About MindfulPups

MindfulPups works from 136 Union St in Carroll Gardens and describes itself as a community dedicated to education and training so that humans and pups can live in harmony, with a stated tagline of a mindful approach to urban pup life.

The premise

The site opens with an argument rather than a service list: whether you know it or not, you are training your pup, because everything you do is a learning opportunity. It then names the failure mode – owners inadvertently training their dogs into unwanted behaviors, and, more likely still, dogs training their owners. What stands between an owner and harmony, on this reading, is knowledge, practice and a supportive community.

The approach

Each dog is treated as the product of its own genetics and environment, so the approach is tailored to the individual pup and family with the whole picture considered. The stated tools are dog psychology and owner education – teaching owners how to support and communicate with their dogs. There is a self-aware line about what the job requires of the trainer too: to be good at it you have to slow down, breathe, listen, observe, release ego, be patient and engage compassion.

What is offered

Training classes, walks and a boarding school, available across Brooklyn, Manhattan and Queens. New clients start with a phone consultation.

What clients describe

The reviews are specific and local. A Brooklyn owner describes puppy socialization and training that made both dog and owner comfortable, confident and calm about the city. Another describes Dina helping a dog overcome a fear of water within three weeks and go on to enjoy summer swimming. A third describes two weeks at the boarding school, after which the dog had, in her words, earned his puppy diploma.