Karma Dog Training's 7 Requests for Success - "watch me", "stay", "come", "down", "heel", "leave it" and "go to your bed." Your dog will learn with both hand signals and voice cues. No harsh corrections.

In our puppy training classes, we also give you a greater understanding of your role in your puppy's behavioral obstacles and how they originated. We then provide you with many practical applications on how to overcome them, turning them from potential negative experiences into positive healing opportunities.

Makeup Policy: Make up classes are offered for any two puppy classes you may have to miss along the way.

Refresher Classes: We also allow you two refresher classes. This means you may repeat any two lessons, for any reason!

New Client Promotion:

Karma Dog Training's 7 Requests for Success - "watch me", "stay", "come", "down", "heel", "leave it" and "go to your bed." Your dog will learn with both hand signals and voice cues. No harsh corrections.

In our Basic Communication Level 1 training classes, we also give you a greater understanding of your role in your dog's behavioral obstacles and how they originated. We then provide you with many practical applications on how to overcome them, turning them from potential negative experiences into positive healing opportunities.

Makeup Policy: Make up classes are offered for any two Basic Communication Level 1 classes you may have to miss along the way.

Refresher Classes: We also allow you two refresher classes. This means you may repeat any two lessons, for any reason!

New Client Promotion:

With private training sessions, we always start off with just one session. This way you can feel comfortable with how we work and see for yourself if this is something you want to do more of. Instead of our usual 75 minute session, we increase the length of the 1st session to 90 minutes to ensure that we can gather all the pertinent information at the beginning of the initial session.

At the end of the first session, we can discuss how many sessions it might take to help you achieve your training goals. We always want the opportunity to work with a dog one time before we jump into any sort of training package with a client. This is for your benefit. We never want to sell you a training package upfront and have you pay for sessions you may not need.

Upon completion of session #1, once you've experienced for yourself what we do and how we do it, if you're comfortable continuing training with us, you can purchase what we call a "Smart Package" or "Bundle Package" (depending on what's best for your dog) and apply the discounted rate to your very first session!

*We add only $25.00 for a 2nd dog to be part of any private in home training session.

With our private coaching one-on-one discounted sessions, you'll learn how how to manage or solve all behavior modification challenges (including but not limited to): Housetraining - Chewing - Nipping - Leash Etiquette - Aggression - Jumping - Digging - Barking - Separation Anxiety - Dominance Issues - Resource Guarding.

You'll also learn a myriad of powerful remedies such as "The 4 Key Concepts of Positive Teaching", Karma Dog Training's easy-to-follow "16 House Rules" and an easy to implement "3-Step Formula" to address all future problem behavior.

In addition, you'll learn how to maintain your dog's progress after training has been completed by understanding and implementing: Karma Dog Training's "5 minutes - 5 times a day" easy maintenance schedule, how to substitute using dog treats for "Real Life Rewards" and how to turn your daily morning walks into your sacred "Meditation Walk".

For your peace of mind, we offer a number of different ways to train a dog but our internal studies show that over 15 years of teaching pet parents how to better communicate with their dogs, none are more effective than our Bundle package.

With our combination of private in home lessons and group classes, you'll learn Basic Communication Level 1 with Karma Dog Training's 7 Requests for Success: "watch me", "stay", "come", "down", "heel", "leave it" & "go to your bed".

We also give you a greater understanding of your role in your dog's behavioral obstacles and how they originated. We then provide you with many practical applications on how to overcome them, turning them from potential negative experiences into positive healing opportunities.

Basic Starter - "Happy Home" Intensive

(5 months and older)

Dogs are what we refer to as "contextual learners" - they learn best in relation to their own environment. With our "Happy Home" Intensive program, a.k.a. our "Reverse" Board and Train (for dogs 5 months and older), your dog is learning in the environment where most of their "bad behavior" happens.

As a result, the learning curve is shorter, results happen faster and your dog associates the pleasure of learning and growing to their home turf! In addition, with our "Happy Home" Intensive program, you could be home or not. It's up to you!

The #1 reason our "Happy Home" Intensive program is effective is because training happens in real time. We call this real time training "spontaneous training". Instead of setting up controlled "training sessions", by having one of our experts in your home for an extended period of time, we're able to "capture" behaviors as they happen naturally and then reinforce those behaviors so they become what we refer to as "default settings" in a dog's nervous system.

From a training perspective, this is the most elegant and natural way to teach a dog everything they need to learn in order to blossom into your dream dog!

How Does It Work?

We offer our "Happy Home" Intensive program for dogs 5 months and older, either as two 90 minute daily sessions (one in the AM and one in the PM) or 3 consecutive hours during the day - whichever is in the best interest of the dog.

The reason we recommend our Reverse Board & Train program aka our "Happy Home" Intensive program over our Traditional Board & Train in most cases, is because when a trainer is working directly with your dog in YOUR home, they can see exactly what the triggers are that are creating your dog's unwanted behaviors, and work to alleviate your dog’s responsiveness to those triggers in real-time. In addition to teaching alternative behaviors to your dog's triggers, they are simultaneously setting them up for future success.

Furthermore, the follow through training on the part of the dog parent is a lot easier of a task since their dog has already associated the new teachings to their home turf.

Behavior Modification

Our "Happy Home" Intensive program (for dogs 5 months and older) is a great protocol to help our furry friends who suffer with behavior modification issues. This program, along with Private In-Home Lessons, are 2 excellent programs we offer that allows for your dog to learn in the comfort of his/her own home which allows them to learn contextually.

As a Behavior Specialist works directly with your dog, they will be able to slowly introduce outside triggers (at your dog's pace) to ensure that your dog is not overwhelmed and comfortable with the process and hopefully begin to associate joy with learning and growing. We will never force a dog to tolerate something they are uncomfortable with.

"Boot Camp" Business Hours Program

(5 months and older)

Preserving the bonding process is always an important factor to consider when choosing any training program. With our "Boot Camp" Business hours program, your dog is learning everything he/she needs in order to reach your training goals while still making it home in time for dinner!

