Kelton’s Doggy Trot

06/08/2026

PHOEBE’S TRANSFORMATION

When Phoebe first started training, staying calm around other dogs wasn’t easy.

She struggled with reactivity, prey drive, impulse control, and had real intent to harm certain dogs. Walks could be stressful and staying focused around distractions was a challenge.

Phoebe can now work around major distractions, remain far more neutral in public, and enjoy calmer, more structured outings with her owner.

The best part? Her owner has put in a ton of work and it’s paying off.

This is why I focus on real-world training, not just teaching commands.

Great job, Phoebe and Kimberleigh. I’m proud of how far you’ve both come.

06/07/2026

Happy 1st Birthday to Dugg!

Today we celebrated with a balanced mix of training, fun, and socialization. We worked on calmness around other dogs, loose leash walking, recalls, and making good decisions before earning some playtime with his friend Peach.

One thing I’m really proud of today was seeing Dugg work through some frustration, settle himself, and then earn what he wanted. That’s a huge part of his journey right now. Learning that calm behaviour and good choices lead to rewards.

After some play, both dogs calmly coexisted together, worked for their food, and finished the session on a positive note.

Happy Birthday, buddy. You’ve definitely kept me on my toes this year, and I can’t wait to see how much more progress you make.

06/06/2026

Always looking for opportunities to learn and improve. Today I had the chance to continue developing my understanding of decoy work, dog behaviour, timing, and reading working dogs. Looking forward to learning more and expanding my skills.

06/03/2026

Today marks 2 years since I started Kelton's Doggy Trot.

To be honest, looking back, I never thought I'd end up where I am today.

Before I started my business, I was staying in Arizona with my grandma, trying to get my life together and working toward my GED. While I was there, I started volunteering at a shelter and met a fear-aggressive Pit Bull mix named Bruce. I started working with him as a foster and eventually ended up adopting him.

Bruce completely changed the direction of my life.

After that, I took the Dogma DDT course and got really interested in dog training. In the beginning, I was very much in the positive only camp and didn't agree with training tools at all. But as I worked with more dogs and gained more experience, I realized every dog is different. The more I learned, the more I understood that having different tools and approaches available helped me better support both dogs and their owners. Seeing the progress Bruce made pushed me to keep learning and improving.

The last two years definitely haven't been easy. I've dealt with self-doubt, finding clients, learning how to run a business, financial stress, and a lot of figuring things out as I went. But no matter what came up, quitting was never really an option. There were times I considered slowing down, but never walking away from it.

What I'm most proud of isn't just having a business. It's the dogs I've helped, the owners I've worked with, the challenging cases people trusted me with, and everything I've learned through mentors, courses, and hands-on experience.

I've had the chance to work with all kinds of dogs, from puppies learning the basics to dogs dealing with fear, reactivity, aggression, and confidence issues. Every single one has taught me something.

I want to thank every client who trusted me with their dog, every mentor who shared their knowledge with me, and my family for supporting me through all of it.

As I head into year three, my goal is pretty simple: keep learning, keep helping more dogs and owners, take on more challenging behavioural cases, and continue building Kelton's Doggy Trot into something I'm proud of.

Thank you to everyone who's been part of the journey so far. We're just getting started.

05/21/2026

https://youtu.be/XjHTivWiqT8?si=6sguWUKkUP1ZDJiR

The Real Facts About Science Based Dog Training: A Training Without Conflict® PodcastArguments about dog training are reaching a boiling point and I decided ...

05/21/2026

Welcome to the Kelton’s Doggy Trot family Elizabeth 🐾

This little Cavapoo pup has officially started her 30-Day Trained & Transferred Program and I’m super excited to work with her over the next month.

Right now our main focus is going to be:
• Calmness & emotional regulation
• Neutrality around people, dogs, and stimulation
• Confidence building
• Structured leash communication
• Proper decompression
• Puppy biting/nipping
• Potty training structure
• Controlled interactions inside the home
• Building engagement and foundations the right way from the start

At this age, the goal is not strict obedience or perfection. The goal is building a calm, stable puppy that understands how to exist calmly in the world instead of becoming overwhelmed, overstimulated, or reactive later on.

