Dog Training in Exeter, NH

Exeter is a walking town with a rural edge, and a lot of dogs here live on both sides of that line in the same day. Morning on a dirt road past the town line where nothing happens, evening on Water Street where the sidewalk is narrow, the shops are open and everyone else in town had the same idea.

Dogs handle one of those well and the other badly, and which one depends on what they have practiced. That split is the usual starting point for dog training in Exeter, NH.

Best Buddy Dog Training's head trainer, Shawn Hines has been training dogs for more than 30 years and in business since 2010. Shawn gets dogs off-leash obedient without treats, clickers, or e-collars. Obedience that depends on a reward in your hand is not obedience. It is a negotiation many dogs will hold for exactly as long as the chicken lasts.

What Goes Wrong Here, and Why

Swasey Parkway at six o'clock

Everyone in town walks their dog along the river, which means a steady stream of head-on passes on a strip with the Squamscott on one side and parked cars on the other. Owners shorten the leash as another dog approaches. The dog feels the change through the line, decides something is coming, and starts announcing it before the other dog is close. The leash did not create the reaction. It delivered the warning.

The Academy paths and the brick sidewalks

Campus walkways cut straight through town and fill and empty on a schedule: students, bikes, parents on event weekends, everyone moving at once past doors that open onto the path. A dog with no room to maneuver and no instruction about what to do instead will pick something, and what he picks is rarely what you wanted.

Water Street on a Saturday

Shop doors, tables out front in warm weather, someone crouching to greet your dog before you have decided whether that is a good idea. A dog who is fine in open space and difficult in a tight one has never been shown a job to do when he is boxed in.

The rural edge

Five minutes out of the center the houses sit on big lots with woods behind them and no fence anywhere. Deer and turkey cross those yards constantly. A recall that works in a yard and fails in a field was never tested, only assumed, and owners usually find that out once, at dusk, in the worst possible way.

The slide from January to mud season

The walks get shorter, the river path turns to ice and slush, and the dog spends ten weeks doing very little. By late March he is over-aroused and hard to live with, and the reactivity that shows up in April looks like a new problem. It is an old one with a season of stored energy behind it.

Board and Train for a City Dog

For Portsmouth dogs with a real history, this is frequently the honest answer rather than the expensive one. Board and train means four to six weeks living full-time with Shawn, working daily in genuinely busy public places: sidewalks, stores, crowds, traffic, never a kennel run. Shawn picks the dog up at your door and delivers him back himself, so he has already seen your stairs, your entry and your street. Then three reintegration sessions at your home, because a dog who works beautifully for Shawn still has to work for you outside your own building. Aggression, resource guarding, bite history, severe leash reactivity and deep-set fear belong here. Pricing is discussed on the consultation.

In-Home Dog Training in Exeter, NH

Four sessions with the head trainer, in and around your house, and on the streets and roads you use.

The New Hampshire price for the in-home program is $2,250. There is fuller detail on the in-home dog training page. Much of what changes in the first session is not a command at all but what the leash has been telling your dog for the past two years, which is the subject of the leash.

Board and Train

Board and train is four to six weeks with the dog living full-time with Shawn, working daily in real environments: sidewalks, stores, parking lots, busy public space, not a kennel run. Shawn picks the dog up at your door and brings him home himself, so he has seen your house and your street before the dog ever leaves. Three reintegration sessions at your home come afterward, because the dog has to give you the same thing he gives Shawn. This is the program for aggression, resource guarding, bite history, severe leash reactivity, chronic anxiety, and dogs several other approaches have already failed. Pricing is discussed on the phone consultation.

Towns and Neighborhoods We Cover

Downtown Exeter and the streets off Front and Water, the neighborhoods around the Academy, and the roads out toward the Exeter River and the town's rural edges. We also work Stratham, Newfields, Brentwood, Kensington, East Kingston, Hampton Falls and Epping. Just outside that list, call anyway and we will tell you honestly whether the route works.

Questions From Exeter

The First Step

Call for a free phone consultation. Shawn answers it himself, there is no script, and you will get a straight opinion about whether dog training in Exeter, NH should begin with the in-home program or with board and train. Phone hours are Monday through Friday 8am to 6pm and Saturday 9am to 5pm, or write through the contact page. No facility, no drive on your end; we come to the house. The New Hampshire page covers the rest of the state.

Who you are to your dog is EVERYTHING

Shawn Hines
Dog Trainer, Best Buddy Dog Training