With our "Boot Camp" Business hours program, we preserve the bonding process, increase the feelings of trust and sense of well-being your dog is gaining with each new day away from home and we create an association to learning that is enjoyable and fun!

In addition, our Business Hours program comes with 15 minute daily "Wrap Up" sessions at the end of each day to ensure training sticks.

Your dog will come to live with us and be part of our Karma Dog family for a predetermined number of days. Your dog stays and trains with us (and is actually living in one of our trainer’s homes).

We can also set up for you what we refer to as a "See you on the weekends" type of arrangement. This is where your dog would be with us during the work week, and back home with you on the weekends.

Please keep in mind that we do NOT accept every dog into our cage-free board and train program. The Veterinarian guidelines that we follow in order to be endorsed by the Veterinarian community require us to make sure that we always choose the most effective training protocol for your dog.

Dogs with any sort of reactivity, aggression or separation anxiety issues are not a good fit for our cage-free board and train program but may be an excellent fit for Private Training or our Reverse Board and Train program aka our "Happy Home" Intensive program (where we have a program specifically for puppies and a different program for dogs 5 months and older) or our Full Immersion Program

Keep in mind, we also reserve the right to limit our traditional board and train service only to those clients we feel are 100% committed to following through with their dog's progress once their dog returns home. This includes participating in the FREE private follow up sessions and FREE group classes we provide following the training.

In over 15 years of doing this work, we have found through our experience, that no matter how long a dog stays and trains with us, without the proper follow-through by the pet parents, there will be no measurable short-term or long-term progress. This is why we choose to work exclusively with pet parents who are 100% committed to being involved with their dog's education and are willing to participate in the free follow-up private sessions and group training classes we provide at no cost once we finish the program.

Taking the steps necessary to train your dog in public opens up a world of freedom for your dog and gives you the peace of mind knowing that your fur child will be welcomed wherever you go.

The best part about our 'Polite in Public' is that we do most of the heavy lifting for you!

That's right!

We'll get your dog to the level of having excellent public manners and then bring you in afterwards to show you the ropes.

Our #1 goal is to teach every dog how to become 'Polite in Public', even yours!

How does it work?

Part 1
(without you present)

In Karma Dog Training's 'Polite in Public' program (Part 1), one of our Lead Trainers will take your dog in public for a series of individual training sessions where we work directly with your dog (without you present) with the goal of having excellent public manners.

Part 2
(with you present)

We then teach you and your dog together as a team so that you and your pup are in sync and walking harmoniously with each other. It's during these follow up sessions where we show you exactly what your dog learned in Part 1 and begin to transfer the skill set to you

We have 3 different levels of our 'Polite in Public' program.

'Polite in Public'
Basic Communication (5, 10, or 15 sessions)

In 'Polite in Public' Basic Communication program, we teach your dog all of the important building blocks of having impeccable public manners such as learning 'watch me', 'stay', 'down', 'leave it', 'drop it', 'wait at the curb' and the 'art of loose leash walking'.

This program is either 5, 10 or 15 sessions in length and comes with 1 FREE follow up training session with you for every 5 sessions your dog has with our trainer.

For ex: 10 sessions comes with 2 FREE follow up sessions with you.

'Polite in Public'
Behavior Modification (15, 20 or 25 sessions)

In our 'Polite in Public' Behavior Modification program, we work to mitigate your dog's problem public behavior in all aspects from pulling towards other dogs and jumping up on random people, to teaching 'polite greeting rituals' with all dogs and people (especially kids) and "proofing" the behaviors your dog may have learned at home but now needs to perform in public. We prudently do this by introducing the 3 D's - Distance, Duration and Distractions.

This program is either 15, 20 or 25 sessions and comes with 1 FREE follow up training session with you for every 5 sessions your dog has with our trainer.

For ex: 15 sessions comes with 3 FREE follow up sessions with you.

'Polite in Public'
Reactivity/Aggression (25, 30 or 35 sessions)

In our 'Polite in Public' Reactivity/Aggression program, we cover all aspects of the potential pitfalls for the reactive or fearful dog and work to solve these problems proactively with a powerful yet simple science-based philosophy rooted in 100% positive reinforcement. counterconditioning and desensitization exercises.

This program is either 25, 30 or 35 sessions and comes with 1 FREE follow up training session with you for every 5 sessions your dog has with our trainer.

For ex: 25 sessions comes with 5 FREE follow up sessions with you.

Karma Dog Training offers behavior consultations and private sessions for advanced training work and behavior modification services for problem behaviors, including separation anxiety, leash reactivity, remedial socialization, dog-to-dog conflict, resource guarding, and dog-to-human aggression.

The Karma Dog Training methods incorporate a 100% commitment to positive reinforcement in place of old-fashioned coercion and use of force.

The behavior modification treatment plans are designed for mitigating the undesirable behaviors that your dog exhibits. Behavior modification can address a broad range of issues and is specifically designed to meet the individual needs of each dog and household.

With behavioral modification training sessions, we always start off with just one session. This way you can feel comfortable with how we work and see for yourself if this is something you want to do more of. Instead of our usual 75 minute session, we increase the length of the 1st session to 90 minutes to ensure that we can gather all the pertinent information at the beginning of the initial session.

At the end of the first session, we then discuss how many sessions it might take to help you achieve your training goals. We always want the opportunity to work with a dog one time before we jump into any sort of training package with a client. This is for your benefit. We never want to sell you a training package upfront and have you pay for sessions you may not need.

Upon completion of session #1, after you've experienced for yourself what we do and how we do it, you can purchase what we call a "Smart Package" (discounted private sessions) and apply the discounted rate to your very first session.

*We add $25.00 to the price for a 2nd dog to be part of any private training session.

Separation anxiety

What is it?

