dogs of the dunes

10/16/2025

10/16/2025

You can’t “no” your way to good behavior.

Behavior is information — your dog’s way of saying “I don’t know what to do right now.”

When we redirect instead of correct, we’re giving them a map instead of a dead end.

And that’s where trust, confidence, and cooperation start to bloom. 🌿

— Theresa, CPDT-KA | dogs of the dunes

10/15/2025

🎁 The holidays are coming — and with them come guests, road trips, and new routines.
Now’s the perfect time to brush up on manners, confidence, and calm before the chaos.

🐕 Join a training class or set up private lessons before the travel rush hits!
Whether your dog needs a refresher on 'place', 'leave it', or just learning to settle around visitors — we’ve got you covered.

🗓️ Book now to make this the most peaceful holiday yet — for you and your dog!

10/15/2025

do you follow us on instagram yet?

10/15/2025

read it all here ⤵️
"Theresa is awesome. She's as real as they come. Honest, straight forward and excellent at what she does. A year and a half ago we were planning for a very long cross country trip which we would be taking our fur babies with. Our half Irish wolfhound was in need of some training before our long trip. I was given Theresa's name from a friend and called right away. She came out for a consultation very quickly. She assessed our dog and listened to what I was hoping to help. Our dog wasn't a bad dog in any way. He is very sweet and lovey. He was just very hyper and extremely protective of me. He pulled all the time while on walks and would always go crazy if another animal/human came within eyesight of us while walking. He was letting them know to stay away from his mommy. Theresa's energy matched his and i immediately hired her. She came right away to begin working on recall, leave it, by me and so many more. Within one month our sweet boy was had learned all of the above and then some. She continued to work with him and when it came time for our long trip he was ready. In a month and a half our pup had learned that it's ok to see other people/animals on our walks and that he could be friends. She taught me all about long leash walking (thank you). Our boy loves HIS Theresa. Always looking forward to seeing her. Now, he still requires gentle reminders and reassurance but I am so happy to say that he is a very well mannered, polite, happy puppy who for the most part listens the first time and is a joy to take out. The thing is, Theresa did all of this in such a short time frame. And she did it without FEAR! Her approach is not fear driven like so many others I had contacted before her. She uses positive reenforcement and also listens to the pups needs while training. We absolutely love Theresa." -Kelly
from the trainer:
working with nikolai and his family was such a fun time! we spent the summer together as a group and then i made my way over a few times a week to check on their farm critters during their cross-country trip. watching the last video in these slides makes me SO PROUD of the progress he and his mama have continued to make 🥹🥳

10/14/2025

🚨 Holiday travel season is comingggg — and our schedule fills fast!
If you’re traveling Thanksgiving week (Nov 26–Dec 1) or Christmas week (Dec 20–26), now’s the time to secure care.
🐾 Walks • Boarding • Drop-Ins • Training refreshers
✉️ Message us today to get on the books!

Call now to connect with business.

10/03/2025

Big baby angel Link 🐾

10/03/2025

Everyone meet our newest Hank!

Hank is a young adult Great Dane mix. He was just there on mom and dad's porch one day back in mid-summer and that was that! His new family promptly took him to be vetted, neutered, and now on to his training 🎉

His family is quite dog savvy, but he had a mild resource guard incident with a bone a few weeks ago so his pawrents wanted to get a handle on the whats/whys/and hows to prevent future issue.

Last night we introduced the clicker, marking/rewarding to reinforce all the good stuff he does as it is.

We played with 'touch' and 'find it' as options to help move him when he wants to be a lump on the couch, instead of using force and pulling him down by the collar or grabbing his body -- no one likes being forcibly removed from their comfy spot and we want to let Hank continue to know that no harm will come of him here.

We jumped into 'leave it' and 'place' practice in our 2nd hour. Which, BTW, 'place' for Hank is now called 'Taco Time!' as his spot is a tortilla blanket 😹💀

Working for 2 hours is tuff stuff but Hank hung in there and gave us his best for all of it.

Shout out to mom Kiara and dad Aaron for wanting to do the right thing by their guy. We had a lot of fun! 🐾

If you need a little help over some puppy hurdles or just want to refresh your memory about a certain behavior, let's book one of our single sessions together!

219-246-9084

10/01/2025

do your dog's walks come with this much 🪄 sleepy dust?

10/01/2025

2nd walk with kylo today 🤪