I get a lot of confusion on how my dog training is set up. I don’t have group classes (at this time), you don’t get a certificate of completion when your dog is done training with me, there is no structured repeated sessions unless you want them. What I do is customize your training session so that you get the most success out of it. I do not stick to one type of training method, I use many methods and many training tools to help support the owners training goals, their dog’s individual personality as well as the personal morals of the owner. If you don’t want to use a training collar we will find another way. If you don’t like using treats we will work on phasing them out and relying on other forms of praise. I’m here to help you and support you during your training journey with your dog.

My name is Shara and I run Fort St. James Dog Training. I got my certification for Advanced Obedience & Kennel Management and Master Dog Trainer in 2007, and my certificate for Behavior Evaluator in 2008. I stopped training for a long time and focused on starting my family and my artwork until 2023 when I jumped back into dog training. I was certified for Canine CPR and Emergency First Aid in the summer of 2023.

There are several steps to getting a training session set up with me, and I will walk you through the process below.

Step One: First Contact

It is up to you, the owner, to contact me. There are many ways people do this, but my preferred method of contact is via email (slsartistryinfo@gmail.com) or Facebook Messenger on my Fort St. James Dog Training page.

When you first contact me, there really isn’t a lot of need to go into too much detail about your dog and any problem behaviors you’re experiencing. We will cover all of that very soon. All I need to know is that you’re interested, you’d like to get some training on your dog, and whether you live in Fort St. James or one of the surrounding towns and communities.

I will give you the same speech I give everyone who contacts me, I want to be upfront and transparent about my style of training, the cost, and what my training sessions feature. For the sake of this post, I will get into more detail on these features below.

Step Two: Consultation

Before your session can be booked you will first need to do a consultation. The consultation helps me understand what your goals are for your dog, your morals around different training methods, and information about your dog so that I know what kind of training methods they may respond to best and where any problem behaviors may be stemming from. All of the information I gather during the consultation helps me to put together a training session for you that is custom-designed to meet your needs.

There are two ways to complete the consultation.

The Online Consultation is $20 CAD and most convenient for you and myself because you can fill it out whenever and I will take the time to go over it when it’s best for me (I usually go over it within 24 hours of you submitting your online consultation).

The Over-the-Phone Consultation is $40 CAD and because we get to talk over the phone there is more back-and-forth, allowing follow up and extra questions that I may come up with as we go over the consultation questions. You also get a chance to ask me any questions you may have and I am able to get a little more in-depth information to best create your training session. The over-the-phone consultation sometimes takes longer to take place due to scheduling conflicts.

The same questionnaire is used for both consultations, but the over-the-phone consultation allows for back-and-forth conversation.

Step Three: Book The Training Session

The training session can be booked at any time, but if you do not pay for and complete the consultation by 2 days before your scheduled session, then it will be canceled.

Your training session can be booked through my Online Booking Calendar or by Facebook Messenger, e-mail or over the phone with me.

My current available times are Tuesdays and Thursday 11AM or 1PM. If these times don’t work for you I can make arrangements to book on the weekend or a different day, but it may take me time to arrange childcare (whereas I already have it lined up for Tues and Thurs).

Step Four: Your Training Session

The type of training session you receive will be decided by me after reviewing your consultation. Most owners have an idea of what type of session they will need before I tell them, though. Each training session is 1-hour long. This is a very long time to train a dog for (you usually want to spend 5-10 minutes on it at a time) but we spend a lot of time discussing a lot of things and we will spend 1/4 to 1/2 the session actually working hands-on with your dog.

Puppy Training Session is for puppies between 10 weeks and 11 months. It covers all the common puppy topics such as crate training, house training, nipping/chewing, jumping, barking, and introduction to training. We usually cover recall because it’s the most important to start building towards right away. A puppy training session is $40 CAD.

Obedience Training Session covers the 5 basic commands and is for any puppy that has already completed my puppy training session and is ready to move on to more advanced lessons, or any adult do that needs a refresher or is just learning basic obedience commands. The five basic commands are sit, down, stay, heel and recall (come). We will try to cover all five in the one hour, but this is entirely dependent on the dog. Some dogs may already have a good understanding of most of the commands, some may be learning all from scratch, some may need to just start over due to bad habits already developed. Depending on the methods used in training, we may discuss ways to safely use training collars and how to eventually phase treats out of training. The obedience training session is $50 CAD.

Problem Behaviors Session is for any behaviors that are causing problems, undesired, or concerning. This may be something like jumping, digging, barking or dog reactivity, separation anxiety etc. A problem behaviors session is $60 CAD. Puppies tend to display problem behaviors because they’re simply untrained and don’t know any better. It is a lot easier to teach a puppy what not to do vs trying to train that undesired behavior out of a dog who has already been doing it a long time and developed bad habits. Puppies with problem behaviors will not fall under this session and will receive a puppy session.

A Note on Articles

I write a lot of articles to go with many common topics. I will give you either a paper copy or PDF digital copy of these articles based on your consultation and your training session. It will be on topics that relate to what we discuss and what you and your dog are learning.

Most of these articles are still heavily in the editing phase, so I ask all my clients to ignore basic typos and grammar errors, but to let me know if the wording doesn’t make sense or something isn’t explained very clearly.

Step Five: Follow Up

I am here to help you with your dog. I want to know if you run into any problems or the advice I give you doesn’t work. I also want to know if it does! I have no way of knowing if you’re successful in reaching your training goals with my aid unless you keep in touch and tell me. I always love hearing updates from my clients.

If something isn’t helpful or your struggling with it then I want to know so that I can further help you. Once you are signed up for dog training with me I am committed to helping you for the rest of your dogs life! You can contact me any time with any problem or success. If I feel like you have a lot of problems or particular things to work on, or that it might be more helpful for me to be able to demonstrate with your dog in-person then I might suggest another training session.

If you need additional sessions, the type of session will be decided on after a brief conversation with you during booking. A consultation is not required for additional sessions that are within 6 months of each other. If it’s been 6 months or longer you will need to purchase a consultation again.