Puppy Pounce Kindergarten (pups under the age of 14 weeks only). Space in my small classes fill quickly, book early to avoid disappointment: Next Class is scheduled to start Tuesdays at 7:30pm. First class is a about understading your dogs behavior and orientation July 8th.

PREVENTION IS the answer!

You are invited to observe any lesson prior to registering. This will allow you to feel if my unique attitude and approach are right for you and your dog. It is always a good idea to observe a trainer "in action" before making a financial investment.

There are many different techniques and methods applied to training dogs. There is not one way that works for all dogs and all humans for that matter. I suggest observing at least three different trainers before making a commitment and always get a personal referral.

Email for observation guidelines and pre-registration papers. If your dog is over 4 months of age, you no longer have a puppy, you now have an adolescent. Please see the left menu bar for other options on private customized training for dogs over 4 months of age.

Puppy Class Schedule is subject to change due to demand. You must present a Bill of Health to attend a group class series .Please email gina@unleashyourself.biz for pre-registration papers. Classes are held in NE Portland at Dog Gone Happy Dog Day Care.

PUPPY SCHOOL: Puppy pounce, each series is 8 weeks. 

• Pups ages 8 to 14 weeks
• Limited to six pups per class
• each lesson up to 2 hours
• Class meets once a week
• Includes THE THIRD WAY Getting Started Booklet, by Chris Bach

Concerned about Parvo? Learn how to be safe, even at 7 weeks!

Learn how breeder interference may lead to behavioral problems.

PREVENTION! This is the most important course you'll ever take. Your puppy's brain is like a sponge soaking up everything and learning every moment they are awake! You'll learn basic foundation skills: eye contact, sit/maintain, and relinquishing distractions in the environment on cue. Play-behavior education-development, proper management and proper exposure to their environment.

You will also be prepared for the Adolescence/Puberty phase, when young dogs may temporarily forget the good manners you've taught them! Your pup will also interact with other pups and an older dog to rehearse the skills they have learned from mommy milk bags in the litter setting. We will teach you about all aspects of socialization, bite inhibition, house training and desensitization. It is never too early to start teaching your pup what to do!

By the end of a Puppy program, people who do their homework, know how to help their dogs reach maturity without feeling hopelessly frustrated or resorting to corrections and aversive methods. We teach you what a dog is and why it acts the way it does. Then teach you how to manage your dog while you teach the behaviors you want the dog to learn. People do not have to turn their adolescent dogs over to humane societies or rescue groups, if they themselves are willing to learn and to teach their puppies. Which contrary to popular opinion, takes more than attending a couple 6 week puppy classes.

The majority of dogs relinquished for adoption are adolescent, ages 6 months to 2 years. Puppies are perfect at acting like dogs, which can, at times, be pretty irritating to us human beings. Each puppy is different than the next. They are unique individuals. Yet, we have never met a puppy that could not have its behavior modified using THE THIRD WAY philosophy and techniques. People who are willing to learn and take the time and energy to teach their puppies are, in the end, very grateful. Former students tell us how wonderful their unique puppies are all the time ...

Dogs in our program have performed simple as well as highly complex skills to earn an Advanced class certificate. One fun fact remains a constant. If you manage and teach your dog using THE THIRD WAY, the dog will want to learn new behaviors as long as you are willing and able to teach them. Participating in the advanced puppy class (second part - 8 week series) increases your dog's reliability with distractions and minimizes undesired behaviors. You'll reinforce previously learned skills by challenging your dog to respond reliably in even the most distracting situations, such as walking in a busy park or being in the presence of food. It Is very important for you and your dogs training to continue, as learning is always diminishing. Dogs are opportunist and habitual creatures.

Adolescent Dog, if your dog is past the age of 16 weeks, you no longer have a puppy. You are now dealing with an adolescent dog and all that comes with it including puberty. This is an exciting, challenging and sometimes frustrating time in your relationship with your dog. It's imperative that you continue your dog's education and social structure. We focus on teaching you building blocks (eye contact, sit/maintain, and relinquishing distractions in the environment on cue). You'll learn how to teach your dog using management devices and habit-solving tools. The foundation games introduced in this class will prepare you and your dog better than any other beginner's program for whatever role you want your dog to fulfill in life. We train to maintain!

See Training for Life Program.

Private Consultations - We can set-up a initial consultation to prepare you successfully for new pup. PREVENTING undesirable habits by:
Puppy proofing your home, Puppy selection, what life style will work best for the individual dog, sleeping arrangements-confinement, food education, potty training, training expectations, and proper exposure to the environment/socialization.

