Dog Pause

Dan does a great job training "both ends of the leash" - helping you to understand what is going on so you can be empowered to train your dog effectively, and working with the dog directly. Our dog Emi absolutely loves Dan - she goes bananas every time he shows up at our door! Our training has been highly effective for all of the basics, including recall, and we look forward to working with Dan more in the future to continue to develop the training bond with our beloved pup. Thank you, Dan!

We foster failed an 80 lb girl a couple of years ago, and after a period of decompression, she presented some serious guarding and behavioral issues. We luckily found Dan and Dog Pause, and he changed our lives. With his positive reinforcement training and teaching us how to read our own dog's body language, we've become effectively attentive and Fran has blossomed into a calm and increasingly resilient dog. She used to crouch, lunge, and bark at every dog she found scary – even an 8 lb Pom – and now, she can disengage, check in with me, get a delicious treat and an enthusiastic "Good girl!!" and move on with our walk. She used to guard me against my own partner in the house, and now she knows that he's where great things happen, so I find them hanging out and snuggling somewhere in the house all the time. I think the most significant change Dan's training has effected is this change in philosophy in the treatment of companion animals. When we're hanging out at the park and other dogs come by with their guardians yelling "no, stop it, don't do x," it's never really that effective. The dog may be jerked around or forced into compliance, but they're at it again soon, because something is more tempting at that moment than the unpleasantness of the correction. But when it's just finding that split moment when they're doing something you DO want, and giving them a treat or praise, I've found that the other dogs tend to repeat these "good" behaviors more often and they catch on quicker than I ever would have expected. Gentleness and reinforcement of behavior that you want really do work, and what I've gotten out of it is a lot of trust and love from this weirdo furball of mine. It beats living with a compliant dog, but one that fears you. Anyway, I hope anyone who sees this would choose Dan, and I hope your experiences are enriching. He really helped us, and I would wish this type of training for all dogs.