Separation anxiety is when a dog suffers intense stress from being left alone or being away from their loved one. If your dog displays behaviors such as howling, barking, crying in excess, drooling and panting, pacing, chewing things, scratching at exits and trying to escape in response to being away from you, your dog could be suffering from separation anxiety.

How do we address it?

In keeping with our "set your dog up for success" philosophy, we take the least aversive approach to reach training goals and always keep a compassionate understanding that we must be patient and move at the individual dog’s pace. Our separation anxiety exercises are designed to teach a dog how to remain calm during short, controlled absences from its owner. These exercises are useful for dogs who suffer from mild to severe cases of separation anxiety, or for dogs who just don't like their owners to leave the room.

Like any good behavior modification program, this exercise starts off simply and works up, ensuring success all the way. It is important to make it easy for the dog to succeed at every step. Without success, there is nothing to reinforce; without reinforcement there is less of the desired behavior. If your dog has separation anxiety, all he or she wants is for you to be near, thus your return is an effective reinforcer.

• In short, we will Equipt the owner with important knowledge
• Implement mindful management of the situation
• Set up training for success based on the individual
• Adjust protocols based on results at each step
• Find the coping threshold and increase it
• Unassociate pre-departure behaviors as predictors of separation
• Gradually desensitize
• Empower the owner with how to follow through to keep up progress

Our separation anxiety exercises intend to increase the threshold of how far away you can go from your dog or how long you can stay away before your dog becomes anxious for your return. You will show your dog that you always come back if they remain calm.

The principles of the separation anxiety exercises are the same as for most realistic, sensible treatment protocols, which makes it easier to understand how those protocols work. The insights gained from these exercises make it less likely that serious errors will be made if or when more complex behavior modification procedures are attempted.

Helping your canine best friend conquer their anxiety will lead to a better quality of life and allow for an even stronger bond with you!

Leash Reactivity

What is it?

If you've ever struggled with your dog's barking and lunging on walks, you know the stress this behavior causes on both ends of the leash. If your dog acts in similar ways behind barriers such as a fence or window, you might be dealing with a leash reactivity issue.

When a dog obnoxiously responds (or reacts) to a stimulus or trigger, that behavior is considered "reactive." These undesirable reactions are oftentimes in response to other dogs, people, cats, and cars, but what triggers a dog varies individually. Likewise, it is important to note that there are dogs that are not reactive off-leash but are while on. You may notice that the constraint of a leash exacerbates reactivity. On leash, dogs can feel trapped and may switch from their flight instinct, to fight.

If this sounds like your dog, don’t worry, our company has the best staff of professional dog trainers ready to help! A reactive dog must learn better coping skills in the presence of a trigger, and must develop impulse control to utilize those coping skills instead of reacting. In line with our "set your dog up for success" philosophy, we take it one step at a time, and take special care to provide the least invasive and minimally aversive approach to reach training goals.

Without training and professional guidance, it is unlikely that reactivity issues would just go away as this way of acting could be self-reinforcing. Many people unintentionally increase their reactive dog’s anxiety and feeling of being trapped by correcting their dog by scolding, jerking at the leash, or roughly grabbing their dog, then forcing their dog to sit or lie down for any perceived display of aggression. This is not recommended because you do not want to teach your dog that their triggers (other dogs, people, etc) cause punishment. Correcting a dog for growling or barking suppresses communication of those warnings to prevent them from growling or barking in the future. This is harmful because now the dog may go straight to biting without warning or worse, redirect their aggression towards the handler.

Changing strong habits takes time for humans and canines alike! We keep this in mind when implementing our training protocols and move forward at the individual dog’s pace. Our training methods are compassionate and void of any kind of intimidation. Punishing away the symptoms (lunging, barking, etc) may temporarily suppress the display but the underlying emotional cause still remains unaddressed. Our exercises intend to adjust responses and counter condition triggers.

How do we do this

• Support realistic expectations
• Empower the owners with positive reinforcement based, humane training methods
• Implement mindful management to prevent a scenario where the dog displays reactivity
• Set up training for success based on the individual dog and owner
• Teach the reactive dog foundational skills and default behaviors
• Teach the reactive dog a more appropriate response
• Mark and reward desirable behaviors and good choices
• Find the current coping threshold and carefully increase it
• Teach the reactive dog to notice a stimulus and look to the handler
• Begin applying coping skills under our professional guidance in a more real-life setting
• Practice skills with a lower-level trigger present in a controlled training set-up
• Slowly start to introduce the trigger at a far distance and keep the reactive dog under threshold- noting that reactionary behaviors are indicators the dog is over threshold
• Adjust protocols based on results at each step
• Equipt the owners with skills and knowledge of how to follow through with and maintain progress.

Remedial Socialization

What is it?

When speaking about socialization, the first thing that comes to mind are puppies! Puppies go through stages of development and have a critical socialization period which occurs between 4-16 weeks of age. The goal with socialization is to create positive experiences and associations to all things that a dog may encounter throughout its life such as other people, dogs, animals, sounds, places, objects in unfamiliar situations and environments. Socialization allows you and your dog to live more comfortably, and enjoy a happy, balanced life!

But what happens when your dog is more than 4 months old? Is it too late? Don’t worry, Karma Dog Training has you covered! While it may be true that remedial socialization can be a little more challenging in comparison to puppy socialization, it is never too late to improve the quality of life and strengthen your bond with your dog.

The need for remedial socialization is more common today after the COVID-19 pandemic restrictions. However, there are many reasons why remedial socialization becomes necessary. Some puppies were not able to have the much needed positive experiences with the public. Some dogs are adopted at an older age and were unable to receive proper socialization as a young puppy. And, some dogs previously had social skills but lost them due to isolation.

A dog that may need remedial socialization is one that:

• Gets overly excited and behaves in ways which negatively affect other people or dogs
• Displays anxiety when out on walks or visiting locations outside of the home
• Acts fearful or aggressive around people or other animals
• Acts tense, cowers, freezes, raises hackles, backs away, lunges, vocalizes when greeting people or dogs

How can we help you socialize your adolescent or adult dog?

