Animal Behaviorist & Dog Trainer

Steve Johnson has over 25 years of experience to guide you and your dog into the relationship you want. Understand the why, then deal effectively with the behavior.

Steve says:

"Training your dog or puppy begins when you bring them home. Your eight-week-old pup or your older dog will benefit from my time saving and simple yet effective programs. I am an animal behaviorist, first and foremost, and a trainer secondly.

I use a variety of communication techniques as well as many older and newer types of training scenarios. All my courses are designed around basic genetic impulses inherent in dogs. Along with environmental learning processes and basic problem solving skills, a dog needs to learn when living with people."

A dog's genetic tendencies need to be balanced by the patterns we show them as they learn about their environment. Reward training (clicker training) is a nuisance with its bags of treats and poor results; just as punishing command styles produce submissive dogs who really could care less about you.

Instead, learning to structure your communication in natural genetic terms helps insure that your dog is not confused about what is being asked of it.

In basic programs, Steve explains how to establish a baseline dog speak with each dog to build a foundation to work from. Attending the Saturday seminar lessons helps you gain experience in handling your dog. Through this process, we eliminate old fashion commands in preference of a communication standard which allows direction and control, manners and politeness.

Steve is a Canine Good Citizen evaluator for AKC and will work with those seeking the CGC certificate for any dog, mutt or pedigree.

If you have been looking for a worthwhile cause to volunteer with, look into our Therapy Assistance dog program. The seminar is held every Saturday, from 10 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. The cost to attend is a $10.00 donation to our program.

Reviews

• March 11, 2011

  

  Steve is the best behaviorialist/trainer that I have been around by a large margin. He helped me with a dog that I thought was impossible. Give him a try you will be pleased.

  – Kent

• March 8, 2011

  

  As a former Veterinary Technician, I thought I knew and truly understood the basics of obedience training. Then I met Steve 7 years ago and realized I was clueless to true canine behavior. In the 7 years we have known each other, I have seen him train dogs even ACS's or HS's would assume were a lost cause.
  He has trained my dog, Seth, in both obedience and protection (Bullmastiff). Seth is one of the most obedient and wonderful dogs I have ever known. The one thing I did know about protection/"guard dog training" prior to meeting Steve was that no one seemed to know what they were doing, many times ruining a dog's core personality and creating unpredictable and dangerous animals.
  
  In addition to the many dogs I have seen him work with, he also trained my daughter's wolf hybrid, Kyla. Kyla has all the psychological attributes of a wolf but not all the physical characteristics of a pure wolf (even though she looks very similar to a Timber wolf). She has both Timber and Tundra wolf in her as well as some Akita. So basically the opposite of what you want: An animal I was convinced had crack stashed somewhere in the backyard...LOL
  
  After Steve worked with her (along with my daughter and I), Kyla is actually a well-behaved indoor dog (notice I didn't say "normal"). She is not destructive indoors, can be taken on walks, is completely housebroken and totally understands what is asked of her. Kyla has more energy than my daughter and I combined, but she is good at socialization, is protective yet not dangerous, fun to play with and we love her very much. Did I mention she just turned only two years old? Yep, toddler years for her. :)
  
  Thank you Steve, for helping my daughter and I in actually being able to share our home with a wolf...an animal my daughter has wanted for a long time and I have grown to love and cherish as well.
  
  For everyone who has taken the time to read the reviews on here, they are very accurate in regards to Mr. Johnson's abilities as a behaviorist, trainer and human coach. The relationship and understanding he can teach you and your canine companion to have together is truly priceless.
  

  – Dani

• March 1, 2011

  

  I have always enjoyed wolfdogs. They are highly intelligent, opinionated, and capable of making their own decisions. But the traits that make them so unique also make them harder to train. Even though I have a fair understanding of their behaviors, I have always fallen short when it came to training them.
  
  Their intelligence makes them capable of learning, yet most of us have found that the same training techniques that work on lap dogs do not work well for wolfdogs. There are very few of us that have accomplished more than being able to walk our guys on a leash and/or teach them to sit.
  
  This past year, a friend of mine told me he and his wife were carrying their wolfdogs to a new trainer (Steve) and that this trainer was also a behaviorist. Although I was pleased to hear they were putting in the effort to train their pups, I doubted the training would accomplish much more than the basics.
  
  It wasn’t long before I was hearing how their animals were doing more in a few weeks than most of us were able to accomplish after months and months of work with a regular trainer. The more I heard, the more interested I became. What I was hearing made a lot of sense. They were telling me things such as Steve recognized that different breeds have different behaviors and in order to get the best results, he worked with those differences.
  
  A month or two later, several of us got together with our wolfdogs for a weekend at the lake. Two of the four couples there had been taking their wolfdogs to Steve’s classes. It didn’t take long to realize that my pups, though well socialized, had absolutely no manners compared to theirs. They asked if they could work with my two, and within a very short time they had them sitting, laying, and walking on the leash without pulling my arm out of joint.
  
  I wanted to go to Steve’s classes, but we are too far away to attend on a weekly basis. Steve agreed to meet us and show us how to work with our pups. He spent the first hour explaining their behaviors and how they differ from ours. He talked about the various training tools (collars, leashes, etc.) and the right and wrong way to use them. He evaluated my pups’ personalities and told us what we needed to watch for in each one. He watched us handle the pups and pointed out things we were doing wrong (including a few things I didn’t realize were wrong.) Steve showed us calming signals, and told us easy ways to correct problems. He gave us advice that made sense and was so simple that I felt like an idiot for not thinking of it myself. (Plus – it actually worked.) I learned more from Steve in an afternoon than I have in years from other trainers.

  – Pam

• February 27, 2011

  

  After interviewing several trainers, Koda and I attended a private lesson with Steve. Besides being knowledgeable about dogs and their behaviors, Steve had Koda acting better than he ever had with me just after 10 minutes. By the end of the lesson it was obvious that the issue was mostly me. Me pulling on the leash. Me not giving Koda the right direction. Me letting Koda get away with stuff. Not once did Steve make me feel stupid. He answered all of my questions and I know he had to be tired of telling me the same things over and over.
  
  After a couple of lessons and attending the weekly classes, our class attended a city festival and Koda was amazing! Before Steve's help I would have had my hands full just on the walking part with me being pulled behind him like his personal kite. He also would have jumped on everyone when saying hello. Koda walked on a leash beside me past a live band, with rides making noise and kids screaming and he did not freak out or misbehave. We actually made the front page of the local newspaper and got tons of complements on how well behaved Koda was.
  
  While we still have a long way to go in our journey on making Koda the best dog he can be, Steve will be the only trainer we will use.

  – Emily

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