Before Your Consultation
Prepare yourself and your dog for our meeting
Activity on the day of the consultation:
Prior to the consultation make sure not to tire out your dog with a long walk, hike, dog play, or other types of over-stimulation. Do make sure your dog has had a chance to potty prior (if possible).
Feeding:
Have nearby: Leash and harness if applicable; food bowl with some kibble and other higher value treats if you have them; treat pouch or anything similar if you have it; crate or pen if applicable; dog bed.
If your dog’s regular mealtime is within 0 to 2 hours of our session, do not feed that meal to your dog. Save the appetite for our session. If your dog’s mealtime is within 2 – 4 hours of our session, you can choose to feed a light half-meal.
If you “free feed” your dog (access to food all the time), we’ll talk about it to decide if this method will serve your training goals. For the day of your consultation, please remove the all-access food bowl.
Abstain from giving your dog treats prior to the session, including having access to long-duration treats (like bully sticks, Greenies, etc).
Other animals:
If there are multiple dogs in the house, plan to have a happy safe place for the other dogs for times when they aren’t needed, and otherwise might interfere with the lesson. The same applies to cats if they tend to want to get in on the action, or if your dog is distracted by the cat.
If the consultation is in person:
After I park, I will give you a text or call prior to approaching your home. Please have your dog on a leash and away from the door before I enter. If your dog has any history of aggression towards humans, please have your dog safely removed to another room with the door closed during my arrival. I’ll double-check that this has happened before I enter.
If the consultation is remote, via Zoom:
The Zoom link I provided can be used by multiple devices simultaneously. If you have a laptop (or desktop) computer, use that for the session to start. If there is more than one person in your home who will be attending, forward the Zoom link to that person so he/she can use it to log in to Zoom on their cell phone. Make sure the Zoom app is installed.
Having Zoom on a mobile app is not essential but could be very helpful. Feel free to forward the Zoom link to multiple people in your household if they are attending, or if they want to have their own mobile device for viewing.