Got Questions?
We Have Answers

First and foremost, ForceFreePets recognizes that your dog is a family member and, like all family members, your dog ALWAYS deserves kindness and patience. Therefore, our dog training philosophy emphasizes teaching you as much as it does training your dog. Our programs go well beyond teaching things like “down” and “coming” when called. It is even more important to teach you and the rest of your family how to teach and live in harmony with your dog.

Sharing your life with a dog means recognizing that your dog is a sentient being capable of experiencing basic emotions such as joy and excitement, love and affection, fear and anxiety, anger and frustration, and grief and sadness. Neuroscientists and behavioral psychologists have determined that a dog is cognitively and emotionally equivalent to a 2- to 2.5-year-old human toddler. In other words, your dog is and will always be cognitively limited compared to a child who will eventually be capable of abstract thought. You must ALWAYS treat your dog with the kindness and patience you would show when interacting with a human toddler.

While most humans will eventually learn to regulate their emotional responses and avoid tantrums, our dog will likely have moments of poor emotional control throughout their life. This is why establishing trust and predictable routines with your dog is so important. Never forget that trust can take time to build, but it can be destroyed in an instant. That is why we will discuss how to keep your emotional state calm and reassuring so your behavior doesn’t trigger your dog.

As your dog’s guardian or parent, whichever term you prefer, you are responsible for their physical, mental, and emotional health, and for their safety, from the day you first bring them home until the day they pass. Additionally, because your canine family member is a different species from you and your human children, you will need to commit to learning about normal and abnormal canine behavior, how your dog will communicate with you and other dogs, and how you can best communicate with them. You will also need to learn how your dog learns and the most humane, effective ways to teach them.

Everything I have just listed will be addressed in the books and written materials, videos, and the in-person coaching we provide in our Puppy and Rescue Headstart-ONLINE class and in our in-person Basic Manners classes.

I (Don Hanson) have been helping people with their dogs since 1996. I am a Professional Canine Behavior Consultant (PCBC-A) accredited by the Pet Professional Accreditation Board (PPAB). All the trainers working for me have been trained by me. You can read more about me at https://www.forcefreepets.com/about-don-hanson/.

Ethics are extremely important to me, and sadly, many in the pet care service industry lack published ethical standards. You can read our ethics policies at https://www.forcefreepets.com/ethics-policies/. If your current pet care provider does not have published ethics policies, I would encourage you to ask them why.

Neuroscientists and behavioral psychologists have determined that a dog is cognitively and emotionally equivalent to a 2- to 2.5-year-old human toddler. Shock, choke, and prong collars are all used to inflict physical or emotional pain or discomfort in dogs as positive punishment or negative reinforcement. Peer-reviewed studies have determined that the use of these tools and methods is contrary to a dog’s well-being, which constitutes abuse. Other peer-reviewed studies have demonstrated that positive reinforcement-based training is more effective than the use of aversives. The following organizations, the American Animal Hospital Association (AAHA), the American Veterinary Society of Animal Behavior (AVSAB), and the Pet Professional Guild (PPG), have issued detailed documents explaining why these tools are unnecessary and contrary to a dog’s well-being. You can read those statements at the links below.

• AAHA 2015 Canine and Feline Behavior Management Guidelines
• AVSAB Position Statement on Humane Dog Training
• PPG The Guiding Principles

Training methods have changed significantly since I brought my first puppy home in 1975. ForceFreePets methods are to first build a foundation of teaching people about their dog’s physical, mental, and emotional needs, how they communicate with us, and how we can best communicate with them, what we need to do to meet those needs and to ensure our dog feels safe, how our dogs learn, and how we can best teach them. We also discuss normal canine behaviors and how we can best accommodate dogs in our lives and home. We want you and your dog to trust one another and to be companions for life.

The methods we use for teaching dogs are all based around rewarding behavior we like, usually with food, as it is the best reward for most dogs. We also emphasize the need to manage dogs and their environment to prevent undesirable behaviors. Neuroscientists agree that a dog is cognitively and emotionally equivalent to a 2- to 2.5-year-old human toddler; therefore, it would not be ethical to use any methods or tools that involve force, fear, or pain.

You can see a sample of what we teach in the article and three videos available on my blog at https://www.forcefreepets.com/readbeyondbellyrubs/

We offer an online program called Puppy and Rescue Headstart-ONLINE and semi-private in-person classes: Basic Manners. We also offer in-person, advanced-level classes for those who have completed our Basic Manners program. We do not currently offer any programs offsite from our facility.

