Welcome to the A Freedom Journey (AFJ)  Training Guide! This is a free resource for Adopters and Fosters who are bringing a new dog into the home. I am not going to go super in-depth into my own accolades or accomplishments. There's an "About" page for that elsewhere on the website. This page is specifically for you and your family to learn how to raise a dog in good structure, how to create biological fulfillment for the breed and age of dog you now care for, and how to use a holistic, balanced approach to training that is clear to the dog and that gives you the connection, control, and compliance you want.

 

This will be the most comprehensive guide that I have ever put together, and I hope it becomes an asset to you in raising and training your dog. If you would like to talk 1-on-1 with me about about your specific dog, please fill out a training questionnaire on the website, and I will call you the next business day. Allegiant Canine offers a 5% discount to AFJ Adopters and Fosters, and we have special programs for low income families in Maury County through Matty's Misfits. That said, let's dive right in, and please let me know if there is something else you'd like to see here.

​

The Big picture

Why I dramatically changed my approach​

 

I have worked with thousands of dogs over the last 8 years owning my company, as an employee, volunteer, and training director. I though there were two main "camps" of people who were training dogs: people who used punishment and people who didn't. I have some to find out that this is a much more nuanced profession than I ever could have imagined, that my own emotions, fears, and preferences could potentially be wrong. So I looked for an approach to training that would allow me to mess up, my clients to mess up, the dogs to mess up, in a way that we wouldn't mess up the dog. ​

​

It became starkly clear to me that there were a couple of really big missing elements that I wasn't looking into as thoroughly as I should: the dog's belief system and biological fulfillment. It wasn't just about obedience through behavior modification and boundaries and structure. I needed all four of these to be able to rehabilitate a dog all the way, with life-long results. How did I figure this out? I had a lot of really excellent dogs graduate from my program who were excellently well trained, but they had crappy belief systems about themselves, their owners, and the environment, and they weren't getting the two critical ingredients of relationship building: freedom & play.

​

So I knew that only a mixture of these four things would create a lifetime of fulfillment and freedom:

1. Biological Fulfillment: access to off leash freedom, venting off aggression through play, gaining control and compliance through work, and being able to down regulate to rest

2. Belief System Extinction: Freedom from Fear, Stress, Suppression, and Aggression

3. Behavior Modification: How to earn payment, turn off pressure, accept prevention, and receive punishment

4. Boundaries & Structure: How we live in the home, treat other beings, form new protocols, and clean up old habits.

​

The best advice

4 things that will change everything​

​

If I had 30 seconds to tell someone exactly what to do with their dog every day for the first couple years to completely protect their peace but also raise a stellar dog, no matter their age, I would give the following:

1. Crate Your Dog at night for one year and 100% of the time they're unsupervised for 2 years to allow for rest.

2. Give Your Dog Freedom on a 50 ft long leash for 5 mins a day with no commands or markers.

3. Play with Your Dog using Zoomies, Chase & Catch, and eventually Tug & Fetch for 5 mins a day.

4. Train Your Dog using markers and rewards for free shaping and play as a reinforcement system. 

​

20 things everyone gets wrong

myths & Misconceptions​

​

There are several things that I have heard passed on to me from clients from the internet and other trainers that ultimately hurt the dog in the long run. These myths and misconceptions need to be exposed.​

​

1. Never say No to a dog or punish them.

2. Always use payment to teach everything, never pressure or punishment.

3. Don't play tug with a dog who is sometimes aggressive.

4. Dogs only growl to communicate they are going to bite.

5. You have to be the "alpha."​

6. Sometimes you just need to punish harder and louder.

7. Dogs need to be paying obsessive attention to us 24/7. 

8. Instead of punishment, use redirection, interruption, or distraction.

9. Dogs who do antisocial things just need more obedience.

10. Dogs only growl, lunge, and bite because they're scared. 

11. Pressure is superior to punishment. 

12. If I say "No," whatever I do after that is a punishment.

13. 

​

​