We use the safest and most predictable ways to socialize your dog control of your dog’s environment and break the socialization up into steps that make it easy for your dog to have positive experiences.

With positive reinforcement based, fear free training methods we:

• Investigate health and overall stress
• Create a list of triggers and create a management and prevention plan
• Support realistic expectations and goals
• Set up training for success based on the individual dog and owner while adjusting protocols as needed
• Mark and reward desirable behaviors and good choices
• Teach the dog how we want them to respond in training set ups
• Train alternative or incompatible behaviors such as leave it, settling and standing calmly, walking on loose leash, attention, turning cues, etc.
• Proof the behaviors without triggers
• Proof the behaviors with a lower-level trigger present in a controlled training set-up
• Begin training the dog with the already learned cues with each trigger separately
• Pair positive associations with counterconditioning and desensitization teaching the dog the previously scary things always result in very good things
• Practice with people, places, things, animals, sounds, smells, etc.

With a well-socialized dog, you can go out and explore around other people and animals and lead a more fulfilling life. You can share an engaging outing without worrying about how your dog will feel and handle unfamiliar situations.

Dog-to-Dog Conflict

What is it?

Dog on dog aggression is when a dog displays conflict provoking or reacting behaviors such as tense freezing, growling, barking, lunging, or biting towards another dog. There are other more subtle communication through body language such as a whale or hard eyes, swaying head or turning away, panting excessively, scratching, sniffing, sweating through paw pads, whining, and more.

How do we address it?

Like any good behavior modification program, our exercises start off simply and build up, ensuring success all the way. It is important to make it easy for the dog to succeed at every step. Learning is best under low stress which is why tackling dog aggression through positive reinforcement is very effective.

If violence occurs between dogs or dogs are being hurt, then separation and constant environmental management is one of the most effective ways to deal with the problem. We will start with a thorough behavior consultation then plan and begin implementing training. Behavior change takes time so we start when and where the dog (and owner!) is ready.

The principles of our skill building exercises give us insights that make it less likely that serious errors will be made when behavior modification procedures are attempted.

In short, we will

• Provide a behavioral assessment and consultation
• Evaluate individual dog’s prognosis
• Implement mindful management of the situation
• Equipt the owner with important knowledge
• Teach the owner effective use of various tools
• Teach the owner how to recognize the precursors for aggressive behavior
• Teach the owner defensive handling skills
• Teach the dog alternative, more desirable behaviors
• Find the coping threshold and increase it
• Set up training for success
• Adjust protocols based on results at each step
• Empower the owner how to plan proactively, deal with complications owner and how to follow through with progress

As with most behavioral issues, severity ranges significantly. For severe cases, an owner may need to seek care from a veterinary behaviorist if and when training is not enough. Medications in addition to training could be recommended. In other instances, rehoming should be considered. Some dogs are happiest being the only dog in a home.

We have high expectations for our dogs and in an ideal world would like them to be comfortable around all dogs, but the reality is that no dog (or human for that matter!) will like everyone they meet. The key is to keep watch on body language. Be sure to maintain your dog on a relaxed leash which promotes confidence and keeps your dog and other dogs around safe. You must allow your dog to be the one to decide the pace and which dogs to socialize with. Some dogs are just plain happier with their own company or the company of one or two other properly introduced dogs and that’s okay!

Resource Guarding

A dog that growls, snarls, lunges, or bites over other things they find valuable may have resource guarding issues. Resource guarding is a common problem that many dog owners struggle with. For some dogs, it’s not a good idea to have the owner just to take away the food or toy from, challenge or discipline, your dog the dog as most commonly suggested. Sometimes, this can create an even bigger issue if the emotional conditioning to this event is not positive.

Dogs can guard just about anything and everything. Dogs guard space and places such as dog beds, couches, your bed, your lap, under a specific table or any place the dog is standing or lying down. Some dogs guard people and/or other dogs like a specific dog or family member, visitors to your house, or everyone. Dogs also guard objects like dog toys, your clothing, shoes, bones, or sticks. And many dogs guard food or treats or chews that are available to them, but also food that the dog cannot access. Sometimes dogs will want to guard the areas where food has been, for example, the kitchen or an empty dog bowl. Some dogs will guard water or smells too. Some telltale signs of guarding are stiff posture, hard stare, growling, quickly running away with or turning head quickly if someone approaches.

It is extremely important to prevent the dog rehearsing the guarding behavior because the more the behavior happens the harder it will be to break that habit. It is necessary to teach a dog to do what you want them to do instead of constantly correcting them or they will continue with the way they have been communicating or skip the warnings and escalate straight to biting.

Karma Dog Training can help you discourage resource guarding before it becomes too problematic and is best to begin as early as possible. Throughout your one-on-one customized training plan, we find the very best way to teach your dog calming concepts, interrupting and redirecting attention, and other coping skills that would mitigate guarding. We must change the dog’s emotional response to the situation in training set ups and implement management. We can use desensitization, counter-conditioning, differential reinforcement, and utilize foundational obedience skills. Together, we can fill your dog’s skills toolbox with more favorable options of how to respond to situations that previously caused possessiveness, and to help you intervene and prevent resource guarding issues.

By building a solid "leave it", "drop it", "come", "go to kennel, bed, or place", and "back up," response to an interruptor noise, you can teach your dog alternate or incompatible behaviors. To reach these training goals, we must always keep a compassionate understanding and move at your individual dog’s pace. Our resource guarding protocols start off simply and work up criteria of challenges, ensuring success all the way. It is important to make it easy for the dog to succeed at every step in the most safe and positive route possible. The insights gained from these incremental exercises make it less likely that serious errors will be made if or when more complex resource guarding procedures are attempted. Karma Dog Trainers do not use intimidation to train so you can stay safe and get help with training and modifications. Just know that it could always come back due to regression in a new scenario, stress, arousal, pain or illness. So we can help you be prepared for it and continue with training on your own with confidence.

