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Dogs who are overweight or underweight can suffer from additional health issues such as joint pain, low energy, irritability, and breathing difficulty. As such the training we do with them may be limited or delayed as the dog is unable to perform to the best of their abilities.
In addition to this, behavioral issues such as aggression or anxiety can be exacerbated by discomfort and poor nutrition. Training will make no or little difference if your dog’s behavior issue is caused by excessive or insufficient calorie intake. Some medical problems which also cause behavior issues can contribute to difficulty in keeping weight on or off, as such these should be ruled out with your vet if you are struggling to maintain your dog at a healthy weight.
Finally animals that are over or underweight are at increased risk of injury or death. In order to prevent the liability of having such animals in our care, we may postpone training until your dog has achieved a healthy body condition.
For safety reasons, your dog has to be crated when we are out of the house, sleeping, or working with aggressive dogs. If your dog is not used to being in a crate then not only is their training delayed, but so is the training of other dogs in our care. This is because we have to devote our initial training sessions to being comfortable in the crate, which is not the best use of our time and may not even be related to the issue the dog is in for.
It also makes your dog more likely to injure themselves in their crate, as they may panic if their first time in one is with us. This means we cannot leave the house or work fully with other clients until your dog is comfortable. If your dog cannot sleep through the night in a crate, neither can we, and just like you or anybody else, the quality of our work suffers when we are sleep-deprived.
For the safety of your dog, the consideration of our other clients, and the sum you are paying for our time – crate train your dog. If this is a particular struggle for your dog, please reach out so we can work you through the steps of training prior to their stay.
For safety reasons all dogs must be brought in on a well-fitting, flat buckle or martingale style collar. They may have additional training collars, but must have at least one of an approved collar as well. They should be wearing this collar from the moment they leave your car until they are in our house under our control. We may ask you to switch the leash to the approved collar if not already on it, or tighten the collar they are wearing if it is too loose.
On a flat buckle collars you should not be able to fit more than two fingers between the collar and your dog’s neck, on martingale collars you should be able to pull the collar tight without the two metal connector rings touching. This is so the dog cannot slip out of the collar during hand-off. No choke chains or other training collars without a backup collar of the types listed above. Absolutely no harnesses unless necessary for medical reasons (ie. collapsed or sensitive tracheas).
Leashes must be four to six foot nylon, leather, or biothane. Remove any attachments (waste bags, etc.) before drop-off, you may take those back home with you. Please no rope style leashes, leashes with rubber coverings on the handle, or leashes with handles. These are awkward to handle and do not allow for a full, safe grip. You will need extra leashes for tethering after go-home anyway, so please order one of the above mentioned before they arrive for training. Absolutely no flexi (retractable) or bungee style leashes of any kind.
Your dog must be on one of the approved leashes before it leaves the car, and must remain on this leash until it is inside our house under our control. If you do not bring your dog out of the car on an approved leash, you will be asked to take your dog and purchase an approved leash and collar before returning. Under no instances are dogs allowed to be off-leash when they are brought up to the house. Leashes must be latched before the dog exits the vehicle.
If your dog is currently free fed (not on a set feeding schedule), switch them to a set schedule. This will allow you to notice any symptoms of potential health issues like poor appetite before they become major issues. Along with this, almost every free-fed dog we see is overweight or obese by three years old, before you assume your dog is fine, look at a body condition score chart and make a more accurate assessment. Scheduled and measured feeding times will allow you to adjust meal sizes accordingly.
Food is a very useful tool to incorporate during training, dogs who are on set feeding schedules tend to be more motivated by their food than dogs who are free to graze at their leisure. Progress will be quicker and training will be more enjoyable for your dog if they are used to meals being offered only at limited intervals. The transition to boarding tends to be less stressful as well if the dog is already used to set meal times.