I also offer private puppy training which includes socialization with other puppies and proper exposure to the environment. My private puppy program has given my clients much long term success. Preventing undesirable habits.

Humans who take their pups or dogs to beginning classes lasting approximately 6 to 12 weeks and then stop, do not continue building and maintaining reliability, often resulting in problematic consequences.

Whether you have a new puppy or have an adopted a dog. Start you and your dog or pups education immediately and do continuous training for the first 2 years of your new relationship . Otherwise odds are you will have behavior challenges through adolescence and in adulthood. 6 to 12 weeks of education is not enough to last a lifetime. Invest in you and your dogs future.

What is our background in dog training?

Based on my belief system, we teach humans the truth about dogs as well as carefully explaining what we can or cannot do about behavior. We demonstrate, as well as help you practice techniques that can be used to teach a puppy or dog the behaviors humans deem appropriate. As a result, I find myself offering people a great deal of valuable information verbally as well as helping them, in a "hands on" manner, teaching their canine companions the behaviors most of us humans want our dogs to exhibit.

In terms of teaching the dogs themselves, I believe in teaching a dog a behavior by giving the dog a visual cue(Leading Gesture) and setting the dog up to volunteer the desired behavior. I use gentle management to stop the dog from leaving or exhibiting undesirable behaviors while it is deciding what to do. Once the dog performs the desired behavior voluntarily, the dog is reinforced with something s/he considers rewarding. Never is the dog physically pushed, manipulated by force or bribed. I expect the dog to think about its situation and offer the behavior on a volunteer basis. Only then willthe dog be offered the reward it has earned. Once a dog offers a behavior voluntarily and learns that there is satisfaction in doing so, ithe dog will repeat that behavior, voluntarily. Those desirable behaviors will becomelifelong habits for the dog if repeated often enough.

Most of the growth in a dog's brain occurs during the critical period for social development, and after growth stops, it is difficult to "change the wiring".
Ray & Lorna Coppinger, DOGS - A NEW UNDERSTANDING OF CANINE ORIGIN, BEHAVIOR & EVOLUTION"

Strive to act in ways that teach a puppy that people are the main facilitators of pleasure, satisfaction and safety.

• Give puppies positive and timely exposure to people, other dogs and novel stimuli especially before the onset of his/her hazard avoidance motor patterns.

• Prevent a puppy from developing total dependence on dogs rather than people for pleasure and safety facilitation.

• Treat each puppy as a unique individual.

• Expect mature adult dogs to be unsociable when in a group of dogs especially when the dogs are unfamiliar with each other.

• Teach dogs the necessary skills to live in harmony with people by facilitating a dogs pleasure and safety and refraining from the use of corrections and punishment.

A dog's socialization or exposure schedule is as follows:

6 - 10 Weeks: Pup will be more excitable if not given a chance to sort out new smells, sounds, and sights.
8-12 Weeks: Pup will be suspicious of novel stimuli if not given the chance to investigate and develop his own investigative behavior patterns.
By the 12thWeek: Pup MUST be given individual attention DAILY, or Pup will prefer facilitation from dogs instead of from people.
By the 20th Week (5th Month): Pup's ability to handle novel stimuli is established.

Suggestions for breeders: Whelping and Weaning:  New Thoughts on an Ancient Process

1. It is very valuable for the dam to wean her own puppies.
2. Puppies need the opportunity to develop investigative behavior on their own terms.
3. Puppies need the opportunity to rehearse many times the decision that novel things in the environment are NOT a threat.
4. Through exposure to contact with many people puppies need to learn that people are safe and reliable facilitators of pleasure.
5. Puppies need the opportunity to interact with adult dogs as well as littermates.
6. Puppies kept by breeders past about the twelfth week need the opportunity to play with puppies other than littermates before the end of their critical facilitation (social) period. Puppies kept by breeders need sufficient individual attention to form facilitation bonds with people

Suggestions once a pup is removed from the litter:

1. Puppies need to be exposed to unfamiliar places and novel stimuli at different times so they are not overwhelmed during their critical facilitation (social) period.
2. Puppies need the opportunity to be facilitated in a positive way either by other people or by the owner when other people are around. Puppies should not be expected to like unfamiliar people, just Dot to be afraid of them.
3. If a puppy acts fearful removing the pup is more prudent than forcing the pup to cope with fear.
4. It is strongly suggested that at all times puppies be given the opportunity to choose to go into a stranger's "space" rather than be forced to accept a stranger coming into their "space".
5. Puppies need the opportunity to make positive and facilitating contact with adult dogs as well as other puppies of varying ages.
6. Puppies need contact with adult dogs that will appropriately defend themselves.  Defensiveness on the part of adult dogs facilitates puppies learning about the proper behavioral mechanics for interaction within the same species.  They also learn how to be in and to remain in an operant and calm emotional state in the presence of other dogs. This is especially important if his/her dam did not wean a puppy.
7. Puppies need the opportunity to play with their peers without human interruption unless absolutely necessary which will allow puppies to learn as many social overture behaviors as possible.

