In-Home Dog Training Sacramento

Yes. Every private lesson is in-home training: your trainer comes to you, usually within about a 20-minute drive of East Sacramento, and around Davis, where Mitch is based. We start where your dog is most comfortable, usually your home, and move out into your neighborhood and the world as your dog is ready. See the cities we serve on our homepage.

Every session is scheduled for one hour, and the first one often runs longer, because we’re getting to know you and your dog, hearing your day-to-day and what’s going wrong, and evaluating your dog’s behavior the whole time. Sometimes we have to help your dog settle before we can even talk. Every situation is different, so some first sessions are mostly talking and others are mostly hands-on work. A private lesson is where we sort all of that out, make a plan, and start putting it into action.

Yes. Your first session is always a Consultation. It’s the same price as a single private lesson, and it’s us working one session together: figuring out who your dog is, what’s going on, and the plan, with some hands-on work to see how your dog thinks and responds. That’s why the first hour has less teaching in it. We can’t tell you what to do until we’ve worked with your dog through those steps. And if we need to see something in person, we will.

Yes. The smallest problem is big enough. Many people think each problem stands alone, but everything builds on everything else. We look at the communication and clarity between you and your dog. If you can’t tell what your dog is thinking, feeling, or likely to do next, or why they’re staring at the door or window, there’s a lot of behavior to learn. Take a dog barking at the window. We ask why. Is it bored? Is it getting no direction from you? Does the mailman startle it, and then the barking gets rewarded when he leaves? Fixing that isn’t only teaching a dog to stop barking. It’s building the kind of relationship where your dog wants to come when you call and stays off the counter when you say no. You have to be a working team. Even if you have zero problems, you still need to learn your dog’s body language, because your dog doesn’t speak English.

We call it in-home private lessons because we come to you. Your first meeting is where your dog is most comfortable, which is usually your home. If a dog can’t behave at home, they won’t behave out in the world, so that’s where we start. Walks around your own neighborhood still count as in-home training, since that’s your home territory. As your dog is ready, we move out into the world. That might mean meeting at a park, a Home Depot, or a Lowe’s.

Some people do nothing, and that’s fine. Sometimes we’ll send a book to read or a video to watch ahead of time, and we’ll always tell you. If you want to be set up perfectly, have some high-value treats on hand, and have your dog’s leash and collar where you can find them. And don’t hide anything from us. Clients sometimes feel embarrassed about things they’ve tried, like a bark collar. It’s important to tell us so we can help. We’ll never shame you. We’ll explain the pros and cons, and make a choice together.

A single session is $150 to $200, depending on the situation, trainer, and location. Your first session is a Consultation at the same price. Packages bundle private lessons: Furst Steps and Furry Fundamentals are $650, and Feral to Focus is $800. Follow-up sessions after a package are $85 each. See the full rates above.

It depends on how much work you do between sessions. If you don’t practice, your dog won’t change, and your trainer can’t skip ahead. They have to repeat the last lesson. So if you don’t have time to practice and do your homework, we’ll reschedule. We can talk through our packages, and most are private sessions.

After your Consultation, you’ll know whether you need a package. Most people either get their questions answered at the Consultation, because it’s something minor, or move into a package. A package gives you a trainer on retainer, so as you practice you can follow up and ask questions. It also works better for your dog. One session at a time means we give you all the information at once, and your dog isn’t ready to progress that fast. In a package, we show you how far we want to go, walk you through the teaching phases and the different ways to teach each skill, you practice one thing, and then we move up to the next step in the next session. After a package, follow-up sessions are $85 each, because we already know you and your dog, so there’s less planning and more coaching. We don’t have clients buy multiple packages in a row. It’s one package, and then session by session. And if you try a plan on your own and still need help, call us back and we’ll come out.

Our packages are bundles of private lessons. Bundling them lets us plan each lesson around when we’ll see you next, assign homework, and decide how it should progress. The packages differ by who they’re for. Furst Steps and Furry Fundamentals are for dogs without behavior problems, like puppies and basics, a clean slate. They don’t cover behavior modification. Feral to Focus is for dogs with behavior problems, like reactivity, shyness, or recovery from something traumatic. If you buy a package and need help later, follow-up sessions are $85 each. That applies to our private lesson packages, one-on-one in your home or out in the real world, and not to day training.

When you book, we send you a link through our PocketSuite app to complete your paperwork, and then we invoice you. You pay by credit card there, and Zelle and Venmo are also options. Payment plans are case by case. We prefer to set up interest-free payments in-house, and outside financing options are available too.

You can always reschedule a private lesson. If you’ve booked a session but we haven’t started training together, you can cancel, though we don’t refund the credit card processing fee. Once training has started, we don’t cancel or refund, and your options are to reschedule or apply what you’ve paid toward a different service with the same trainer. You could even upgrade to day training. Our rule is simple: let us know before your trainer has left for your house. If your trainer has lessons back to back before yours, we count it from when they leave for that earlier lesson, since they may have already rerouted their day. Full details are in our policies.