Dog Training in East Greenwich, RI

East Greenwich dogs live well. Big lots off Middle Road and Division Road, a Main Street with patios that welcome them, Goddard Park at the end of Ives Road, and families who want the dog along for all of it. What goes wrong is rarely dramatic. It is a dog who has never been asked for much at home and therefore has no idea what is being asked of him when the world gets busy, and who has quietly concluded that the decisions are his.

There is no harness that fixes that, and no cookie. A dog who follows you through Hill and Harbour on a Friday night, or comes back across the field at Goddard the first time you call, is a dog who trusts you, and trust is built in the home before it shows up anywhere else. That is the whole of what Best Buddy Dog Training does, in East Greenwich and across Rhode Island: Shawn Hines, dog trainer, has more than 30 years with unruly pet dogs.

Where East Greenwich Dogs Come Undone

Main Street on a Friday night

Hill and Harbour is restaurants, patios, dogs under tables and people stepping out of doorways at odd angles. A dog who is fine on a quiet road in Frenchtown is suddenly surrounded, and the owner discovers that “good on leash” meant “good on leash with nothing going on.” The dog lying quietly under a patio table while the street goes by is not performing. He is more interested in the person at the other end of the leash than in the next thing coming down the sidewalk, and that preference was settled at home long before dinner.

Goddard Park and the recall that only works in the yard

Most of East Greenwich treats Goddard as a backyard: carriage roads, the beach in the off-season, and a field that gives a dog more room than a fenced acre ever will. It is exactly where owners find out what they have. A dog who trots over when nothing better is on offer has not learned to come; he has learned to fill a dull moment with you. The one who turns away from three dogs and a flock of geese because you called him, and arrives calm, has learned something worth having.

The long driveway and the dog who guards it

Where the lots get large, the fencing tends to get invisible, and the dog at the end of the driveway has drawn his own conclusions. Every delivery van turns around and leaves; every dog walked past keeps going; as far as he can tell, charging the line works. The wire has nothing to say about any of that. It keeps him on the lot and tells him nothing about what you expect of him there. The dog who stands quietly while the van backs out is not held by a fence. He is answering to a person.

Two working parents, a dog walker, and four sets of rules

Common in East Greenwich, and not a character flaw. A dog sorts the people in his life by who means what they say, and the one who gets the least obedience is usually the one asking for the most. The walker at two in the afternoon gets one dog, you get another, and the children get a third. None of that is confusion. It is a dog who has worked out that the rules depend on who is holding the leash, and the remedy is rules that do not.

The Dogs in the Pictures

Nobody on this site is a model. The dogs in these photographs, and in every video, are Shawn's clients, past and present, and what you are looking at is the result: a dog at ease among strangers, a dog holding still while other dogs and other animals go by, a dog loose in a field with a bare collar and no food in sight. The videos are the quickest way to judge for yourself; the success stories are how neighbors describe it afterwards.

In-Home Dog Training in East Greenwich

The in-home program is four private sessions with Shawn in and around your house, the places the dog has to behave, with a written plan for your household, lifetime follow-up included, one price for up to five dogs, and no hidden fees. In Rhode Island it is $2,000; the in-home page has the detail, and the philosophy and benchmarks page has what we believe.

Board and Train

When visits are not enough, board and train is four to six weeks living and working with Shawn and his pack, returned by Shawn himself with three reintegration visits at your home and lifetime support after. Serious cases only, aggression and guarding among them; $2,500 to $5,000 by the dog, settled on the phone.

East Greenwich Puppies

An East Greenwich puppy with a big yard, a full social calendar and nobody saying no decides he runs the place. Between eight weeks and six months that is easy to prevent and easy to miss; housebreaking, the crate, his name and the front door all go in then. Call now and start then.

Questions We Get from East Greenwich

We work long hours. Can the dog walker be part of this?
Yes, and should be. Whoever handles the dog on weekdays gets the same plan, because the dog will test whoever he thinks is unsure.

He is perfect at home and a mess on Main Street.
Nothing is asked of him at home. Main Street asks, and what he does then is his honest opinion of you.

We did a puppy class and nothing stuck.
Then the dog learned that room and that pocket. He did not learn you, and you are the part that goes everywhere with him.

Talk to Shawn

The first step is a free phone consultation: call (401) 536-7982 and tell Shawn what your dog is doing. There is nothing to sign and nothing is pitched; you will get an honest opinion about whether we can help and which program fits. He answers from 8 to 6 on weekdays and 9 to 5 on Saturday, and calls back anyone who leaves a message.

Who you are to your dog is EVERYTHING

Shawn Hines
Dog Trainer, Best Buddy Dog Training