Calm Builders · three parts, in order
Read. Respond. Change.
Three parts, done in order. By the end of each one there is something new she can do, and you will see it happen at home and on an decompression walk.
Why it is built in this order
Reading it and knowing what to do are two different skills.
Most people with a reactive dog are already watching constantly. That is not the gap. The gap is the 30 seconds after something appears, when you can see it coming and your body still does nothing useful.
So Part 1 teaches you to read her. Part 2 builds the walk itself, stops pulling on lead, until a loose leash is normal. Part 3 takes it out to the places you crossed off your list. Skipping ahead does not save time, it just means the instructions arrive before you can time them.
And the point of all three is one thing. A dog who settles herself, is well socialized rather than a dog who is managed every day for the rest of her life.
The three parts
What each one leaves you able to do.
Unleash Calm Walks for Reactive Dogs
You have been watching her constantly and still missing it. This is where you learn to read what she is actually saying, and where you stop guessing at the loud moments because you saw the quiet ones coming.
By the endFinally understand what she has been telling you, and leave with a rehabilitation walking plan you both enjoy and keep using everyday.
Calm Walks through Clear Communication
Twelve weeks on the walk itself. What your hands and feet actually do, and a dog who walks on a loose leash beside you because she is settled, not because she is being held there.
You will practice walking nicely and building the correct socialization skills. Asking a reactive dog to walk passed another dog this early is setting her up to fail, so we do not do it. That is Part 3.
By the endA loose leash walk you can do every day, at the standard the Canine Good Citizen test looks for, and a dog who is learning to settle herself rather than being managed into it.
Calm walks with Stable Behavior
Now the world comes into it. Other dogs, strangers, noise, and the places you crossed off because they were not worth the risk any more.
Until now the list of places you go has only ever got shorter. This is the part where it starts getting longer again.
By the endGo back to the places you stopped going with stable reliable behavior.
What you are actually paying for
Part two ends with me watching you walk.
Your practical training. I watch them and tell you exactly what I observe, including the things you did well and did not notice you were doing.
Then you leave with being able to walk and respond to a dog who listens the first time. Not a template. You, for your dog, her age, and the street you actually live on with actual confidence.
Most programs hand you information and wish you luck.
The reason this one costs what it does is that somebody who is certified and has assessed dogs against a legitament written standard is looking at yours, and telling you the truth about it.
The method
Evidence based, and here is what that actually means.
Evidence based gets said. So here are three design decisions inside this program and the published research behind each one. Check them.
No prongs, no shock, no corrections.
Vieira de Castro and colleagues, published in PLOS ONE in December 2020, followed ninety two companion dogs across seven training schools. Dogs trained with aversive methods showed more stress behavior during training, higher cortisol afterwards, and were measurably more pessimistic in a test run outside the training context entirely.
The authors concludedAversive based methods compromise the welfare of companion dogs both within and outside the training context.
Vieira de Castro AC, Fuchs D, Morello GM, Pastur S, de Sousa L, Olsson IAS. Does training method matter? Evidence for the negative impact of aversive-based methods on companion dog welfare. PLOS ONE 2020;15(12):e0225023.
The same behaviors the researchers counted.
In that same study, the stress markers were counted. Those are the same signals this course teaches you to spot on your own dog in the first weeks.
Which meansYou are not learning somebody's private vocabulary or antiquated opinions. You are learning what researchers use to measure stress, on your own kitchen floor.
It changes how she reads the world.
Duranton and Horowitz found in 2019 that dogs given nose work time came out measurably more optimistic than dogs doing structured heel work. Not more tired. Not more exercise. More optimistic.
Which is whyThe free Sniff Walk is where we start, before anything is asked of you or your dog at all.
Your stress reaches her before the trigger does.
Rooney and colleagues found that human stress shows up in the dog. A nervous person in the room whether you planned for it or not, travels faster than anything you say.
Which is whyPart 2 starts with how we can respond, before it touches what the dog is doing.
The filter
Three questions before anything gets into the curriculum.
One. Is there research behind it, or is it just what somebody was told or taught? Published, checkable, and with significance.
Two. Does it change what a dog feels, or only what a dog does? A behavior that stops because it was punished has not been resolved. It has been hidden, and it comes back in exactly the conditions you most needed it not to.
Three. Can you still do it on your worst day, with nobody watching and no trainer - nowhere near? If it needs perfect timing, special equipment or a trainer's presence, it fails this one, however well it works in a demonstration.
If a technique cannot answer all three, it does not go in, however popular it is.
That third question is the reason every part ends in something you can do on your own. Part 1 ends in a walking without pulling. Part 2 ends in a walk you can repeat every day without me standing there. Part 3 ends in you going places without asking anybody whether you are ready.
The free live session is where this starts.
An hour, online, no cost. You will leave it knowing what is actually happening on your walks, whether or not you go any further.
Save my seat Free. Part 1 opens to the people in the room.Before the session, if you want
Stop guessing on tomorrow's walk.
Right now she sniffs and you cannot tell whether that is her calming down or her spinning up. From the other end of a leash the two look almost the same, which is why one walk feels like progress and the next one falls apart and you cannot say why.
The Digital Sniff Session is twenty minutes you run yourself, on your own dog, on your own street. Five sniffing patterns. Two of them mean she is settling. The others mean something else entirely.
By the end you can tell the difference on your own dog, tonight, without waiting for anyone.
Find out if she can settle on her own · $27
Not ready to spend anything? The free Sniff Walk takes twenty minutes tonight.
Frequently asked questions and the answers
Before you register.
Can I skip straight to Part 2?
No. Part 2 assumes you can already read your own dog, and without that it is twelve weeks of instructions you cannot time right. The order is the method, not a sales sequence.
Is this the same as positive reinforcement training?
No. Reward based training uses treats and markers to build a behavior. This works further back than that, on the conditions underneath the behavior, so that she settles because she is relaxed rather than because she is being paid or held there. No markers, no corrections, no treats, no distraction protocols. No force.
How long does each part take?
on average 12 weeks, because you are changing how a nervous system responds and that keeps its own schedule. Pluse the dog is creating new nueropathways so a calmer walk arrives early. A calmer life takes a little longer.
Do I need to live near you?
No. All 3 parts run live online, and participants join from across the United States, Canada and the Europe. Only Service Dog Owner Training is in person.
What comes after Part 3?
For a small number of teams, Service Dog Owner Training, by application and in person. Most people do not go there, and Part 3 is a finished destination on its own for all dogs at any stage.