Our Puppy & Rescue Headstart-ONLINE class ( https://www.forcefreepets.com/puppy-registration/ ) is often a good place to start. It is an open-enrollment class that you can start at any time on either a Wednesday evening or a Saturday morning. It is designed specifically for teaching you, the human at the other end of the leash. We do this class online so you can do it in the comfort of your own home. At the end of each session, you will receive a link to a video of the class so you can review it if you choose to.

Our Basic Manners classes ( https://www.forcefreepets.com/basic-manners-registration/ ) are offered on several different days of the week and times. The schedule is updated with new classes approximately every 6 to 8 weeks.

If you visit this link on our web page and click the class of interest, it will explain each class in detail. – https://www.forcefreepets.com/in-person-dog-training-education/ We do not have a rote list of behaviors that we insist every dog know to perfection. In many ways, if you have a dog that will focus on you when you cue them, will release things they have in their mouth when cued, will stay close when walking with them, and will allow you to restrain them when you ask them to come to you, you have everything you need to live in harmony.

There is no typical answer to this question, as it depends on a multitude of factors including: the dog and its past history, whether they always trust you and feel safe with you, your bond/relationship with your dog, your attitude and emotional state when training, the amount of time you are investing in training the dog, the rewards you are using and the rate of reinforcement, the variety of scenarios and environments in which you are training, your explicit expectations for those behaviors, as well as other factors.

The most important factor to consider with any dog, of any age, is that neuroscientists and behavioral psychologists have determined a dog is cognitively and emotionally equivalent to a 2- to 2.5-year-old human toddler; therefore, kindness and patience are ALWAYS essential.

A dog can learn a down behavior easily because it’s a normal behavior they do all the time; you’re just training them to do it on a cue and making it worth their while. Neither coming when called nor walking on a leash is normal for a dog, especially if they choose something more rewarding than you when you cue them to “come” or “walk.” Or, put another way, teaching a dog to lie down on cue is roughly equivalent to teaching a child in 1st grade to add and subtract. Training a dog to walk on a loose leash and come when called is more like teaching that first grader college-level calculus. It will take more time and better rewards.

No reputable trainer would ever guarantee your dog would respond 100% of the time, since guaranteeing the behavior of another sentient being is considered extremely unethical. Remember, your dog is and always will be cognitively and emotionally equivalent to an 18-month-old toddler and will therefore require some level of management by adult humans.

Most of our Basic Manners students will make great progress if they watch ALL of the videos we provide before class starts, attend and participate in every class, and do the homework we recommend. By the end of the 6-week class, most have a fundamental understanding of how to help their dog improve at both walking politely and coming when called. If they need more help, they can enroll in one of our Level 2-Advanced Basic Manners classes.

We work with people with no experience with dogs, as well as those with many years of experience. I’ve been teaching people since 1996, and many of my former students have taken classes with us with each new dog they add to the family. They come back to us because they know they have someone teaching and coaching them who is up to date on current science and ethical standards for caring for their canine family members.

It depends on what you mean by “puppy socialization class.” Years ago, like many training facilities, we offered a puppy class that groups of people attended with their puppies. We’d let the puppies play under close supervision and even passed them around in a big circle. We stopped doing that for two reasons: it is no longer considered good practice, and secondly, puppy socialization is about so much more than exposing your puppy to other people and puppies once a week in a class.

A puppy has a critical socialization period that starts at three weeks of age, when their eyes open and they begin interacting with littermates. This period ends somewhere between 12 and 16 weeks of age. Teaching you how to socialize your puppy during the critical period and afterward is a major topic in our Puppy & Rescue Headstart-ONLINE class. We supplement what we discuss with an excellent book featuring the latest information on puppy socialization: Puppy Socialization: What It Is and How to Do It by Marge Rogers and Eileen Anderson.

We do not offer classes for those wishing to compete in dog sports. Most of our students simply went to live in harmony with their dogs, enjoying life together. However, the fundamental principles we teach are a good starting point before any competition-based training.

We do not offer classes that address the specific skills dogs need to be successful as service/assistance or emotional support dogs. Not all dogs can learn these skills or maintain them throughout life. We encourage those who need such a dog to work with accredited agencies who will not only select the best dog for them but will train both the dog and the person they will be helping.