Along with this we can better monitor your pet’s mood and health if we know how much they are accustomed to eating, and therefor if they are not eating their usual amounts. As such, bring your pet’s measuring cup. Measuring cups must be standardized sizes such as ones that are used for baking, they cannot be unspecific sizes like drinking cups, coffee mugs, reused food containers, scoops included with food container, etc.
If your dog does not currently have their food accurately measured, purchase a measuring cup and begin measuring their food before they come for training. This is for health purposes as well as for getting them used to a scheduled feeding routine that will be used during training. You may use the recommendations on the bag, although feeding guidelines from the manufacturer often end up being too high for any fixed animal above a year of age. If your dog is not at a healthy body condition you will want to adjust up or down a quarter to a half cup and readjust as needed in a month’s time.
For most dogs, this is not an issue, however we often run into dogs who do not know how to “work” for food or will only respond to exceptionally high-value treats like steak. We don’t mind teaching dogs to follow food, or transition them from high-value treats to regular kibble, but these processes take time and can take days away from our ability to work on your final goals.
So, if you would like your dog to get the most out of their training time, we recommend you start to feed them most of their meals out of your hand. If they do not want to eat a meal from your hand, skip that meal and try again at the next feeding time. Most dogs don’t even take a full day to come around. If they have gone 24 hours and still refuse to eat from your hand, you can give them a small meal in a bowl and then try again at the next feeding time.
If they are doing well, you can add in telling them “good” or “yes” before presenting the food to them and having them take a few steps after your hand before releasing their food.
Many medical issues can cause a dog to display undesirable behaviors such as urinating inappropriately or even acting aggressively. If your dog’s behavior issues developed rapidly or became worse over a short period of time with no obvious cause, then a full medical workup is required to rule out any potential health contributors. A full medical work up may involve blood or urine tests, as a general check-up will not reveal any potential underlying medical conditions related to behavior.
If your dog is not vet checked prior to training then your board and train may be delayed and relevant issues may not be addressed. If the main contributor to your dog’s behavior problem is a medical issue, then no amount of humane training will completely resolve the behavior.
Any dog who has shown aggression or extreme fearfulness is required to be brough in on a muzzle. Muzzles must be of metal or hard plastic (not soft plastic like Baskervilles), and must fit the dog so as to allow them to pant and not rub against the sides of their face. Extra security measures such as back-up collars attached to the muzzle are required if the muzzle is of a style which only has one strap (these are easy for the dog to slip off over their ears when they are most needed).
Dog must be conditioned to wearing the muzzle before they come, this means they must be comfortable sleeping and walking in the muzzle without attempting to take it off, and must allow it to be put back on easily. A dog who persistently attempts to remove a muzzle risks breaking or dislocating toe joints, severely damaging jaws and teeth, and strangulation. These events can happen quickly even when supervised, in addition to this, a dog who is uncomfortable wearing a muzzle is likely to attempt to attack anyone helping them should they get their paw or mouth stuck in the muzzle while attempting to remove it. Along with this a dog who is uncomfortable in a muzzle will not be able to socialize with new people or dogs until they are no longer bothered by the muzzle, which is a process that can easily take the length of a board and train. As such, no guarantee for socialization opportunities can be made if the dog is not muzzle conditioned. Finally, the main purpose of the muzzle is to keep us safe while the dog gets comfortable with its new surroundings. If not only the environment, but also the muzzle, is new to the dog this adds unnecessary stress and conflict that can become dangerous should the dog successfully remove the muzzle, or should we have to remove the muzzle to prevent the dog from harming itself.
If your dog arrives for training and excessively attempts to remove the muzzle, or the muzzle is unsafely sized or secured, then you will be contacted to pick your dog up and training will be rescheduled until the muzzle conditioning process has been completed. Please contact for more help on this if you are unsure how to do this, you will likely have more than a month wait before their stay and this is plenty of time to order and condition your dog to a muzzle. Please refer to this website for sizing, purchasing, and conditioning guides.