About Canine Coach

Positive training and service dogs from Richmond

Canine Coach of Houston is a Richmond dog training service run by Dawn Greer. Dawn describes herself as a behavior consultant, pet dog trainer and service dog trainer, a certified AKC Canine Good Citizen instructor and evaluator and a certified behavior consultant, and says she has been training dogs for more than twenty years. She also took a Karen Pryor clicker training course in 2002.

Approach

Its slogan is "Always PAWSITIVE All the Time." The programs are described as purely positive, using choices and rewards for the right choices, with owners learning classic and operant conditioning and how to read their dog's body language. Pinch collars, choke chains and e-collars are rejected as punishment.

What Dawn works on

Dawn takes on barking, jumping, potty problems and aggression, which she calls a specialty, using diagnosis and counter-conditioning. She socializes and trains emotional support animals, therapy dogs, diabetes alert dogs, seizure response dogs and mobility assistance dogs under the Texas CHAMP dogs name (Canines Helping And Motivating People), and gives private lessons to owners training their own service dogs. She says she charges less than others in her area and offers free outreach classes in Houston's Third Ward.

What to ask

Ask where lessons take place around Richmond, whether group classes are running, and how service dog training is structured and priced.