Your little dog is so sweet. Snuggly and cuddly in your lap, looking at you with adoring eyes, delightful on walks. Until… something happens. Suddenly your little lovebug goes from great to Bark-Bark-Bark-Lunge. Your sweet dog acts like an out-of-control Cujo, whether when passing other dogs on leash, strangers approach, or a sudden noise or movement in the environment sets them off. What the heck? You have a sweet dog--where did he or she go?

Regardless of whether or not your dog would "actually bite" or is big enough to hurt anyone, reactivity can be scary, frustrating and downright embarrassing. And it’s stressful—for you and the dog.

It can also be drastically reduced and improved in most dogs.

But small and toy breed dogs can have special challenges, and solutions that work for bigger dogs don’t always work the same way for them. In this course, tailored specifically to the unique needs of the Little Ones, we'll explore the underlying causes of reactivity. We’ll develop toy-dog friendly management and training strategies to reduce it, and we’ll learn and practice simple handling and training techniques to get the SWEET dog back to being sweet even when their triggers are present.

The Format of the Course

The course consists of six sessions. In the first lecture session (for humans only), we’ll introduce key skills and plans for solving your dog’s behavior challenges. In the next five sessions, working Dog/Handler Teams will come together to apply the core skills, to learn and practice exercises specifically chosen for the issue they’re working on, and to develop and refine their customized Action Plans.

If you are registering as a working team, please download and fill out the Dog Behavior History.