In short, we will

• Make a list of all the scenarios where resource guarding happens
• Create a management and prevention plan to prevent guarding from occurring outside of training sessions
• Create a safety protocol to prevent accidents and injury
• Learn what guarding looks like and be observant
• Train emergency behaviors to interrupt guarding before it starts or interrupt it after
• In training sessions teach your dog what you do want him to do in different social scenarios
• In training setups work on building a positive conditioned emotional response to situations your dog has a tendency to guard in by breaking the training up into small achievable steps by separating the triggers and adding them together systematically

Dog-to-Human Aggression

What is it

Dog-to-human aggression can be unpredictable and dangerous, especially when there is an extensive history of aggressive behavior. Dog-to-human aggression is described as growling, barking, snapping at family members, guests, strangers, or biting any person. Dog-to-human aggression is very serious, and poses a liability for dog owners and the general public. If your dog is reactive and/or aggressive towards people or has bitten a person, the most crucial thing you must do is effectively manage your dog and your dog’s environment to keep people safe.

We often wonder why or how human aggression could happen. The number one cause is distress and anxiety. Some dogs were neglected, abused, forced, and/or harshly disciplined. Most dogs today are house pets that spend most of their day laying around on the couch. It is less likely that dogs are being mentally and physically exercised and enriched as they would if they had jobs. As mental and physical outlets are reduced, so is emotional stability. Other factors that may influence a dog to become aggressive could be poor breeding, genetics and health, poor socialization, negative experiences, and/or pain, to name a few.

How do we address it?

Although there is no "fix" or "cure" for aggression, positive-reinforcement-based training can help. A Karma Dog Trainer can help you with management of your dog and its environment, teach you how to train new coping skills, and help modify your dog’s behavior.

With behavior modification and counter conditioning protocols, together we can reshape your dog's emotions and habits when around their human trigger. Our exercises start off simply and build up, ensuring success all the way. It is important to make it easy for the dog to succeed at every step. Learning is best under low stress and so you will never see our training use intimidation, force, yelling, jerking, frustration or anger.

In short, we will

• Provide a behavioral assessment and consultation
• Evaluate individual dog’s prognosis
• Implement mindful management of the situation
• Equipt the owner with important knowledge
• Teach the owner dog handling safety and environmental management
• Teach the owner effective use of various tools
• Teach the owner how to recognize the precursors for aggressive behavior and to understand communication and warnings
• Teach the owner defensive handling skills
• Teach the dog alternative, more desirable behaviors
• Set up training for success at each step
• Adjust protocols based on results at each step
• Empower the owner how to plan proactively, deal with complications owner and how to follow through with progress

As with most behavioral issues, severity ranges significantly. Some dogs are unable to change their extensive fears or emotional trauma, just like humans. For severe cases, an owner may need to seek care from a Veterinary Behaviorist if and when training is not enough. Medications in addition to training could be recommended. Sometimes we can’t make the needed changes fast enough for everyone’s immediate safety. Sometimes the challenge may feel too large to fit into your current life demands. Occasionally these situations turn tragic. In some instances, euthanasia may need to be considered.

While the ultimate goal is to keep your dog, if you ever find yourself facing these concerns, Karma Dog Training will be there to help you understand your choices and support you in your decision making.

Karma Dog's Full Immersion Program is a ground breaking, life-changing 7, 14, 21 or 30 day experience designed to give dog parents the concepts, tools and strategies to shatter all limitations about what they thought was possible to achieve with their dog.

How does it work?

This breakthrough program takes training to a new level where one of our trustworthy head trainers lives with you and your family for a period of 7, 14, 21 or 30 days and totally transforms your household into a mini Karma Dog eco system, so that all family members begin to think and respond to your dog's behavior in the same way a Karma Dog Teacher would.

After a complimentary Zoom consultation with a trainer personally selected by one of the Karma Dog Training Directors, and upon your 100% approval of the person, you’ll make arrangements with your trainer to get ready to live with you and your dog!

Day by day, your Karma Dog Teacher captures the inner workings of your dog’s mind and how they respond to their environment in real time and then empowers you to use what we refer to as "predictive pattern recognition" (PPR) to solve potential behavioral challenges even before they come up.

Who is this program good for?

The Full Immersion program is an excellent choice for brand new puppy parents who simply do not wish to wake up every 2 to 3 hours throughout the night to deal with their new puppy's ongoing potty training issues, as well as for dogs with medium to severe behavior modification issues where expert analysis and a real action plan are required for lasting change to occur. It's also great for the desensitization and counter conditioning training that may be necessary in a multiple dog household where all dog's need to co-exist harmoniously with each other.

The good news is that with our Full Immersion Program, we do all the heavy lifting for you!

Is your gut feeling telling you that your dog would probably feel more comfortable staying at home while you’re away on your next trip rather than being shipped off somewhere?

Is your dog simply not the best fit for Traditional Board & Train because he/she isn’t 100% friendly with all other dogs?

Does your dog have some separation anxiety issues that would preclude them from being comfortable away from your home and you know intuitively that sending them away would probably only exacerbate their current abandonment issues?

If you've answered YES to either one of these questions ...

Don’t worry! We’ll come to you!

With our most in demand and popular "Vacation program", one of our experienced and trustworthy head trainers will be living in your home for you while you're on vacation doing a combination of day training and overnight pet sitting!

Yes, our trainer will spend all day with your dog teaching him/her new things, walking him/her and taking excellent overall care of your dog, while also spending the night cuddled up with your fur baby!

The best part about our "Vacation program" is that it's totally customized to fit your designated travel dates and/or for the specific amount of time you have to be away from home.

Why is this program more effective than our Traditional Board & Train?

Since dogs are what we refer to as "contextual learners," science tells us they learn best in relation to their own environment.

