There are a few behaviors we discourage, such as excessive barking, mounting, and chewing on the fences. Fence fighting, scrapping (angry arguing) and fighting are not tolerated at all. To discourage behavior, we use redirection (distracting the dog onto a different activity), praise for choosing the correct behavior, gentle physical intervention (such as pulling off the dog doing the mounting), vocal reprimands, taste deterrents (such as Bitter Apple applied to the fence), and if necessary, punishments (water squirt bottle, or a thrown "bonker"). Our goal is to train your dog not to exhibit these behaviors.

Non-tolerated behaviors are dealt with by vocal reprimand, physical intervention, prevention (separation, cabling, and muzzling), and punishment. Our goal is to train your dog that these behaviors are not tolerated. The physical safety of every dog is our top priority.

Despite a careful evaluation of each dog for friendliness and tolerance towards other dogs, they do scrap (minor, noisy arguing) fairly often, and rarely, fight. At the first hint of trouble, the staff heads towards the miscreants with vocal reprimands and perhaps the use of a squirt bottle or bonker. Usually, this is sufficient to end the matter. If not, the staff immediately physically separates the dogs. This is done by grabbing each dog from behind around the waist, lifting the hind feet off the ground, and moving backwards. In this manner, we can quickly separate the dogs with minimal risks to ourselves. However, our promise to you is that we will sacrifice our own safety, getting bitten perhaps, in our commitment to the safety of your dog.

If a dog presents a frequent behavior problem, we will discuss the situation with you, and possibly suggest some private lessons to help resolve the issue. Otherwise, we simply deal with minor or infrequent problems ourselves.

Should a dog get injured, or seem ill, we would either care for the problem ourselves, or if necessary, take the dog to a vet. We will notify you of any incidents. If it is necessary to take the dog to a vet, we will attempt to contact you immediately via your emergency phone numbers.

Please feel free to ask at any time about any concerns you may have; all of the staff have their own dogs, and know how protective "parents" feel about their "kids!"