Our Dog Training Philosophy

We believe all dogs are individuals and thus we treat them as such. KCC is open to all 4 quadrants of operant conditioning (see below) and is not stuck on just one. Positive first is always our moto and we spend most of our time and energy on positive reinforcement with food and/or play and layer in the other quadrants as needed for each individual dog. Kelsey has learned from positive only trainers as well as balanced trainers and has since decided that training dogs as individuals is the best method. Her heeler was trained "positive only" whereas her shepherd went through a more balanced regimen. She has learned from trainers such as Michael Ellis and Will Atherton as well as Victoria Stilwell and Zak George. Her current certification is through Will Atherton Academy and she is constantly continuing her education through Michael Ellis Seminars, Team K9 courses, and Koru training.

Our goal is to achieve the outcome the dog guardian would like in a way that the dog also builds confidence and which furthers the relationship between the dog and the guardian. Training should be fun and our goal is to make it fun for the dog AND the human involved. We try to find what lights up your dog and what gets them to engage with their human. Relationship is everything and that is our first goal. From there we build on skills such as place, down stays, recall, and leash walking. We also put a large emphasis on meeting the dogs physical and mental needs.

Positive Reinforcement: You ADD something to make a behavior occur MORE frequently. Example: A dog sits instead of jumps, you give them a food reward to encourage that behavior.

Positive Punishment: You ADD something to decrease a behavior from occurring in the future. Example: Dog jumps up, you say AH AH or another negative marker and the dog dismounts.

Negative Reinforcement: You REMOVE something to make a behavior occur MORE. Example: the dog jumps, you use the leash to help them off and into a sit instead, then release the leash pressure when they sit down.

Negative Punishment: You REMOVE something to DECREASE a behavior. Dog jumps up, you turn to the side and ignore the dog. You remove attention which the dogs wants to decrease the jumping behavior.