Dog Training in Exeter, NH

If your dog is good on the brick of Water Street and a mess at the edge of the field, or the other way around, pulls you along Swasey Parkway past every other leash, barks at the door, or has a recall that ends where the lawn does, you have an Exeter dog. The town has a downtown and a countryside, and most dogs are good in one and bad in the other.

A dog who is good in one half of town and bad in the other has learned a place, not a person. Exeter asks the same dog to sit beside your chair at an outdoor table and to come in off the tree line, and the only thing that works in both is a dog who defers to you wherever he is. Shawn Hines has spent more than thirty years training dogs and more than fifteen running Best Buddy Dog Training, and he teaches Exeter owners how to be that person on the bricks and in the field.

Dog Training Problems We See in Exeter

The outdoor table

Water Street and the Parkway put a dog within a leash length of strangers and their plates. A dog who respects the person on the leash sits beside your chair while the food comes and goes, and keeps his distance from strangers until you say otherwise.

The tree line

A dog who comes in from the field when he is ready has a habit. The recall that holds when the deer moves was built on a long line, around distractions, first.

The kids coming home

A dog who bolts through the front door when the kids come home from school is deciding who comes and goes. He waits at the door once the house is yours.

The Dogs in the Pictures

No stock photos, no posed dogs. They are doing what trained dogs do, for a person they respect, with no food on offer and nothing on their collars doing the work. If you would rather see the results than read about them, the videos and the success stories are the place.

In-Home Dog Training in Exeter, NH

Dog training in Exeter is four private in-home sessions with Shawn at your house and on the streets or fields you actually use, downtown for one dog and the back forty for another, in which Shawn teaches you to train your own dog, so that the results belong to your household. Shawn stays available by phone and video for the dog's lifetime, at no additional charge; the fee covers up to five dogs in the home, and that is the whole cost; additional sessions are included when the plan has been followed. Shawn draws up the plan for your dog and your household in particular. The program costs $2,250 in New Hampshire.

Board-and-Train

Some dogs need more than visits can give them. In board-and-train, your dog joins Shawn's pack for four to six weeks and is trained daily in the real world, not a kennel. The program is for the dog who has bitten, guards, cannot pass another dog, or lives in a state of anxiety nothing has touched. Shawn collects the dog and returns him himself, so he sees the household on both ends, and follows with three reintegration sessions at your home, then lifetime support. It runs $2,500 to $5,000 depending on the dog, agreed on the phone before anything is booked.

Exeter Owners Ask

He is perfect in the field and terrible downtown.
Downtown has more to lead him away from you. The dog has not changed; the test has.

Do you use an e-collar?
Generally, no. Sometimes clients want e-collar training as a backup plan. We will accommodate that if you wish. We will never use e-collars without a direct request to do so.

How long until we see a difference?
That depends on how consistent the household is between sessions, not on the breed.

Call Shawn

Call Shawn at (401) 536-7982. Shawn answers his own phone; the consultation is free, and there is no script. Describe the dog, and you will get a plain answer about approach and price. Monday through Friday from 8 to 6, Saturday from 9 to 5; messages are returned.

Who you are to your dog is EVERYTHING

Shawn Hines
Dog Trainer, Best Buddy Dog Training