THE Pet ELF Mission
At THE Pet ELF (THEPetELF.com or twitter @dogtrainerELF), our mission is to reduce canine homelessness by teaching people how to communicate with and teach their dogs to live successfully and happily in the human world.
Our philosophy is reward the positive and ignore the negative (unless it is a danger to do so). We also encourage our humans to channel their inner cheerleader and effusively praise their dogs for desired behavior.
We don’t believe that we have to be the alpha over our dogs. Research has shown that, in domesticated dogs, this is not necessary. We do, however, need to be the adult and set boundaries, as we do with young children.
We use positive training and basic psychology, working with a dog’s basic instincts for unconditioned things, like food, toys and praise, to condition a dog to do things that may not be instinctual, like sit and stay. While treats and toys are important to teach new behavior, praise is the most important reward for our dogs. Once a behavior is learned, dogs are weaned off treats or toys and do things we ask because they want to please us.
We use hands-off training because we believe that hands are for loving not for teaching. We also don’t believe in punishment. We want our dogs to love us, not fear us. Dogs respond very well to this type of training. This type of training not only keeps our dogs safe; but, helps them become responsible members of the household.
Further, we know through experience that not all behavioral issues are training issues and we know when we can help and when we need to call in the experts!
THE Pet ELF (THEPetELF.com) is certified as a dog trainer and as a veterinary assistant through Animal Behavior College, with continuing education in training shelter dogs.
THERE ARE NO GUARANTEES IN DOG TRAINING.
All we can do is our best – to teach our dogs be better household citizens.
IF YOU CAN’T MANAGE THE DOG, MANAGE THE ENVIRONMENT.
WE ALWAYS WANT TO SET OUR DOGS UP FOR SUCCESS.
END EVERY TRAINING SESSION ON A POSITIVE.