TOTAL BALANCE K9s
Our Philosophy
The philosophy behind Total Balance K9s approach to a totally balanced relationship between you and your canine companion is simple: In dog ownership and dog training, the issues that arise between humans and dogs are due to communication problems almost 100% of the time.
Although genetics and prior experiences may add to this, it is extremely rare to come across a dog and owner that does not greatly benefit from training. At Total Balance K9s we pride ourselves on improving the quality of life for the dog and owner alike! We focus on offering transparency, clarity, and great communication both with our clients and their dogs. With us, what you (or your dog) see, is what you get. In our board and train programs your dog will stay with us in our home for the duration of training; with training beginning at our location and quickly immersing into the public to implement obedience around distractions, socialization, and exposure to different environments.
While your canine companion is in our care you will receive daily updates, and your dog will receive an exceptional level of training expedited by our expertise and dedication. At the conclusion of our program we will have a 2-3 hour transfer session where we go over everything they have done in the past few weeks, how to maintain it and so much more! We have been training dogs for 10 years and always approach each dog as an individual. Providing clear communication, and clear expectations, and making life enjoyable again for both the dog and owner is what we do best. After training, we will be here to support you for the life of your dog through texts, pack walks, our online community, and much more!
Avalible Training
Our Mission
Our mission is to keep dogs in homes! We strive to attain our mission by improving the communication between dogs and owners. We feel our work is exponentially important because without a balanced relationship, the owner and the pet's quality of life suffer, and sometimes the pet's life itself.
Whether it be as simple as neither the pet nor owner having a good day-to-day life due to unresolved (or seemingly unsolvable) issues, as severe as dogs fighting in the house, or the owner's last resort to bringing their dog to the pound; we are here to step in, bridge that gap and bring real balance (and happiness!) back into the home through boundaries, strengthening the relationship and well, just GOOD TRAINING to be honest.
Our goals
Our short-term goals are to give back to the community through volunteering with (visiting etc.) shelter dogs the general public would be unable to do so with, as well as offering free/low-cost training to adopters.
Our long-term goals are to foster dogs that are at risk of being unadoptable and to provide a calm space outside of the shelter to begin their behavior modification and give them a second chance!
Our Methods
We are excited to get really transparent here! Our methods are scientifically based, using all four quadrants of operant conditioning as well as classical conditioning, properties of ABA, and natural-based training. So what we’re saying here, is it depends on the dog! No one method is for every dog nor is it for every issue and we approach each dog with time and care. We try to train with as little resistance as possible, but we will never claim to be positive only or force-free. With that being said, we definitely use a ton of positive reinforcement and training with play!
We do not believe the ends always justify the means, meaning we will always take care each step of the way to make sure we aren’t adding undue stress on the dogs, but it is important to know training can be stressful, but so is therapy and college, and training for a triathlon and anything else that can better the body and mind. We do use prong collars and e-collars (not shock collars) and we are proud that we do!
We save a lot of dogs’ lives this way! However we don’t use them on every dog, we want to be very clear here; this is not because these tools are “only for bad dogs” In fact in most cases the opposite is true, rather, it is because not every dog needs them and as we’ve said before we approach each dog as an individual with their own needs, levels of understanding and learning differences.