Train your dog with us
I believe dog training is about building connection and trust, about creating mutual understanding... while having fun.
Want to learn more? Keep reading!
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Tailored training plan for you and your dog
Because there are not two equal dogs or families, at M·POWER dogs we design bespoke training plans that adapt to your and your dog's individual needs.
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Results that last
Through exercises that strengthenyour dog's emotional, social and cognitive skills, empowering them to make the most of their lives with you.
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Fun is key!
Especially when talking about behavioural issues, stress and frustration become part of our lives with our dogs. We know this well at M·POWER dogs and that's why the bulk of our training plans are designed to be fun and stress-free, without compromising on effectiveness.
Because we lay the foundations of our training away from the problematic situation, strengthening the dog's emotional and social capabilities so that they can then be successful at facing their real world problem.
Why choose us
An innovative and integrative way to train and intervene in dog behaviour
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Focus on the dog, not behaviour
Because behaviour happens within an individual's context, we put the individual dog, not their behaviour, at the centre of both the analysis and the intervention plan.
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Building the necessary skills first before tackling the real problem.
Exposing the dog to their issue is stressful for everyone and not the best way to learn more appropriate behavioural responses.
Similar to building up strength in the gym to improve performance during competition, emotional capabilities can be improved away from the problematic situation through fun games (in the "emotional gym"), and then be transferred to the problem situation later, setting the dogs up for success and reducing risk and stress.
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Beyond stimulus-responses
Focusing instead on providing dogs with the necessary mental resources to power behavioural change from within.
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The social relationship, at the heart of every exercise
From incredible empathy to communication skills, dogs are equipped with exceptional social capabilities. Our approach integrates the dog's innate social skills directly into the training plan, moving away from individual rewards and turning dog training into a cooperative activity that dogs and their guardians do as a team.
Our professional ethics
Most popular training philosophies are defined based on their use of appetitives (things the dog wants) or aversives (things the dog doesn’t want) during training: people usually use “FF” to refer to training with appetitives only, “Balanced” to training with both appetitives and aversives, and “Compulsion-based” to training with aversives only.
Somehow those distinctions felt too tied-up to operant-conditioning based training, and I believe quality canine education should go beyond rewards and punishments.
So, we choose:
"𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗹𝗲𝗮𝘀𝘁 𝗶𝗻𝘃𝗮𝘀𝗶𝘃𝗲 𝗺𝗲𝘁𝗵𝗼𝗱 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗶𝘀 𝗲𝗳𝗳𝗲𝗰𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗲, with the dog's wellbeing as the primary goal."
When dealing with emotional dog behaviour issues the baseline is never “0”. They often have a negative impact on wellbeing, primarily for the dog but also for their family members, canine or human.
This also makes me consider the EFFICACY of the method into the equation, because not doing anything that helps *does* have negative consequences!
I find TIMING quite important too. Dogs do not live very long lives. Two years of an emotional issue means 15-20% of their lives suffering from it!
So, I always put INVASIVENESS, EFFICACY and EFFICIENCY in the balance before considering any new approach.
So I always keep an eye out for other approaches, whether they use more or less invasive methods, that have the potential for greater efficacy. So far I haven’t found any, but if there was anything that could fast-track us out of the suffering,I think it would be worthwhile considering.