Dogs cannot take on the responsibility of "trusting" people nor can they "forgive and forget" when harmful things happen.  The responsibility to protect dogs from harmful experiences and provide appropriate nurturing during all stages of development belongs in the hands of people.
Chris Bach THE THIRD WAY

Suggestions for humans with adolescent age dogs :

1. Major behavioral changes will take place when puppies (starting at 4 1/2  months of age) begin to experience the hormonal changes that result in reaching puberty. For example, play behaviors are often replaced with courtship behaviors.
2. "Familiarity" will play an important role in a dog's response to the environment. Adolescent dogs may go through a period in which they act apprehensive and lack confidence around familiar people, dogs and objects.
3. Just because a puppy was very playful with its peers does not mean it will continue to view other dogs as good facilitators throughout adolescence and into adulthood.
4. As a dog is reaching puberty, exposure to contact with people and dogs must be closely scrutinized and managed for the rest of the dog's life. Dogs' "sociality" must not be taken for granted because dogs respond out of facilitation, not "social" needs.

Suggestions for humans with adult dog:

1. The adult dog is a product of many things such as socialization, temperament, proper handling, physical health and structure, diet, and education.  Behavior patterns can be modified, but the dog cannot be changed.
2. Some negative experiences cause irreparable damage to a dog's ability to adapt to his environment.

Many Dogs who are labeled AGGRESSIVE are just innocent puppies trying to DEFEND themselves ...

All puppies need an informed and thoughtful human to shape a pup’s course toward being a well-behaved adult. Raising puppies--especially raising them for special jobs as adults-- requires attention to detail. When people raise puppies as pets, they often get them at about eight weeks of age, take them home; feed and cuddle them; house break them; take them for walks; and play with them. What they are doing (and they’re usually not aware of it) is providing specialized brain-growing conditions that shape a dog's future behavior.

If I were buying a puppy for a pet, I would check its early environment and make sure it wasn't’t raised for the first eight weeks in a kennel or laundry room, with only its mother and littermates for immediate company. I'd be very suspicious of a department store dog that was 12 weeks old, wondering if that dog had time left to grow its brain.  Also, if I locked the pup up in the house alone each day while I went to work, I'd get a small-brained dog without enough connections to be a good social companion. This critical period of a dog’s social development (brain growth) implies so much more than simple animal-to-animal socialization.

My belief system is that six weeks is too young, seven weeks is OK, eight weeks is ideal IF the pup continues to have exposure to his dam, and IF the breeder is stimulating his system with new sights, sounds and smells.  If a puppy is not in an enriching environment, then it is best to get him into a situation where is brain is being stimulated and "grown". 

Brains grow, just like legs or any other body parts.

Critical period simply means (which for dogs is roughly between four and sixteen weeks of age) that during this time, a pup is predisposed to and has the greatest capacity to learn particular social skills. It is in this period when dominance hierarchies are formed, and dogs learn and practice their submissive behavior. They learn to beg for food, whom to beg from, and how to turn begging into social greetings. They learn what species they belong to. At 16 weeks this social learning window closes. After that a dog has very poor abilities to develop or change its social skills. Essentially at 16 weeks, the dog's social personality is set for life.  If a dog is shy of people at 16 weeks, then it will be shy the rest of its life. Can it learn not to be shy with intensive training? It certainly could make some progress, but it will always have a social "accent". After growth stops it's difficult to "change the wiring".

Unfortunately, the critical period is too often poorly understood, even by trainers. For example, a persuasive view describes the social behavior within a pack of wolves as genetic. Because of this, dog trainers reason that dogs are descended from wolves, wolves form packs, and therefore dogs understand wolf-pack behavior. They should respond to the trainer as "alpha" or dominant in the dog’s life.
If dogs don’t develop pack social behavior during the critical period, there is no sense in trying to simulate pack leadership after the social window closes. Pack behaviors are much more complicated than just hierarchy of social status. They are learned through social play and care-soliciting behaviors during the juvenile period.