With our Vacation program, your dog is learning in the exact environment where most of their "bad behavior" happens. As a result, the learning curve is shorter, results happen faster and your dog associates the pleasure of learning and growing to their own home turf.

The best part is that when you come home from your trip, because your dog has already been taught everything they need to know in relation to their own environment, there will be less work for you in terms of having to reinforce all of the behaviors they learned, compared to if you had chosen to do our Traditional Board & Train program.

Since dogs are what we refer to as "contextual learners," they learn best in relation to their own environment. With our "Reverse" Board & Train program, your dog is learning in the environment where most of their "bad behavior" happens. As a result, the learning curve is shorter, results happen faster and your dog associates the pleasure of learning and growing to their natural environment.

We offer 2 different types of Reverse Board & Train programs: Day Only (Business Hours), which we call our "Happy Home" Intensive program and our Day plus Nights (24/7), which we call our "Vacation Option".

"Happy Home" Intensive program

With our "Happy Home" Intensive program, we train your puppy or dog in the comfort of your own home during the day while you're at work or while you're present. It's up to you!

For puppies between the ages of 8 weeks to 18 weeks of age, we offer this service as a Monday thru Friday program (during business hours - 10 am to 1 pm and 3 to 6 pm) and on the weekends your puppy is enrolled in a free 7 week in person and/or free 7 week virtual set of classes.

For dogs 5 months and older, we offer this service as a Monday thru Friday program (during business hours - either as two 90 minute training sessions (one in the AM and one in the PM) or 3 consecutive hours during the day - whichever is in the best interest of your dog. On the weekends your dog is enrolled in a free 7 week in person and/or free 7 week virtual set of classes.

Our "Happy Home" Intensive program (Business Hours) for puppies 8 weeks to 18 weeks of age is either a 5, 10, 15, 20, 25 or 30 day program but can also be customized for a specific set of days. This program is ideal for Puppies under 5 months as they are still in the early socialization and imprinting period of their development.

Dogs who are older than 5 months, are better served with either two 90 minutes sessions during the day (one in the AM and the other in the PM) or 3 hours of extended time.

It's important to note that dogs who are outside the early socialization window (over 5 months of age) would not benefit from more than 3 hours a day of active training. The fact is training a dog who is over 5 months of age 6 hours a day would not make much sense at all and would be counterproductive.

Vacation program

With our "Reverse" Board and Train (Vacation program) program, one of our experienced head trainers will be teaching your dog new things and taking excellent care taken of them while you're away (working towards your Top 3 training goals, going for long walks and engaging in lots of play throughout the day) while also spending nights cuddled up with your fur baby!

Our "Reverse" Board and Train (Vacation program) program is customized to fit your travel dates or for a specific amount of time you have to be away from home.

This is the right program for you if your gut feeling is telling you that your dog would probably feel more comfortable staying at home while you’re away on your next trip rather than being shipped off somewhere.

In addition, if your dog has any sort of reactivity, aggression or separation anxiety issues, our "Reverse" Board and Train (Vacation program) is a much better fit than our Traditional Board & Train program.

*One of the additional benefits about our Vacation program is that when you come home from your trip, because your dog has already been taught everything they need to know in relation to their own environment, the follow up training that you will be asked to do is less than if you had chosen our Traditional Board & Train program.

The Canine Good Citizen (CGC) program, established in 1989, is an American Kennel Club program to promote responsible dog ownership and to encourage the training of well-mannered dogs. A dog does not have to be registered with the AKC to earn a CGC, nor does he/she have to be a purebred or registered with any canine organization. The goal is to simply promote good citizenship for all dogs.

A dog who graduates from this class and passes the evaluation earns the highly respected Canine Good Citizen certificate, which many people represent after the dog's name, abbreviating it as CGC; for example, "Fido, CGC".

Since its inception, the CGC program has become the model for similar programs around the world and is the backbone for many other exams, such as those given for therapy dogs, and is an advanced level class for dogs who already have a great foundation of Basic Communication established with their pet parents.

*All dogs must enroll or have graduated from a Basic Communication Level 1 class as a prerequisite for our Canine Good Citizen Class.

Task Oriented

A service dog is a dog that is individually trained to perform tasks that mitigate the disability of the dog's owner. The work or tasks performed by a service dog must be directly related to the individual's disability. Since each person experiences a disability differently and therefore has different needs for assistance, each dog is to some extent custom-trained for the individual it will be helping.

Service dogs such as Medical Response Dogs, Mobility Assistance Dogs, Psychiatric Service Dogs, Autism Service Dogs are all examples of what we refer to as Task Oriented Service Dogs, however, Psychiatric and Autism Service Dogs could also fall under the category of Emotional Support dogs if they do not require specific task training.

Each dog enrolled in our Task Oriented Service Dog program is being prepared to pass BOTH a Task Oriented test and a Public Access test, as well be individually trained to do work or perform tasks for the benefit of an individual with a disability, including a physical, sensory, psychiatric, intellectual, or other mental disability.

Labrador Retrievers, German Shepherds,Golden Retrievers, and in recent years American Pit Bull Terriers are the most common breeds used as service dogs, but any breed or mix of breeds is capable of being a service dog. Most owners expect their service dogs to be treated as a working animal while in public, but can relax and be playful when the gear is removed. An owner will expect to be asked for permission before another individual interacts with the dog.

We have 5 different levels of service dog training packages. Please note: If you have a puppy between the ages of 8 weeks to 16 weeks of age, the Veterinarian Guidelines that we follow in order to be endorsed by the Veterinarian Community strongly suggest that the single most time sensitive thing a new puppy parent can do if they are seeking to make their puppy a future Service Dog is to enroll in a parvo disinfected Veterinarian Endorsed Puppy Kindergarten class.

