training methods are based on scientific research, including research by Cooper et al., which highlights that for obedience training to be effective, it must generalize across different environments, as the environment can influence a dog’s behavior. That’s why we strategically train in locations across Tampa to ensure your dog reaches the highest level of obedience, no matter the training environment. According to our Co-Founder Sean Savage, “Our Board and Train clients report incredible shifts in their dogs’ behavior post-training. The amount of attention and time training your dog will receive during their program is truly unmatched and is what separates us from our competitors.”
During this program, your dog will live at your trainers home, for 3-4 weeks. During this time, your dog will be taught obedience and manners training at the trainer’s home, neighborhood parks, shops, and other public areas. This can include correcting your dog’s jumping and counter surfing at his home, teaching loose leash walking at the Tampa Riverwalk, or performing heel and recall at Eureka Springs Park.
Once your dog returns home, there will be 4.5 hours of scheduled follow-up training, during which we will teach you how to reinforce the behaviors and commands learned.