Dogs who are reactive are typically fearful or angry, both of which are emotional responses. What most people think of as training — sit, down, come, etc. — does NOT change a dog’s emotional response. Placing dogs in a class with the very thing that triggers their reactivity would be unfair to all considered and counterproductive.

I do occasionally work with dogs with reactivity issues, but only if they have previously completed our Basic Manners class and their veterinarian has ruled out any medical causes for the dog’s sudden change in behavior. For others, I refer to the two veterinarians in Maine who specialize in behavior: Dr. Christine Calder ( http://www.caldervbs.com/ ) and Dr. Shannon Emmons ( http://www.eliotveterinaryhospital.com/behavior-consultations.html )

We occasionally offer private sessions at our facility in special circumstances. However, our Basic Manners program, which includes no more than two students, is usually a much better value. Occasionally, those classes may have only one student, so they essentially become private classes at a discounted price.

We do not offer Board and Train programs. We believe that, as your dog’s guardian or parent, it is essential that you be fully involved in their training if you want the best results and a bond with your pet where they understand they are a family member.

The time it takes to train a dog to perform a specific behavior depends on the task, the dog, and you. I look at our life with a dog as a continual learning experience for both of us. We can train a recall to perfection, and then when we stop rewarding it, the behavior will likely fade. Just like our going to work would fade if we stopped getting paid. A behavior like lying down is easy to teach because all dogs lie down on their own. Teaching a dog to come when called or to stay close and keep the loose leash takes many more repetitions because we often want the dog to do these things against their natural instincts. This is one more reason our dogs need to have absolute trust in us. Trust can take weeks to build with some dogs, and it can be destroyed in a single instant. Our Basic Manners class is 6 weeks in length. If you diligently attend every class and do the homework daily in several 5-minute sessions, you and your dog will do quite well. Those who want to do more training with us often go on to our Level 2 Advanced Basic Manners class.

Our in-person training classes are held at Green Acres Kennel Shop, 1653 Union Street, Bangor, ME. Classes are either upstairs in our indoor training room or outdoors in our training field, depending on the weather and what the instructor is teaching that day. In many cases, it is better to introduce something new inside with as few distractions as possible.

The rates, availability, and dates of our classes are subject to change. For the most current information, review our class descriptions at https://www.forcefreepets.com/in-person-dog-training-education/

I am always available via email unless I am ill or traveling. I typically answer emails within 24 hours. I am available by phone or ZOOM for brief, scheduled conversations about our offerings between 10 AM and 3 PM, Monday through Thursday, and occasionally on Saturdays. You can schedule such a conversation at https://www.forcefreepets.com/contact-us/

Yes, you do need to work with your dog outside of class, as your dog will need to be trained in a wide variety of scenarios for several repetitions. Class is for you to learn the basic principles and techniques from an experienced instructor who will coach you as you practice. In our experience, if you work with your dog for at least three 5-minute sessions every day, you will be successful.

When a female dog goes into heat (estrus), she will create behavioral and practical complications for everyone else in the class. She will be an extreme distraction for other dogs, even if they have been neutered, causing extreme agitation, loss of focus, and even aggression. For these reasons, a dog in heat may not attend class until her heat cycle is over. However, you are still welcome and encouraged to attend class without your dog, as we are primarily here to teach you. Then you can practice what you learned in class at home with your dog. We had a student who was only able to bring her dog to the first and last class, while missing the four in between. Because she attended class and practiced diligently at home, her dog did as well as all of the other dogs in class.

I only refer to other professionals I know who share a similar philosophy and, ideally, have a credential from an independent accrediting body. You might find these two articles on my blog helpful.

• What To Look For In A Pet Care Professional–Part 1: A Code of Technical & Ethical Standards
• What To Look For In A Pet Care Professional–Part 2: Knowledge, Skills, Competence & Credentials

You can find many excellent trainers at this webpage: https://www.petprofessionalguild.com/find-a-ppg-professional/

We have one large outdoor training field and two small play yards. If you are currently enrolled in one of our classes, you are welcome to use any of the fields, as are the regular clients of Green Acres Kennel Shop (those who use us for boarding, daycare, grooming, or purchase food and supplies from us on a regular basis). EVERYONE using the training fields must follow the posted rules, as they are private property, not a public dog park.