Sammye Darling is a Certified Professional Dog Trainer Knowledge and Skills Assessed (CPDT-KSA) who has over a decade of experience training all types of Service dogs. Additionally, she is an AKC evaluator for Canine Good Citizen (CGC) titles, Trick Dog titles, Virtual Home Manners (VHM) and more. She has served on several Board of Directors and raised service dogs for several non-profit organizations. Her passion began with rescuing homeless dogs making them more adoptable and then graduated to training service animals for individuals with disabilities including but not limited to individuals with psychiatric and mobility impairments, seizures, diabetes etc.

Her training is geared towards each client and dog individually. She creates customized training plans with each pet parent's input to create all types of Service Dogs that have a master skill set along with the temperament and reliability to succeed in the real world. She then provides follow up training that details the information she covered in each unique signature board and train program.

Sammye graduated with honors from Texas A&M University in College Station, TX where she received her Bachelors of Science degree in psychology and minor in neuroscience. Sammye is a published author as an undergraduate Research Scholar and with the American Humane Association researching psychology of pets and their owners. Her psychology classes provided a strong foundation to learning theories and solidified her positive, force-free, and science-based dog training background. Sammye has also created several puppy raising and dog training manuals.

If you dog not currently have a dog, our Service Dog professionals can help choose the right one for you. We begin by finding out what type of dog may be the best fit for your specific needs and lifestyle and then we set up a game plan to bring home the best possible dog for you. Of course, you always make the final decision. We are simply there to guide you in every step of the process.

The reason our Find me the Perfect Dog program has been so successful is because our service dog trainers are not only looking for a cute face (a pre-requisite of course!) but we are also reading a dog's body language and canine signals. "Find me the Perfect Dog" sessions are billed in 2-hour increments and are priced at $150.00.

Are you leaving town and simply need a safe, comfortable and loving place for your dog to stay and enjoy themselves? Well, cage-free boarding is a Karma Dog trademark.

The best news is that we ONLY board dogs in the comfort of one our head trainer's home, never in a store front or a facility. This means plenty of fresh air, long enjoyable daily walks and all the love and petting sessions you would want your fur baby to experience while you're away on vacation.

We also offer what we call our "Reverse" Boarding where one of our reliable and trustworthy trainers stay in your home and cares for your dog throughout the entire day and also spends the night!

If your dog suffers from any sort of separation anxiety issues and you know in your heart that sending your dog away to some boarding facility is simply not in his/her best interest, or your dog has some aggression issues that make you extremely uncomfortable with the idea of leaving him/her somewhere with other random dogs, our Reverse Boarding program was specifically designed for you to have total peace of mind.

Positive interactions, peaceful meditation music, and healthy organic dog treats is what Karma Dog Zen Daycare is all about. Each puppy or dog enrolled in our Zen Daycare program is carefully screened for temperament and sociability to ensure a positive experience for everyone.

Your dog can now stay with us during the day and be part of our Karma Dog family. This is not a kennel, boarding facility or storefront, but our actual home. Dog walks are also included at no additional cost.

*Please note that if your dog is not 100% potty trained, you would have to choose Zen Daycare (with potty training) program.

If your puppy or adult dog needs assistance with potty training, we can provide Zen Daycare with Potty Training for an additional $50 per day (*subject to availability).

Keep in mind, if a puppy is not 100% potty trained, we will require that you select our Zen Daycare with Potty Training option.

*If your puppy needs additional training beyond potty training, please see our Board and Train "Business Hours" program or our Happy Home Intensive program.

We believe the time you spend away from your dog should always equal a peaceful, relaxing, and joyful time for your dog, not something you dread because you know your dog is being caged and feeling isolated.

With our Reverse Zen Daycare program, not only do we come to you, we'll provide dog walks throughout the day at no additional cost!

If your puppy needs assistance with potty training and you would prefer to have them learn this contextual based protocol in the comfort of your own home rather than ours, we can provide Reverse Zen Daycare with Potty Training for an additional $50 per day (*subject to availability).

If your puppy needs any additional training beyond basic potty training, please see our Board and Train "Business Hours" program or our Happy Home Intensive program.

We understand that finding the right pet sitter is like finding the right baby sitter for your kids - it’s an important decision!

Karma Pet Sitters are available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Prices vary depending on the number of visits per week and length of each visit. Daily, Nightly, Weekly and Monthly packages are available. Your dog can be dropped off with us or we can come to you. It's totally your choice!

We can also make trips to your home simply to ensure your fur baby is getting out to relieve him or herself whenever necessary.

Who better to walk your dog than an actual trainer?

With our "Dharma" Dog Walks, not only are we making sure your dog is being properly exercised during the day, we offer two different types of walks:

1) A daily, consistent, "energy management" walk around the neighborhood designed to keep your dog calm for the entire day.

2) A walk where we bring your dog into nature (hiking trails, parks, the beach etc.)

Which adventure you choose for your dog is up to you. Prices vary depending on the frequency of walks per week and which adventure you choose. Discounted weekly and monthly price packages are available.

Do you ever wish you could know what’s best for your dog from the highest perspective possible?

Do you ever feel like you want to ask your dog what him/her opinion is on any subject you just aren’t sure about?

Would you like to know what’s going on in your dog’s mind?

Would you like to reassure him/her, and let them know something and trust that they received the message?

Karma Dog Training, a leader in the Dog World for the past 15 years, is now offering Divine Guidance for Dogs from a gifted intuitive healer and channel who can tap into the Spirit World and receive Divine Guidance specifically for your dog.

• We can also communicate with you about what your dog’s needs are and how to fulfill those individual needs in the most elegant way.
• We can also relay any messages your dog might have for you and vice versa.

In addition, many times, behavioral issues in dogs are the result of an unmet need.

With Divine Guidance, we can get directly to the root of the issue and really understand what your dog’s true needs are so that the issue can be resolved.

Bring your questions and curiosity and allow yourself to be supported.

We can also help when a pet goes missing.

Many times when a pet is missing, feelings of fright and sadness set in. With divine guidance, we will attempt to locate your beloved furry friend before you start to panic.

