Our System

The pride of Dogs California is The Thinking Dog System™, where professional behavior therapy and obedience specialists provide sound information and education that allows limitless results & reliability. Teaching you how to clearly communicate and become a teacher to your dog, together we create a "Thinking Dog" who is empowered with control over himself, the freedom of choice, because he has good decision-making skills. Our focus is not on teaching tricks. Success is 80% in teaching owners how to live with and train their dog about his responsibility in all human/dog relationships. This proven approach for developing dogs and their owners relies on a balanced curriculum of lifestyle adjustments, communication techniques, exercises and nutrition that function together as a complete learning system. This system is made of these four points:

Life Style adjustment: Training is not "On then Off". How you live with your dog on a daily basis teaches and sculpts behavior, which says that training needs to be a life style for continuity of behavior. Making sure our daily life style messages to our dogs are being interpreted as we intend is critical to maintaining a properly balanced relationship that fosters humans as strong, confident capable leaders, that allow the dog to believe in, trust and follow as a willing member of the team.

Communication: Our unique approach to communication allows for dogs to quickly and efficiently understand what we are asking of them when teaching. This is accomplished by bridging the communication gap between humans and dogs with a specific language, which actually allows for two-way communication to take place. This also minimizes the stresses of most conventional approaches and creates a positive attitude towards learning, especially for dogs that have already learned to hate training.

Life Skills Exercises and Handling Techniques: Our use of both traditional obedience exercises paired with practical life exercises and taught with a logical progression helps us create a well-balanced and skilled dog. This is combined with unique and innovative leash handling techniques, which clearly communicates direction and positive attitude towards learning. As a result, dogs and handlers are not going through monotonous and mindless patterns of exercises and involuntary responses which neither understands.

Nutrition: When addressing dogs holistically, it requires us to understand that nutrition plays a vital roll in balancing our dog. Not only does it affect dogs’ physical wellness, as it supports and maintains the dogs’ growth, immune system and skin and coat but affects the dogs’ psychological wellness as well. Nutrition directly affects the dogs’ nervous system in how the dog handles varying levels of stress. Many things including poor physical health, physical exercise, unstable life style, and even training can cause this stress. It is important that when dealing with both puppies and adult dogs in terms of behavior and training, we address their nutritional needs as an equal component to success.

This method demands true positive reinforcement and attention to one another to maximize learning. Your dog will be your companion for 10-20 years; investing in you and your dog’s education will provide you both with immeasurable returns.