The benefits of a private dog training session

The private classes are intended for our trainers to address your specific needs and concerns. For example, during your first private lesson, you get an hour to learn about the basic terms and lingo we use, as well as some quick and effective methods to show what you want and don’t want out of your dog. We also take the time to see what you want out of your dog and we will leave you with exercises to reinforce those needs.

Your next class might be something more specific. For example: you don’t want your dog to bark uncontrollably when someone rings the doorbell. We’ll take that need and setup a controlled environment where we can show your dog how to behave within those conditions; the training is even more effective if this “controlled environment” is the actual environment where the conditions take place. In this case: your home!

Just like anything great — it takes practice and repetition.

The benefits of a group dog training session

It was once said: “give a man a fish, and you feed him for a day: teach a man how to fish, and you feed him for a lifetime.” Essentially – we are teaching you how to build the foundations of giving your dog structure, teaching your dog the basic commands, and engaging your dog in the midst of distractions for the rest of its life.

To the untrained eye, a group session may look nothing more than a guy rattling cans and bottles around dogs on platforms. It looks simple. This couldn’t be further from the truth.

We encourage our clients to be observant.

Take the lessons home. The rhythm and structure of our group sessions is a key component to what you should be facilitating at home: engagement, command, reward, and play. Essentially — we’re training you. This is a huge part of what we mean by “pack structure”. Yes it’s about respect, but it’s also about consistency, ritual, and compulsive fun!

Basic commands are the foundation to teaching our dogs everything else. Because our clients know how to teach their dogs how to sit, down, stay, and come, they have everything they need to teach them anything else. They are empowered to teach them manners and even tricks. Admittedly, we leave it up to our clients to decide what kind of tricks they teach their dogs. We will mention though: what’s more impressive: a dog who shakes your hand, or a dog who pays attention and comes to you in the midst of a cat running loose? The latter is what we strive for.

Your commands are useless if they don’t hold up under distractions. And what’s a better environment for distractions than a group of 20 other dogs training at the same time? Because of our community and clients, we’re fortunate to have plenty of experienced dog owners come during our classes; they range from novices to experienced, which makes a prime environment for dog training. It’s a lot better than taking your dog to a dog park where other dogs’ behaviors are out of your hands, and other dog owners aren’t as informed or responsible. We take a lot of pride in managing our classes, and we keep everyone alert and responsible during our group training sessions.

Full transcript below!

Robert Garcia:
I came one day and said I wanted our dog to be extremely obedient, you know, just at the drop of a dime – I just couldn’t be happier.

Gotta go to CaliK9!

Anjelica Mangubat:
After the first session, Sumo (puppy) knew how to sit, how to go down; he was good with kids, and with us.

Susan Spencer:
He’s very high drive and high prey, and had more hard-headedness than any doberman I had. He would tear stuff up, go to the bathroom in the house, wouldn’t listen.

The first class that we went to, out in the park, the FIRST class, FIRST time – this dog was listening.

Jas Leverette:
Pack structure is the foundation for everything that we do. The dog’s place in our world is to be a follower of pack leadership. The dog won’t listen and follow your commands – if it doesn’t have the respect for you as the pack leader.

I believe in balanced training which is positive reinforcement and correction, so your dog is very clear on what is desired and not desired.

Controlled obedience just comes down to basic commands: sit, stay, down, be able to have a good recall, a finish… all dogs can learn these basic obedience steps. There’s no dog that’s untrainable – it’s about understanding how to train the dog and how the dog takes in the information.

Once you have pack leadership down, from there you can establish socialization. Having control of your dog is the number one priority if you’re gonna have your dog amongst social environments. If you don’t have a socialized dogs, you’re going to deal with dog fighting, your dog wanting to exhibit dominance, which will turn to aggression, which will lead to you possibly having a liability in your hands based on the fact that the dog is just nervous and will do what he needs to do for his own survival.

We also have group classes where we go out into a downtown busy area, where there’s a lot of cars, a lot of environmental distractions to teach your dog for the real world.

Once you establish obedience and socialization, now you can be rest assured that you’ll be able to go places and have the control and leadership over your dog so your dog responds to your commands, the first time – every time.

At our training facility, we have group classes: basic obedience, we do desensitizing, we do socialization, we do our agility work here, and we also do our protection work here.

Controlled aggression is not ignoring the fact that we’re dealing with a predatory animal in a canine and a carnivore: we give them that outlet and we show them how to do it in a constructive way through discipline and through self control, so that the dog is very clear on when it’s okay, and when it’s not okay.

What we do have at California K9 Solutions is a very family-oriented atmosphere, where people get to know each other – they meet each other – they may have a common breed. They see that we’re all on social media sites and we interact social media wise, which brings everybody closer, which makes it more fun.

It’s not like a boring traditional class, where you come to class and no one knows you. Everyone knows each other. You have fun with your dog; the whole experience is good for the dog, and the person.

… is a team on a MISSION

The awful truth is that we have too many dogs that aren’t “mannerized” to live among us.

People do not have the peace of mind they deserve. The stress, problems, and strife of dealing with a dominant and out of control dog are not what people signed-up for as pet owners. The other sad fact is that thousands of dogs are getting euthanized because of the community’s inability to train dogs… We as humans have perpetuated an attitude that lacks urgency in keeping tabs on man’s best friend.

The CaliK9 team is on a mission to use our specialty in behavior modification and socialization to impact the community’s number of bite cases and number of dogs that get sent to shelters each year – and to reduce the number of folks out there who can’t sleep at night because they have a ticking time bomb running around in their back yard.

