Our Training Philosophy and Beliefs

What it’s like to train with SJC

Training designed to be fun and enjoyable.
Whether you are working through serious aggression issues, competitive rally-obedience, or raising a well-adjusted puppy, we firmly believe that training should be enjoyable for you and your dog and we create classes and games to be both effective and enjoyable.

Learners are respected and supported.
We treat all learners (human and canine) with the utmost respect. Learning new skills is challenging so we ensure that human students get just as much positive reinforcement and support as the dogs.

Owners learn to be excellent trainers.
We believe it is our job to teach our human students how to be the best dog trainers they can be! We teach owners about the importance of environmental management, how to effectively reinforce behavior they like, and how to interrupt and redirect unwanted behavior.

Lasting behavior change, not quick fixes.
When working with behavior modification cases, we believe that for long term change, addressing the underlying cause of behavior is critical. We never want to simply put a band-aid over the issue by suppressing it and not actually fix the cause of the behavior.

Learn from the best trainers available!
All of our trainers and class instructors are either Certified Professional Dog Trainers (CPDT-KA) or are judges/evaluators or experienced and successful competitors in the sport/activity they teach. Our trainers do not take on classes or clients that are not within their areas of expertise. You get a trainer who you know isn’t just working from theory; they’ve been there, done that.