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There’s a good chance your furry friend won’t be your bestie for your whole life. But you’ll be theirs. Let BFF help you make every day together AMAZING.

What Would Make Life With Your Puppy or Dog Better?

Maybe you just brought home a puppy and want to raise a well-rounded dog with good manners.

Maybe what you call “going for a walk” looks, to the untrained eye, a little more like going for a drag.

Maybe your dog has a less-than-desirable response when they see another dog. Maybe you have young children and your dog doesn’t always keep all four paws at a safe height. Or maybe your dog seems to have a lot more manners when you’re home than when you’re not.

Whatever brought you here, there’s a reason the behavior is happening — and understanding why is where good training begins.

As you browse through this site and explore the different behaviors we work with, you’re going to see us talk about the why a lot. There are a few reasons for that.

First, in many cases, if you don’t understand why a behavior is happening, there’s a pretty good chance the training protocol you choose may not work — because you may be trying to solve the wrong problem.

Second, maybe you want to take this training journey on your own. If you do, understanding why your dog is doing something can help you figure out what to do, how to do it, and why you’re doing it.

We would feel blessed getting an assist on fixing a dog we never met.

That’s also why you won’t find a complete step-by-step training protocol for every behavior on this site. Without meeting your dog, we don’t know exactly why they’re doing what they’re doing. And without understanding the why, along with the answers to a few other important questions, we can’t responsibly tell you exactly what you — or we — should do about it.

What Can We Help You With?

Below you’ll find a partial list of the services we offer and some of the behaviors we can help with. It would be nearly impossible to list every problem, behavior, or training goal a dog owner might have.

There are two types of training we do not offer: protection training and service dog training.

Outside of those areas, there’s a pretty good chance we can help. If you don’t see your specific concern listed below, feel free to call or text us and tell us what’s going on. We’ll gladly let you know if we think we can help.

Leash Pulling

Does taking your dog for a walk sometimes appear that maybe Fido has flipped the script on you? If there’s a lot of pulling, even dragging, and more often than not a tight leash, we can definitely help you find that loose-leash synergy that, believe it or not, you would both enjoy a whole lot more.

Leash Reactivity

Does Fido turn into Cujo when another dog, a person on a skateboard or bike, or a different type of animal appears on a walk? Does the barking, lunging, and pulling feel uncontrollable? Does he or she appear to be aggressive? The good news is, in most cases, this is not aggression. It’s leash reactivity. You’re not alone by any means, and yes, if not completely fixed, it can almost always be greatly improved. Figuring out why your dog is reacting is the first step toward teaching them how to watch the world around them without feeling the need to react to it.

Obedience / Not Listening

Does your dog know exactly what “sit,” “down,” and “stay” mean inside your house, but outside your house they keep coming down with this bad case of selective hearing? Maybe it looks like they listen when they feel like it, or kind of know the commands, but just aren’t very reliable. Truly good obedience isn’t about teaching your dog a list of commands so you can say they know them. It’s about teaching behaviors that actually make life with your dog easier, safer, and more enjoyable—and making potentially life-saving behaviors reliable when you actually need them.

Puppy Training

Did you recently bring home possibly the cutest puppy ever, and after further review realize that adorable face came with teeth, accidents, selective hearing, and, at best, a very limited understanding of house rules? Congratulations. Seriously though, people often think puppy training is about teaching commands like “sit” or “down.” That’s a very small part of it. It’s more about building good habits before unwanted ones have a chance to take over. Developing confidence, impulse control, and social skills are some of the most important foundations of good puppy training—and of raising a dog you will enjoy living with for the rest of their life.

Jumping on People / Guests

Does your dog believe you, everybody who walks through the door, or anyone willing to say hello on a walk left their house specifically to get jumped on? An 8-pound puppy jumping on someone in a pet store or shelter could be pretty cute. A toddler, Grandma, or a woman in a new dress six months later, when that puppy is now 70 pounds, might have a different opinion. The good news is your dog doesn’t have to stop being excited to see people. They just need to learn that keeping all four paws on the floor is actually what gets them the attention they’re looking for.

Overexcitement / Impulse Control

When the doorbell rings, you grab their leash, a toy, or their food bowl, or anything else that excites your dog happens and calming them down is not an option, they lack impulse control. We at BFF will not train your dog to never be or get excited, but we would love to teach them impulse control: the ability to listen, think, and make good decisions all at the same time.

Destructive Behaviors

Destructive behavior isn’t some grandiose scheme to get back at you because you didn’t bring them for a pup cup. Dogs are never doing destructive things because they’re mad at you. There are underlying reasons why they’re doing it. It could be boredom, excess energy, teething, lack of impulse control, or simply being given too much freedom before they’ve earned it, to name a few. Our first job is figuring out the why, and then we can teach them that your couch, shoes, remote control, etc., are not part of their personal toy collection.

Recall / Come When Called

If you notice, this is the only command we put on our list of services. Recall is sprinkled into many of the other services we offer, but we feel this one command is important enough to stand on its own.

Not every basic obedience command is necessary for every dog, but this one is—for every dog. Period. A reliable recall can be the difference between your dog running toward danger and turning around and coming back to you.

Of course, we teach all basic obedience commands and most advanced commands, but if you only teach your dog one command, without question it should be “come.” And they need to understand two things: #1, what to do, and #2, that it is not optional.