Immediate on-call "Crisis Session" is available 24/7 for an additional fee.

Karma Dog Training's "Conscious Kid" program aims to coach young children from the ages of 3 to 16 to train dogs basic skills and manners using a scientific-based positive reinforcement approach.

Many families adopt or bring a new dog into their family in hopes of gaining a new best friend for their children. And creating a positive bond between a child and a dog can lead to the most loyal companionship - creating a lifetime of rewards for the whole family.

Studies show that including your child when training your dog enables the child to learn leadership skills, responsibility and confidence. It also fosters excitement about learning and helps children (as well as the dogs they teach) learn the importance of consent, boundaries and rewards.

How does it work?

Karma Dog Training's "Conscious Kid" program consists of private one-on-one sessions conducted by one of our top professional head trainers who specializes in teaching dog behavior to children and preteens. As your child's Dog Guide, they are providing easy-to-follow guidance and support to help facilitate the best possible success between your child and their new best fur-friend!

The goal is for your child and puppy to both LOVE the learning process so much that at the end of 7 weeks, your child is awarded a Certificate of Completion as being their dog’s Top Handler/Trainer as your puppy successfully graduates the course!

This 7 week course is aimed directly towards children (with a supervised adult).

Topics covered during this program are:

• Dog Handling Safety (How to properly approach/greet dogs.)
• Dog Body Language (Understanding certain body signals of stress/fear/anxiety and how to address them safely/positively)
• Karma Dogs "7 Requests for Success" (Watch Me, Come, Stay, Down, Leave it, Go To Bed and Loose Leash Walking)
• How to partake in a dogs daily feeding and exercise routine (How to leash and walk your dog and how to safely administer food)
• Proper health care basics (Puppy imprinting, grooming, bathing and tooth brushing)
• Potty training basics (Learning your dogs potty cues and how to set up a proper puppy play pen or gated area)
• Puppy proofing (Securing and keeping safe your indoor and outdoor areas)
• What to do in an emergency (Approaching unknown dogs, dog greetings on leash, what to do if your dog escapes their leash, how to deal with approaching unleashed dogs and what to do if you find a stray dog)
• Emergency animal care (How to address certain ailments such as checking paws, ears and gums for foxtails, ticks, fleas, cuts etc., who to contact in an emergency, and how to handle small injuries)
• Wildlife safety (Safety precautions for smaller dogs, rules about not leaving dogs unsupervised/off leash outdoors ever, especially after dark!, how to handle wildlife, including coyote, mountain lions, snakes and spiders)

Many children upon completion of this "Conscious Kid" program feel a greater sense of connection with their dogs and both the child and dog often go on to further develop their training skills. Dogs may continue training towards becoming therapy or service animals and children may continue deepening their training knowledge, some becoming professional trainers in the future!

Is your furry friend ready for their close-up?

Is the glamour of Hollywood calling your pup’s name?
Does your fur baby dream of having treats thrown at them as they walk the red carpet?

Well, now you have the chance to make that dream come true with the Karma Dog Hollywood training program.

The Karma Dog Hollywood training program will professionally train your dog to be camera-ready for your next film, video, television appearance, print ad, or audition. Using the magic of positive reinforcement training (and lots of treats!) our trainers will provide all of the preparation and training needed to truly make your pup shine to get those paw prints on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

ABOUT THE KARMA HOLLYWOOD DOG PROGRAM

In this three-step program, we will cover all of the objectives necessary for your dog to be the best, brightest, heart and scene-stealing star in the Hollywood world of film, television, video, and photography.

STEP ONE: The Basics

Film, television, video, and photography shoots can be very busy, hectic environments with lots of distractions for dogs. This training program will focus on the fundamentals of being trained and focused to limit outside distractions and perform as the production needs. We begin by first making sure your dog is well trained in the basic commands of sit, down, stay, and come to the point where they can not only do them on command with voice or hand gestures, they will hit their mark every time. This ingraining of the basic commands is also crucial for photography sets so the photographer can get the shots they need with every "click" of the camera. On film sets, hand gestures, in particular, are needed because the microphones pick up everything and we don’t want to lose the movie-making magic by hearing a trainer yell "Sit". While cementing those basic commands we also work on teaching your canine to obey and perform despite distractions. Film, video, and photography sets are filled with all sorts of distractions from noises, to flashing lights, to people. Therefore it’s important to make sure your dog can maintain attention despite all those pesky things pulling their focus.

STEP TWO: The Tricks

Moving forward we will train for the more advanced demanding actions and tricks. In some cases, a trick may require conditioned response training, which is a technique to teach a dog to do particular actions and then signaling when that action is done correctly. For instance, a scene may call for a dog to pick up a phone or tear up a file and that’s what this type of training can teach. In some cases, they may require your dog to "Speak" or jump through a window, or run through or around obstacles. The possibilities about what actions or tricks may be required or requested are endless, but our expert staff of trainers will work to meet those needs. We at Karma Dog Hollywood understand that in production it is crucial all the stars perform as needed when the director yells "action!" and that holds true for our furry friends as well.

STEP THREE: Advanced Focus and Bonding

The program will then train and teach your dog to get them accustomed to maintaining focus looking in specific directions or at objects and people to match the scene needs. When a scene calls for a dog to look to the left, right, out a window, or any other direction we can make it happen. This can be done by utilizing a bright ball or toy on a stick with a treat attached to keep attention or by several other tricks our trainers have up their sleeves. The lighting of and on sets can be tricky and trainers must always be aware of shadows and objects in frame, so sometimes we have to be creative in our solutions to avoid them. Lastly and perhaps most importantly, this program will train your dog to work with their co-stars, or human actors, to build a connection and ensure scenes are convincing and have the trust and bond needed to really sell the story.

The Karma Dog Hollywood program is set to help make all your canine movie star dreams come true. Please contact us using the form below with your production requirements and we will work with you to develop a price package that will match your needs and get your pet ready for opening night.