A trainer who pretends to be the “alpha leader” of a wolf pack—for example, by turning the dog over onto its back, getting down and growling at its throat--is intimidating the dog, no doubt. But to a dog the message is not what the trainer thinks it is. Teaching and learning are seldom facilitated by intimidation. A dog doesn't’t learn how to sit from a trainer who intimidates it, simply because the coercion diverts the dog's attention away from the task and toward its social status.

An alpha wolf is not trying to teach a pack member anything, especially to sit. The fact that so many people believe the wolf-pack homology, and use it in training a dog, is really a testament to how little is being understood about canine behavioral development.

People ask…"What kind of dog should I get for a pet?" What they’re really saying is "what kind of dog do you think would benefit us most". The answer… whatever you decide. If the pup is not in an enriching environment as described above, then get a pup before it is 8 weeks old and spend a lot of time with it during the next 8 weeks.

Thinking of the right breed as a package of behaviors that comes prearranged is all that is needed to effect the perfect dog/ human bond is a very common mistake. If you are making the commitment to bring a pup home…Leaving it alone all day while you go to work only to find your place trashed when you come home, is setting you up for failure not success!

Extensive research results from Biologist, "Raymond Coppinger" co-author of Dogs, A New Understanding of Canine origin & Evolution …scribner 2001

The purpose of a "correction" is to decrease the likelihood of a behavior reoccurring.
Giving corrections is based on the ability to attack or activate a dog's sensitivities. Common sensitivities include noise, isolation, space invasion, motion, or pain.  When corrections are used, the intent is for the verbal "OUCH!" or "NO!" will tell your dog to "stop that!"  When getting ready to use a correction, your emotional state and body language change.  These changes are interpreted by your dog to mean "You are dangerous -- get out of your space." For this reason we do not use corrections. It pays to remember that corrections are intended to decrease the likelihood of a behavior occurring by either startling or hurting a dog.  Force-based or jerk training results in the dog being intentionally startled or hurt.  The dog subsequently stops the behavior, resulting in stopping or avoiding the unpleasantness.  The more the dog learns that all startles and/or hurts are intended to mean "stop that," the more he will get into the habit of quitting when even the slightest thing goes wrong.  During performance, this penchant for quitting can lead to many problems.

What do corrections during the learning process really do?  They cause fear and confusion, which both impede learning and mobility.  Fear and confusion also cause frustration.  Frustration leads to defensiveness, avoidance and learned helplessness, which seriously interferes with learning and performance.

Force-based or jerk training is very difficult for the dog because the possibilities for fear, pain, or discomfort are infinite.  If a mistake is made resulting in an erroneous correction, you have to try and change the dog's mind about the bad experience before you can attempt to teach a new connection.  Recovering from this kind of mistake takes time and slows the teaching process considerably.

It is also difficult to determine just what discomfort the dog learned to avoid.  It could be anything from an important piece of equipment, to the environment where the training is taking place, to all training, and even to the trainer.  Therefore, because there are just too many things that can go wrong with corrections, training using only reinforcement while limiting the dog’s ability to practice undesirable behavior is considered by Unleash Yourself to be more effective.

Unleash Yourself's training is easier because there is only one thing to reinforce, and that is the right response.  If you make a mistake resulting in an erroneous pleasure connection, you need only change tactics and make a new pleasure connection!

Teaching can only take place if the dog makes the right connection between the cue, the response and the consequence.  Using pleasant consequences assures the right connections are made.

Focus on Reinforcing the Desired Response
Have a clear mental picture of the behavior you want from your dog.  Remember that if you have a reinforcement that is very motivating to your dog, you will get the behavior you want because your dog wants the reinforcement.  Avoid concentrating on what is not wanted because the possibilities are endless and often frustrating.  You can't teach a dog what not to do - you can only teach a dog what to do.

The following issues are some of the most common:

*Puppy Selection - Advance planning is the key to a great relationship with your puppy. Discuss which breeds are best for you; learn what traits to look for in a puppy; find out what supplies to have on hand before bringing your puppy home.

*Create Training -Safe, comfortable confinement is an absolute necessity when your dog cannot be supervised. 

*Potty Training - This can be one of the most frustrating issues for new puppy owners but it doesn't have to be. We can help you structure your puppy's environment for success.

*Introducing a second dog - Not sure how to introduce a new dog to your existing canine (or feline) household? We can design a plan that works for your family.