Dog Training in Portsmouth, NH

If your dog is fine on the brick sidewalks in February and comes apart in July when the tables are out on Bow Street, and there is nowhere to step aside, barks at the shared entry all day, or has a recall at the water's edge that has never been tested, you have a Portsmouth dog. A small, dense town gives a dog a great deal to react to and no room to do it in.

A dog who is fine with six feet of room and comes apart at two is not reacting to dogs or to people. He is reacting to having no exit, and nobody has shown him that you handle it. That is the whole of what has to change, and it changes on the bricks, not in a training hall. Shawn Hines has spent more than thirty years training dogs and more than fifteen running Best Buddy Dog Training, and he teaches Portsmouth owners how to be the one who handles it.

Dog Training Problems We See in Portsmouth

Downtown in season

On a summer evening, the walk from Congress Street to the water is a chain of forced close passes. The dog you want drops in behind you when the sidewalk pinches, passes the tied dog at a walk, and lets the stranger's hand go by, because you are handling it and he knows that.

The shared entry

Most in-town housing is an apartment in an old house or a condo with a common lobby, and the dog who barks at the hallway is not protecting you. He has taken a job nobody assigned him. When the job is yours, he hears the neighbor on the stairs and looks at you.

Prescott Park

Concerts on the lawn, blankets with sandwiches at a dog's height. The dog you want lies down beside your blanket with the band playing and a child eating a hot dog ten feet away, and stays down until you release him.

The water

A recall that fails once beside a working river with a current is not a setback. It is built on a leash under distraction, and the dog who has it stops at the first call with a gull lifting off in front of him.

The Dogs in the Pictures

Every photograph and video on this site shows a dog Shawn trained. They were trained by Shawn or are in training with him, and none of them is working for a treat or wearing an e-collar. The videos and the success stories are there if you want to see the results before you call.

In-Home Dog Training in Portsmouth, NH

What Shawn offers in Portsmouth is four private in-home sessions at your apartment or condo, in the shared entry and on the walk from your door to Market Square, and their purpose is to teach you to train your own dog rather than to hand you a dog Shawn has trained. The plan reflects your dog and your household, not a standard course. Follow-up is for life, by phone and video, and costs nothing more; one price covers up to five dogs under the same roof, and nothing is billed afterward. Additional sessions are included if you have followed the plan. The price for New Hampshire is $2,250.

Board and Train

Some dogs need weeks, not visits. Board and train means the dog lives with Shawn for four to six weeks and trains every day among people, dogs, and traffic. Pickup and delivery are handled by Shawn, not a driver; then he comes to your home three times for reintegration sessions and supports you for the life of the dog. It is meant for aggression, resource guarding, severe leash reactivity, chronic anxiety, and the dog two trainers have given up on. Depending on what the dog needs, it costs $2,500 to $5,000, set at the consultation call.

Portsmouth Owners Ask

Our condo association is strict about the common areas.
Tell Shawn the rules on the phone and the plan works inside them. A dog who is right in the lobby is right everywhere else.

He pulls the whole way down to the water and my shoulder is done.
Pulling is a leadership question, not a strength question, and it is one of the faster things to turn around.

He lunged at a dog outside a restaurant. Is that aggression?
Maybe, maybe not. Tell the whole story on the phone, and you will get a straight opinion.

Call Shawn

The first step is (401) 536-7982. No charge, no script, and it is Shawn on the line. Say what your dog is doing, and he will tell you what he would do and what it would cost. He is on the phone Monday to Friday from 8 to 6 and Saturday from 9 to 5, and he returns messages.

Who you are to your dog is EVERYTHING

Shawn Hines
Dog Trainer, Best Buddy Dog Training