New Canaan dogs have a lot of land and very little practice. Two acres behind the house, stone walls, an invisible fence along the road, and a dog who can go a full week without ever needing to check in with a person. Then the family walks him down Elm Street on a Saturday morning, or takes him to Waveny where half the town's dogs are, and the wheels come off in about ninety seconds.
Best Buddy Dog Training is one man, Shawn Hines, fifteen-plus years at this, training in your house and on your road. There is no facility and no class. Nothing is lured with food, nothing is marked with a clicker, and no e-collar or prong collar goes on your dog at any point. As Shawn puts it, who you are to your dog is everything - and that is not a slogan, it is the actual mechanism. A dog who takes you seriously in the kitchen takes you seriously at the edge of the field.
What Goes Wrong Here
- An acre or four teaches a dog independence, not obedience. He patrols, he chases what crosses the wall, he comes in when he feels like it because nothing has ever depended on him coming in. Off-leash freedom is not something you give a dog. It rests on a recall that has never been optional, and most New Canaan dogs have never been asked for one.
- Deer move through the properties off Oenoke Ridge, Smith Ridge and Ponus Ridge all year, and coyotes work the same ground at dusk. A dog who has spent two years launching at deer through a wire boundary has built a very strong habit that the wire happens to interrupt. Take him somewhere without the wire and the habit is what remains.
- Elm and Main are tight, the shopfronts open onto the pavement, and there are dogs tied outside half of them. Owners call this their dog "getting excited." What is happening is that your dog has decided he is the one handling the encounter, and he has been right about that for months.
- Contractors, deliveries, a housekeeper, guests at the door. A dog who barks and blocks the entry is not protecting anyone. He is running his own territory because nobody else claimed the job, and he takes it seriously enough to escalate if pushed.
Where We Work
Downtown and the village, Talmadge Hill, Silvermine, Oenoke Ridge, Smith Ridge, Weed Street, West Road, Ponus Ridge and the roads out toward Wilton and Pound Ridge. We cover neighboring Fairfield County towns on the same trips, so if you are on the Darien or Norwalk side of the line, call anyway.
Board and Train for the Harder Cases
Four to six weeks, full time. Your dog lives with Shawn and trains every day in ordinary public places - sidewalks, stores, parking lots, parks - not a kennel run with two sessions bolted on. Shawn collects the dog himself and delivers him back, then runs three reintegration sessions at your house, which is where the behavior has to stick. Best fit for aggression, resource guarding, severe leash reactivity, chronic anxiety, bite history, or a dog nothing else has touched. The price is discussed on the call rather than posted. Details on the board and train page.
In-Home Dog Training in New Canaan, CT
Four visits with the head trainer, run at your address and on your block. Not a curriculum; a plan designed specifically for your dog.
- Four personalized in-home sessions with thte head trainer
- A customized obedience and behavior modification plan for your dog
- Lifetime follow-up support by phone and video, no additional charge
- One flat price covering up to five dogs in the same household
- No hidden fees. If you have followed the plan and need more sessions, they are included
The Connecticut in-home price is $2,250. See in-home dog training for how the lessons are structured.
Puppies
The best time for this is before the eight-month-old starts making his own decisions about deer. A New Canaan puppy should settle on a place while the house is busy, pass another dog outside a shop without comment, and come when called on a property with no fence line in sight. Housebreaking, crate work and biting are the easy part. The relationship is the part worth building early, because it is what still works at three years old.
Questions from New Canaan Owners
- Some dogs get there. It depends on the dog, the work you put in, and how honest we are about pressure like deer and road frontage. We will not promise it on a phone call before meeting him.
- No. Keep it for what it does. Just stop expecting it to produce a dog who listens - the boundary contains him, it does not teach him anything about you.
- That is the usual arc. Food buys attention while the food is more interesting than the alternative. On a property with deer, it stops being more interesting.
- Yes. One flat price covers up to five dogs in the same household, and multi-dog houses often move fastest, because the rules land on everyone at once.
- Most of it. Shawn shows you exactly what to do and stays reachable for life by phone and video, but the dog lives with you. For the honest version of what that involves, read philosophy and benchmarks or meet Shawn.
Make the Call
Free phone consultation at **(401) 536-7982**. Tell Shawn what your dog is doing and where, and he will name the right route plainly: four in-home sessions or a residential stay. Dog training in New Canaan, CT happens at your house and on the roads you walk every day - no facility, no drop-off, no group class. Open hours run Monday to Friday 8am to 6pm and Saturday 9am to 5pm. You can call anytime, day or night. If there's no answer, leave a message or send a text message.
No charge, no obligation. We talk before anything else happens.
Already spoke with Shawn? Enroll here.
Best Buddy Dog Training serves these cities and surrounding communities
Rhode Island: Barrington • Bristol • Coventry • Cumberland • East Greenwich • Middletown • Narragansett • Newport • Pawtucket • Providence • Smithfield • South Kingstown • Warwick • Westerly • Woonsocket
Connecticut: Bridgeport • Danbury • Greenwich • Groton • Hartford • Litchfield • Middletown • Mystic • New Canaan • New Haven • New London • Norwalk • Norwich • Stamford • Torrington • Waterbury • Westport • Windsor
Massachusetts: Attleboro • Beverly • Boston • Burlington • Cambridge • Framingham • Gardner • Groton • Hingham • Natick • New Bedford • Newton • North Andover • Quincy • Salem • Shrewsbury • Somerville • Tewksbury • Worcester • Wrentham
New Hampshire: Bedford • Concord • Derry • Dover • Durham • Exeter • Hampton • Hanover • Keene • Laconia • Lebanon • Londonderry • Manchester • Nashua • Portsmouth • Rochester • Salem • Wolfeboro
New York: Beacon • Bronxville • Brooklyn • Chappaqua • Cold Spring • Kingston • Mount Kisco • New • New • Newburgh • Nyack • Poughkeepsie • Queens • Rye • Scarsdale • White • Yonkers •
