Residential Dog Training North West

Welcome to Paws in Nature, we’re considered by many people (and dogs) to be the #1 residential dog training in the North West. The reason for this is because our mission has always been to create happiness for both dogs and their owners. Over time we naturally moved towards a system that allowed us to become as detailed as possible when it come to producing solid and lasting results.

We found one of the best ways to achieve this, is to have the dog stay with us on a Residential Dog Training programme. Each dog is carefully guided through a training system that aims to get the very best results for both dog and owner.

The plan can be anything from 3 to 12 weeks in length. Dogs have the option to either stay at our site or go home at the end of every day. If the dog stays, it will be provided with an indoor luxury heated kennel throughout the whole time.

Is it Okay to Send your Dog Away? How Does Residential Training Work?

Many people are little concerned about sending their dog away for training, the short answer is it is perfectly fine to send your dog away for training. Let’s explain how this would work for you and your dog.

As an example, let’s base the following on a six-week plan.

Each training schedule is subject to a face-to-face meeting where we go through exactly what the owners would like to achieve within the set time. Here we go through the fine details of what’s needed and come up with a plan that’s suits all involved. Typically, on our most popular 6-week plan, a dog will spend its first week bonding with the team whilst going through a training schedule that will help set them up with the necessary skills needed. We work on creating as much happiness as we can in this first week, gaining a trusting relationship that will help us make important decisions as the weeks progress.

Residential Dog Training – the Foundations

In the following weeks, we will work towards creating a foundation plan with the dog. This creates the ever so important rules and boundaries, eliminating any unwanted behaviours, such as jumping up, threshold control, impulse control, crate training along with a long list of requirements we have received from the owners. A huge part of this is providing the right levels of fulfilment based on the dogs breed, age energy and behaviour patterns.

Doggy Behaviour Basics

Almost every owner wants the ever so important two things, lead control and good recall. This is obviously something that we need as a fundamental to get us through the programme, so our mission is to drill these behaviours until we get a good loose lead relationship and reflexive recall.

Building on your Dog’s Skills

Here we start to give the dog vital skills that will result in the dogs success within the programme. We target the issues highlighted by giving the dog some well-trained life skills that will help us modify its behaviour, to a balanced and easy to live with standard. We will look to create strength and stability in the dog’s confidence whilst teaching it to control its impulses in an incremental way that will build duration and calmness. Along with some other behaviours, we like to focus on a solid “placement” exercise here, a skill, that every dog should have.

Using Nature to Help your Dog

A big part of Paws in Natures way is using nature to help dogs find balance. We pick environments that are scent heavy, helping the dog to connect to nature and wake up their inner wolf. We make every walk migration driven and integrate balanced pack dogs that will have a positive and calming effect throughout the dogs stay with us.

Making Permanent Changes to the Behaviour of your Pet

The more challenging part can often be the most rewarding. This is when the real changes happen. We want to change how the dog emotionally feels towards the very things that trigger any unwanted behaviours. Here we are putting in the work to desensitise and counter condition a lot of the issues. Dogs that are put through a programme of impulse control (Controlling their impulses towards anything that stimulates them) can only be successful to a certain point. This is because, whatever it is that arouses the dog whether it be through excitement or fear, will probably have the same internal emotional response to it. Therefore a solid and effective counter conditioning and desensitisation programme will be the most effective way to help them through their issues and have the best chance at having a permanent change.

Putting it all Together

At this point, we will have the dog long on its way to a permanent change. The dog will be emotionally responding differently and have well-trained disciplines that will be become lifelong skills. Our days will now be filled with strengthening what the dog already knows, progressively moving forward with purpose and confidence. Our walks will be a lot smoother, we will have reliable behaviours and now show the world a different dog. The system is designed to have clarity, something we often miss with our dogs. Clarity will only help us convey each message with conviction and show the dog where it can find its advantage. This now becomes more effective as we start to pass the torch to the owners, helping the transition back to full-time life back at home.

What If It Doesn’t Work For The Owner?

This is most definitely a problem we have come up against too many times. The residential training works, but within weeks behaviours start to set back in and we are sitting down ready to book in another training programme.

Home Schooling Your Dog

We had to do our best to prevent this from happening, so we explored a system created by one of our trainer associates from the US Melanie Benware, former president of the IACP. Mel has a programme called “Home Schooling”. This genius service has Mel spend 5 days per week at 2 hours per visit, training dogs in their own home. Once we had gone through the details, we decided to integrate this service as an ending to the 6-week programme. Depending on the dog, we spend the last 1-2 weeks guiding the owners on how to carry their life with empowering and continuing the changes we have made. This part is a game changer to Residential Dog Training, it solves the ever so difficult part of handing the dog over to an owner that can often feel unsure of what to do next.