Dog Training in Newport, RI

Newport asks more of a dog than almost any town in Rhode Island. The streets are narrow, the sidewalks are old brick, the summer brings a crowd that does not look where it is walking, and the quiet neighborhoods behind Bellevue are one wrong turn from Thames Street at nine on a Saturday night. Dog training in Newport is largely the work of taking a dog who is fine on Ocean Drive in November and making him fine everywhere else.

The owner who can eat on a Broadway patio with the dog asleep under the table, or walk the Cliff Walk past a dozen other dogs without a sound from his own, has not found a better leash. He has a dog who defers to him, and a dog defers to a person he trusts and respects, not to a person with a pocket of chicken. Shawn Hines has built that relationship for families across Rhode Island for more than fifteen years, and for more than fifteen years before Best Buddy Dog Training had a name.

What Newport Does to a Dog

Thames Street, Broadway and a dog who has never been crowded

Downtown in season is tourists, strollers, outdoor tables, dogs on retractable leads and a car backing out of a space you did not see. The dog who leans into the leash on a quiet street in the Point tows you through all of it, and a harness only gives him a better place to put his shoulders. The crowd is not the cause. It is the test. A dog who has decided his owner leads the walk passes the same test on a slack leash, or on no leash, or walking a few feet behind if that is what he is told.

The Cliff Walk and Ocean Drive

Both are beautiful and both are a problem. The Cliff Walk is narrow, has a drop on one side and traffic coming the other way, and is no place to discover that your dog lunges at other dogs. He is not required to make friends with the dog coming toward him, and he is not required to pretend it does not exist. He is required to leave it alone and stay with you. Ocean Drive and Brenton Point are open enough that owners let the leash go, and a recall that has only ever worked in a Fifth Ward backyard meets kites, surf and open field. The dog who comes back the first time, with all of that in front of him, has learned something real.

The historic house that opens onto the sidewalk

Old Newport houses have no yard between the dog and the street and no buffer between a guest and a dog who greets by jumping. Jumping on a guest is not affection, whatever it looks like; it is disrespect, and on a step that drops straight onto a sidewalk it is dangerous. A trained dog backs off the door and stays off it until he is told otherwise, or goes to the spot you point to and stays there, whoever is on the step.

The second home and the dog who lives under two sets of rules

Many Newport dogs split the year between here and somewhere else, with a house manager or a sitter in between. A dog sorts the people who handle him by who means it, and the one he obeys least is usually the one asking most. He is not confused by two houses. He has simply learned that the rules are negotiable, and a dog with negotiable rules negotiates. The plan we build travels with him, and so does the lifetime follow-up.

See It Before You Call

Every photograph on this site is of a dog Shawn trained or is training now, and so is every video. No stock images, nobody holding a dog still for the camera, no food out of frame. The dogs are doing what trained dogs do: ignoring strangers, holding a stay beside other dogs and other animals, working off leash without a remote collar. The videos show it; the success stories are what owners say about living with it.

In-Home Dog Training in Newport

Four private sessions with Shawn, at the house and on the brick, with a written plan for your dog and your household, lifetime follow-up wherever the family spends the winter, one price for up to five dogs, and no extras. The Rhode Island program is $2,000; see the in-home page for how it runs and philosophy and benchmarks for what we expect of a trained dog.

Board and Train

For the dog who needs a reset, board and train means four to six weeks living alongside Shawn's own dogs, in real streets and real stores, delivered home by Shawn with three visits to hand over the leadership and lifetime support afterwards; the dates can follow your calendar. It is for aggression, guarding, severe reactivity and the dog other trainers gave up on. Priced for the dog in front of us, between $2,500 and $5,000, and settled by phone before anything is booked.

Newport Puppies

A Newport puppy in a house with no yard needs a housebreaking schedule first and a door rule second, and both go in easily between eight weeks and six months, along with the crate and a name he answers to. That is also when a puppy nobody says no to learns to decide for himself. Start now; call.

Newport Owners Ask

We have no yard. Does that matter?
It changes the housebreaking schedule. It does not change the result.

He is fine on Ocean Drive and a wreck on Thames Street.
Same dog. Ocean Drive asks nothing of him. Thames Street asks, and that is the test, and his behavior is the grade.

We are only here part of the year.
Four sessions fit inside a few weeks, and lifetime follow-up is how the plan goes with you.

Start with a Phone Call

Call (401) 536-7982 for a free consultation with Shawn about dog training in Newport. It is a conversation, not a pitch, and you will come away knowing whether we can help. You can reach Shawn Monday to Friday 8am–6pm and Saturday 9am–5pm. Messages left outside those hours are returned the same day where possible.

Who you are to your dog is EVERYTHING

Shawn Hines
Dog Trainer, Best Buddy Dog Training