What We Do

During a Separation Anxiety Protocol, we very carefully repeat incremental actions and absences to warm your dog up to absences that they can handle. This process is called systematic desensitization. Dog separation anxiety practice requires us humans to make minute judgments and have detailed attention to body language changes. My goal as your trainer is to work with you to tweak and perfect this protocol for a study of one - your specific dog and your specific family.

No one can make guarantees about how long this protocol will take. We can say it is very rare to achieve times over 5 hours within the first 6 months. Beyond that, providing examples has legitimate ethical problems because the unique factors with each dog can be so different that a “typical example” could be so misleading.

However, that absolutely does not mean that we cant give you clarity and some much clearer guidelines on price. From the beginning I have wanted to give clients as much choice and control in what support they need and fits in their budget. However, I found that offering a series of options was very stressful for new clients because the packages and options are expensive, you don’t necessarily know what your dog will need at the start, and you don’t know enough about the protocol to “lock in” to a program choice.

Therefore, I worked with my partner to apply best practices in human/guardian-focused education to provide the best and most detailed hybrid of one-on-one separation protocol with an online human-training course including personal feedback from me. Our hybrid program creates a transparent, effective, and consistent experience for our clients.

The 2 most important things I want you to know as a prospective client are that

1. Separation anxiety is not your fault.

Your dog is part of your family and you care for them, that is why you are here. Separation anxiety is surprisingly common and very well studied - there is no known “cause” for separation anxiety - but systematic desensitization is a known and studied protocol to alleviate separation anxiety.

2. My entire program is designed to empower you.

As quickly as is practical to understand your dog’s progress, choose your level of support, and bring down costs while increasing your autonomy as you progress through the protocol.

I used to tell people that I can’t tell you how long this will take. And that is true but that’s such a scary leap to start an expensive program with no idea how long it will run.

So as a result of my improvements what I can tell you now are the very specific learning outcomes from each month of my 5 month program. At each step, you will know exactly where you stand in your progress.

And at the end of those 5 months, if you’ve completed the work, you will be equipped to lead your dog’s journey to comfort with me as a member of your team, alongside your vet and supporting community, at a much more sustainable price. After that point with no locked-in packages or commitments beyond the appointments you choose to purchase.

The initial 5 months gives your dog a strong evidence-based start through my observations and mission writing. And gives every client the skills and information that i have found essential to get you to the place I’ve described.

The length of the program directly reflects the amount and complexity of the material presented at a pace that real people, professionals, and homemakers can realistically have success with. My fundamental approach is to provide the skills and the knowledge that I find each client needs such that I can stand behind my product, empower you to be successful whether you continue with me or not, and at a fair price.

My fee structure and the organization of my program reflects (praxis of )