About Us

What Makes Pawsitive Steps Different than other Training Facilities?

Our Philosophy... At Pawsitive Steps we have made a commitment to the dogs we train. That commitment is to help their people to communicate with them through positive non threatening training techniques. At Pawsitive Steps we will never hurt, threaten or intimidate your dog into doing what we want. Animal training has come so far in the last 20 years with the use of positive reinforcement training through operant conditioning and basic learning theory. There is no longer any excuse for the use of pinch/prong collars, shock collars, choke chains, leash jerking or physical corrections of any kind in dog training. Dogs have been punished unnecessarily for years because of the lack of understanding and education of the people doing the "training". Yes these harsh methods will "appear" to work, (torture has been used for many years to modify behavior, but it doesn't make it right and most of the time it does not "change” behavior), it just "hides" the bad behavior. On top of all that, dogs do what dogs do, it doesn't make them "bad" it just makes them dogs. Punishing them for being a dog with the threat of pain is archaic, inhumane and unnecessary and is something that will never be allowed at Pawsitive Steps. There ARE better ways to train your dog. Ways that are fun for both of you

Our Instructors... At Pawsitive Steps our instructors must complete an intense 2 year training program before they are able to instruct our classes. Prior to that we expect our instructors to be training and competing in at least one canine sport with their own dogs for a minimum of 2 years. So our instructors have a minimum of 4 years of practical experience before they start training other people and their dogs. They are also expected to continue to update their education through seminars each year.

Our Classroom.... At Pawsitive Steps we feel that the "classroom" environment is the most important place for well adjusted healthy dogs to learn. In the classroom we will be able to see behaviours that we may not see in the privacy of the relaxed home environment. People want to be able to take their dogs out in public so they need to train their dog's in public. However a classroom overflowing with dogs is not ideal either. We aim to keep our class sizes around 7 dogs maximum. This allows for some dynamics in the room but doesn't overwhelm anyone, dogs, handlers or instructors. We also require the dogs to be comfortable in a kennel during class. This is for the safety and comfort of everyone. Dogs and people should never be worried about safety in a training environment. Therefore Crate Games are a big part of our training program.

Our Program... Our training program is not like any other program you will attend so a cross over from other training facilities is not usually very successful. If you have come from a force based ( pinch/choke collar training) or mostly lure based ( cookie in the hand and dog follows the cookie) training program you will need to start from the beginning of our program. All our training classes build on each other. Except for our very first level ( Family Manners) our Instructors are expecting you to come into our more advanced classes with certain skills so coming in from another training program will be frustrating for you and the instructor. Therefore we suggest you start at the beginning with our Foundation Class which is our Family Manners Class. All elite canine sport dogs should be first and foremost, a great family pet

Reactive, Fearful or aggressive dogs….There ARE times when a group class is NOT appropriate for certain dogs. If you have a dog that lunges, barks, bites or is aggressive towards people or dogs then a group class is NOT where you should be. If you would like information on where to go for help with this type of dog feel free to contact us and we can direct you to a more appropriate training situation.

Kim Collins
Owner/Head Trainer of Pawsitive Steps