Calm Canine Academy

We just wrapped up our Feisty Fido course with Lauren from CCA. I love their positive approach to dog behavior and they are clearly very knowledgeable. They taught us many techniques to help our dogs gain confidence around sounds, humans, other dogs. Our trainer, Lauren, was very kind and non-judgmental, and very patient listening to all my questions (and I did have many). My anxious rescue dog had developed a noise phobia to gunshots and was too scared to go for walks for 2 months. After working hard on her trust and confidence, she finally started going on walks again. She will still panic occasionally when hearing something loud but Lauren and CCA taught me how to deal with it. We still have a lot of work to do but that's just how behavior change works. Rome was not built in a day! Happy with the progress we've made and direction we've been given! Big thank you to the CCA team!

I attended Calm Canine Academy’s Feisty Fido class led by the highly knowledgeable Lauren. I have a one-year-old pup who has struggled with reactivity and anxiety since we brought him home. I had enrolled my pup in 2-3 other training courses before and never saw much improvement other than him learning a few basic commands. Even with those courses, I always felt like a piece of the puzzle was missing. I knew how intelligent my dog was, but none of the physical and mental activities I was doing with him were helping with how much of the day he spent “on edge.” I was starting to lose hope of my pup ever getting the help I knew he needed, and it was beginning to affect my mental health. For the first time, I feel like my dog and I are speaking the same language, and I have become more compassionate and in tune with my dog’s emotions. After addressing my dog’s health issues and with the help of the Feisty Fido course, we are finally making progress, and my dog seems much happier because of it. I highly recommend this course to any pet parent who is feeling lost, discouraged, and stressed. I will be forever grateful to Lauren and everyone at Calm Canine Academy for allowing me to have a better relationship with my dog!

I have owned a reactive anxious dog for many years and tried several different methods, both positive and aversive training. For the first time I see a foundational difference in my dog after going through the Feisty Fido class. He and I both have to work at it every day, but it doesn't feel like such a battle of wills anymore, feels like we are walking down the same path for a change and making progress and enjoying the benefits of the small daily victories. Lots of good information, and deep dives. Thank you Lauren Mary and Harley

I am just wrapping up the Feisty Fido course with my reactive pup. We still have a ways to go but Hershey has made so much progress in the last 9-10 weeks. The course is incredibly comprehensive and we have learned so much to support our sensitive pup. Hershey is a former free roaming dog from Kuwait and being able to work with Karisha and learn from her experience with her own former free roaming dog has been invaluable. Feisty Fido approaches reactivity holistically to ensure we are meeting Hershey's needs in terms of enrichment and exercise, learning how to reduce exposure to triggers and thoroughly exploring medical issues. We have gone from being completely over threshold at the front door to being able to play and take food on the driveway and down the sidewalk. I can't wait to see how we progress over the next several months.

I took CCA’s Feisty Fido (FF) group coaching program this fall, and I am glad I did. Despite growing up with a number of family dogs, adopting a dog as a primary caregiver was a challenging experience: my dog is sensitive and has unpredictable reactivity (growl+lunge+bark) at other dogs. I wanted to stick to fear-and-force-free training, read so many books, and watched hours and hours of videos. We took a couple of in-person basic manners classes, which my dog always aced, but I still could not reliably predict when he would explode. After 10 weeks of the virtual program, my dog still sometimes reacts, but I as his guardian learned to be better at reading his body language and take a holistic approach to living with my dog. FF team neatly brings together the different pieces of information/concepts of behavior modification. The written material, class resources, and well-curated videos clarify what I had heard/read/watched about but failed to successfully implement (for example, pattern games). The feedback on video submissions was helpful. Also in the group setting, I learned so much from other members! The virtual format gives a more structured learning experience than all in-person classes where I am busy trying to reward my dog for being calm and also listening to the instructor. I do believe in-person sessions have value. However, well-presented virtual coaching can provide a plethora of information first for you to get to know your dog and find paths together. I would recommend CCA’s FF program for dog guardians who want to navigate a path forward that makes positive changes to both humans and their sensitive dog companions.