… is dog psychology simplified

CaliK9 is about us taking high competition-level obedience and simplifying it for the average pet owner. It’s about taking knowledge that elite dog trainers know, and taking it to empower the community – the streets – the everyday people who need that knowledge.

It’s about us empowering you with the tools to eradicate bad behaviors and to engrain good ones.

It’s about creating a mode of communication between you and your canine.

It’s about facilitating good experiences for you and your dog, and setting-up your dog for success.

It’s about us putting dog psychology into practical terms, applying them in practical situations, and communicating information in ways that relate to YOU.

At the end of the day, it’s about showing you that you have a lot more in common with your dog than you had previously thought.

…is a lifestyle

It’s a commitment – come to us with a disciplined mindset of following through with the method, and we will commit to providing everything you need to be successful.

Practicing the CaliK9 method is about micromanaging your dog’s behavior with consistency, fairness, and firmness – so much that your dog’s good behavior almost cruises into auto-pilot.

It’s about coming to class and exercising pack leadership in and out of your home. It’s about maintaining your leadership so strongly with your dog, your behavior spills out in other facets of your life.

Like it or not, training with CaliK9 may reveal some things about yourself you never would have realized otherwise. We get clients all the time who become more self-aware and observant of their own consistency as human beings, and consequently, it positively affects their quality of life outside of dog training.

… is FUN

NOBODY does what we do the way we do it. There’s no company out there that can match the level of energy, enthusiasm, charisma, and pure passion on a day-to-day basis like the CaliK9 team does…

Watch the YouTube videos – read the Yelp! reviews – see our photos – that’s us out there genuinely having a great time.

We never go out there just to go through the motions – just like fitness gurus never want to go through the exact same workout for so long. Our bodies and minds adapt to repetitive challenges, and so will our dogs. Our classes are a workout for your consistency – we keep it fresh, we keep it live, and we keep our clients and their dogs looking forward to what’s happening next.

… is the TRUTH

You’ve probably done your research – you’ve looked all over the internet, watched videos, read books, asked the resident “expert” at the pet food store – and to no surprise, when you compare all of that information, they all contradict each other.

Let’s take a look at what’s out there:

What about Purely Positive Reinforcement?

These dog trainers always use rewards (such as food or toys) as a way to coax their dog into desired behaviors. Additionally, this method proposes to ignore the dog when it is doing undesired behavior.

The first problem with this training method is that the rewards never go away. You could make a dog do almost anything with a treat in your hand, but what happens when you don’t? These dogs end up blowing-off their trainers when a command is given and there is no valuable reward in sight.

The second glaring problem with this method is there is no correction involved. Ignoring the dog does NOT address the issue. In pack structure, dogs keep each other in line through corrections. If you’re a parent, you’re not going to let your kids blow you off when they commit infractions. Just like with kids, behavioral problems in dogs only escalate when they aren’t addressed.

When you choose not to correct your dog, you are robbing yourself of two things: an opportunity to affirm yourself as the pack leader – and an opportunity for your dog to learn its boundaries.

Down this path, you will spoil your dog into disobedience. And what good is a dog who values a treat above the authority of their pack leader?

What about Force Training?

On the other side of the spectrum are the hardcore force trainers. In this method, trainers physically force their dogs into the desired behavior – and if the dog isn’t performing the desired behavior, the trainer administers a high level of correction or punishment – sometimes without the dog fully understanding what is being asked of it.

Is it really fair for us to correct a dog that doesn’t know what is asked of them? Is it really fair for your parent to hold you to such high expectations when neither of you don’t know what the expectations are in the first place?

Extremists who implement this method compromise the dog’s trust, expression, confidence, and willingness to go through new challenges… and most importantly, extreme force training compromises the bond between you and your dog.

Neither of the two extremes defines what CaliK9 is about.

A Practical Approach: The CaliK9 method

The CaliK9 method is a balance between positive reinforcement and correction – it’s not purely positive, and not purely negative. Purely positive isn’t natural for a dog, and purely negative isn’t fair to the dog. We channel the dog’s natural instinct and genetic predisposition to make them fit into our society.

The method is adaptive, and takes into consideration the dog’s age, body language, temperament, breed, and overall demeanor.

We communicate with the dog in clarity: good and bad; comfort and discomfort; reward and correction; white and black. Positive behavior will always produce positive acknowledgement. Negative behavior always produces a correction. Gray area and lack of consistency only confuses the dog.

The CaliK9 method implements Phases of Learning into its method:

1.       Learning Phase – luring the dog into correct behavior and capturing/marking it with positive reinforcement; associating a verbal command with the behavior; securing the command through repetition.

2.       Distraction Phase – ensuring that the dog’s priority is focusing on you and your commands through a wide variety of distractions.

3.       Correction Phase – correcting the dog verbally or with mild discomfort when the dog disobeys a command that it surely knows.

4.       Maintenance Phase – keeping the dogs learned behavior sharp, and maintaining structure for the dog to operate.

Along with other facets of the method, we ensure that the structure is in place for you and your dog to be successful – it’s down to a simplified science, and all you have to do is show up and commit to the lifestyle.

At the end of the day, CaliK9 is the truth. Those who cannot acknowledge the validity of the CaliK9 principles is either in denial or has read too much contradicting advice about dog training.

Last but definitely not the least, CaliK9…

… is a family and community

There’s a reason why the CaliK9 client base has turned into a close-knit community of similarly minded people. They have a great time with us, and we have a great time with them. Not only is my staff passionate about what we do, but so are our clients.

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: I love my clients – and I hope to extend the CaliK9 family and community far beyond the borders of where we are today.

Peace,
Jas Leverette