Since 2018 Corey has been helping dog owners throughout the eastern corridor meet their training goals. In this time, he has helped nearly a thousand dogs through private lessons, group classes, and board and train packages. His education is wide ranging, including personal shadowing of trainers and an obsession with studying and improving his craft. He has attended several seminars with a range of topics including behavior modification, foundation of nosework, search & rescue, and is regularly seeking out additional seminars and skilled trainers to continue to learn from.
Corey has received certificates of completion of master classes from some of the most respected names in the industry such as Michael Ellis and Larry Krohn. His skillset and practical application cover a wide range of expertise; from serious behavioral modification, to fun and exciting agility style group and puppy classes taught at Wilmington Kennel Club. To this day he continues his education though online academies and from internationally renowned trainers and various resources such as Leerburg University, Training Without Conflict, Consider the Dog, and Sit Stay Learn. A willingness to branch out and learn from so many different mentors, rather than subscribe to one single school of thought, means the ability to work with a wide range of dogs and dog behaviors, without following a cookie-cutter approach. This gives the best chance to help problem solve individual dogs and the challenges they might bring to the table.
Training approach – It’s no secret that the relationship between you and your dog is pivotal in creating the desired outcome when it comes to training. When we focus on this aspect, we have the best chance that our dogs will want to work with us and enjoy training as much as possible without compromising results. In the end dog training is teamwork, and our relationship is at the core of that team.
The goal is always to start with prioritizing and building engagement. This is the cornerstone of your training. After all, if your dog is not even paying attention to you, it's no wonder they aren't listening! So we work to find what will motivate them best and help them see that we can be the ultimate resource in every environment. The use of food, toys and play are primary when building our foundation. We then take that great attitude and the strong foundation that has been created, and work to establish rules, boundaries, and consistency in training through clear communication.
Why food? - We like to use food to motivate as it is a natural drive that we can harness to create new behaviors as well as maintain engagement, especially around distractions. Its simplicity allows for easy results from everyday dog owners, yet it can be powerful in the sense that it's necessary for health and survival. Being our domesticated companions, dogs need us to obtain this resource, and we can use that to our advantage. After all, this is the resource that brought us together as two different species so long ago and was the spark that started the most amazing and adaptable interspecies companionship in human history! Needless to say, this is our primary go-to approach whenever possible.
Why toys and play? - Toys and play are also tied to a dog’s genetics through prey drive. When using toys, we can teach dogs to not only listen, but to also cooperate with us in a heightened state of arousal. Like food, there may be a genetic ceiling for the amount of drive a dog has with play, so our goal is always to enhance it to maximize its use in training. For dogs that might lack in hunger drive, this can be the ultimate tool to ensure great engagement and therefore great training!
Why the leash? - I always say understanding proper leash communication should be bare minimum for a pet dog. Ironically, this is not something that is ever taught at the big box store type of training services or from practically any \"purely positive\" training ideology. Where food, toys, and play might fail, a leash can shine in its clear communication. That said, it requires proper training and conditioning to achieve the desired result. It is through this tool that we are able to start to enforce the rules taught through our positive reinforcement training. Without enforcement, training will ultimately be suggestive, limiting the end result, especially with more difficult dogs. This literal direct line of communication is extremely helpful when it comes to creating great impulse control in our training!