Real change — your dog home every night

Our method

TAR training — Train · Adjust · Repeat

The key ingredient to successful dog training is not a golden solution that only a dog trainer knows — it is in the repetition.

The repetition of training protocols at a suitable distance, for a timed duration, with below-threshold distractions is far more likely to succeed than an ad-hoc approach to an issue. Repeat – treat – Repeat – treat – Adjust – and then Repeat. Sometimes, it is also known as creating a conditioned emotional response.

Our intensive plans feature TAR training and consist of well-planned, structured sessions, five days a week, for issues such as lead walking, recall, pull training and limited anxiety-related issues — carried out by a member of our staff. TAR is only effective against no more than two issues at a time, but is available to adult dogs and puppies alike.

Your part matters most

You’ll see the progress — every single evening

Because your dog comes home each night, you’re part of the journey from day one. Lasting change is always a partnership — the families who follow through are the ones whose dogs keep blossoming.

The science

Conditioned Emotional Response (CER)

You may not have heard of the phrase “Conditioned Emotional Response,” abbreviated as CER, but if you own a dog, you have most definitely observed this phenomenon. If your dog pricks his ears and comes racing joyfully in anticipation of a walk every time you grasp the leash, he has formed a CER — but let’s take a deeper look at how it unfolds from a scientific standpoint.

Animals, like humans, are born with a biological system that allows them to experience pleasure and pain, eliciting emotional reactions. In humans, the sound of a drill may create goose bumps if you had a bad dental experience, or the sound of the phone ringing may make your heart race if you link it with the voice of a loved one. These emotional responses occur swiftly and automatically, with little rational thought involved.

Similar reactions occur in dogs. Your dog’s eyes may light up when he hears the click of a clicker because he has learnt to link its sound with rewards. Pleasure-related (appetitive) reactions stimulate approach and contact, while fear-related (aversive) responses urge retreat and avoidance. From an evolutionary standpoint this makes sense: to survive, animals should seek life-sustaining reinforcers and avoid life-threatening events.

How a conditioned emotional response is built

Conditioned emotional reactions are based on associative learning (classical conditioning). In the instance of Pavlov’s dogs, a dog learns through connections that a leash equals a walk, a clicker equals a treat, and a white coat equals food. The brain, nervous system and endocrine system are all involved.

The amygdala — often called the “smoke detector of the brain” — processes memories and emotional reactions, signalling the adrenal cortex to release the hormones (cortisol, adrenaline) that prepare for fight or flight. The dog’s brain operates in a “hardwired,” reflex-like manner in reaction to each event, based on earlier learning by association. This is why standard training approaches aren’t very effective at changing behaviour: we are working on an emotional, not a cognitive, level.

Instead, behaviour modification works because we change emotions through counter-conditioning — one conditioned response to the same stimulus is replaced by another. A good emotional response eventually clashes with, and overrides, the fearful one. During counter-conditioning, neurons are re-joined so the nervous system’s adaptability improves: we change past connections between neurons, transforming a frightened response into a pleasant, pleasurable one. That is the whole point of TAR.