Elizabeth is a super sweet puppy with tons of potential and honestly a lot of what we’re seeing right now is very normal puppy behaviour mixed with a little too much freedom and overstimulation. With proper structure, guidance, consistency, and communication, I think she’s going to progress very nicely over the next 30 days.

Looking forward to her journey 🐶

05/19/2026

Welcome Maya to Kelton’s Doggy Trot 😊

Maya is a very sweet, sensitive girl who struggles with confidence and anxiety in certain situations. Over the next 30 days we are going to be focusing heavily on calmness, confidence building, emotional openness, engagement, healthy independence, decompression, and helping her feel more safe and secure in her environment.

The goal is not to force her through fear, but instead help guide her through it properly with structure, patience, consistency, and trust.

I’m very excited for this journey with her and honestly I think Maya is going to teach me just as much as I teach her ❤️

05/17/2026

WELCOME BACK ROCKY 🔥🐾

After previously completing 6 private lessons with me, Rocky will now be starting a full 4 week transformation program through Kelton’s Doggy Trot.

The private lessons gave Rocky a solid obedience foundation and helped us identify exactly where his biggest struggles actually are. Rocky is an extremely intelligent dog that already understands leash communication, obedience, and engagement work very well. The bigger issue is not a lack of training, it is emotional regulation, over arousal, environmental fixation, and his ability to stay mentally clear once stimulation increases.

This is something I explain to owners often:
Obedience and behavioural work are two completely different things.

A dog can understand commands extremely well and still struggle emotionally in real-world situations. Rocky is capable of making very good choices, however once arousal, dogs, environmental stimulation, or separation from Lilly enters the picture, his emotional state can begin escalating faster than his decision making.

One lesson per week simply is not enough repetition for dogs like this. Real behavioural change comes from consistency, structure, timing, accountability, and daily repetitions. Intensive programs allow us to work through these situations consistently instead of behaviours being accidentally reinforced between sessions all week long.

Over the next 4 weeks we will be focusing heavily on:

• Emotional regulation and calmer decision making
• Loose leash walking and advanced leash communication
• Breaking fixation before escalation
• Neutrality around dogs, movement, scents, and environmental distractions
• Building confidence and independence away from Lilly
• Structured engagement with the handler under stimulation
• Public exposure and real-world proofing
• Reliability under higher levels of distraction and arousal

One of the biggest goals moving forward is teaching Rocky how to stay mentally available and emotionally clear instead of becoming overstimulated, reactive, or environmentally locked in once arousal increases.

The good thing is Rocky is very emotionally open, highly trainable, enjoys working, and genuinely wants to engage which gives us a very strong foundation to build from moving forward.

Excited to show everyone what Rocky is capable of over the next month 👊🐾

05/16/2026

Working line dogs are a whole different level.

This guy is insanely smart, environmentally aware, and constantly thinking. He does struggle with some fear based reactivity toward certain dogs, and it’s a really good example of how a lot of reactive behaviour actually comes from defence and insecurity rather than “dominance” or a dog just trying to be bad.

Dogs that feel the need to create space, control situations, or stay hyper-vigilant are often operating out of stress and defensive instincts, especially herding breeds that are naturally very aware of their environment.

His owner has done a really solid job with him though, and it’s awesome getting hands-on experience working through neutrality, engagement, confidence building, and clear communication with dogs like this.

05/16/2026

Results like these are never just about obedience — they come from building clarity, structure, accountability, and a better relationship between the dog and owner.

I take a very hands-on, individualized approach with every dog I work with, whether it’s reactivity, over-arousal, leash manners, confidence building, or creating reliable real-world obedience. My goal is not just to train the dog, but to help owners fully understand how to maintain that progress long term.

Extremely grateful for the trust my clients continue to place in me and for everyone who takes the time to leave reviews like these. The support genuinely means a lot.

— Kelton’s Doggy Trot

https://share.google/9KyRXI6bFBDz6UyQA