Providence asks more of a dog than any other place in the state. The East Side has sidewalks where everyone else's dog passes at arm's length. Federal Hill has outdoor tables at dog height. The West End and Elmhurst have three-deckers with a dog on every floor and a shared stairwell between them. Downtown has lobbies, elevators and, on WaterFire nights, a crowd that fills Waterplace Park shoulder to shoulder. A dog here is never alone with you, and dog training in Providence has to produce a dog who behaves anyway.
Most city dogs are managed, not trained: walked at odd hours to avoid other dogs, kept short past the tables, shut in the bedroom when someone comes up the stairs. That is a life organized around the dog's opinions. Best Buddy Dog Training is relationship-based dog training in Rhode Island: your dog comes to trust and respect you, and because of that he does what you ask in the stairwell, on Atwells Avenue and off leash at India Point. Shawn Hines, dog trainer, thirty years with dogs, builds that one apartment at a time.
Providence Dogs, Street by Street
Blackstone Boulevard and the dog who sets the pace
The path down the middle of Blackstone Boulevard carries runners, strollers and a great many well-bred dogs, and it is where East Side owners discover that their dog has been walking them. He is out front, the leash is tight, and every runner gets a lunge the owner explains away as excitement. It is not excitement. Pulling is an imbalance in the relationship between handler and dog, and the leash is there for guidance, not restraint. A trained dog walks the Boulevard beside you with the leash hanging, or with no leash, and falls back three to six feet behind you on command.
Thayer Street, Brown, RISD and the dog everybody knows
A dog on College Hill belongs, in practice, to the whole street. Students on Thayer stop to pet him, the coffee shop knows his name, and he has learned that every human exists to greet him. So he pulls to all of them, jumps on the ones who stop, and ignores the one person whose opinion should matter. Jumping on strangers is not “friendly.” It is disrespect, and on a crowded sidewalk it is dangerous. The dog we build leaves people alone unless you say otherwise, holds a down outside the shop until released, and treats Thayer Street the way the lead dog treats the pack: calmly, from a position nobody questions.
Atwells Avenue, the tables and the dog underneath
Federal Hill in warm weather is tables on the sidewalk, plates at a dog's eye level, and a stream of feet six inches from his nose. The dog who cannot lie still under the table gets left home, and then the owner stops going out. That is backwards. A dog who will go to whatever spot you pick and stay there until released can lie under a table on Atwells for two hours while the plates come and go, because staying where told is one of the three things every obedient dog should know. He does not need a chew. He needs to know that the decision about when he gets up is yours.
The three-decker, the stairwell and the downtown lobby
In the West End, Elmhurst and Fox Point a dog lives with other people's dogs on the other side of the floor, and meets them on the back stairs, in the hallway and on the porch. Downtown it is the lobby, the elevator and the dog from the fourth floor. Barking through the wall, charging the stairs and coming apart when the door opens are all one thing: a dog who has appointed himself in charge of the building. A dog who respects you waits on the landing while the neighbor's dog passes, and Roger Williams Park and the Woonasquatucket greenway become places you can let him off the leash, because he comes the first time.
Proof, in Pictures
The photographs and videos on this site are not stock and they are not borrowed. Every dog in them is a dog Shawn has trained or is training right now, loose with other dogs, still while strangers and animals walk past, on a slack leash or none, without a treat on offer or a remote collar on the neck. The videos show it; the success stories are owners around Rhode Island telling you what it was like to get there.
… would definitely recommend his services to people who are serious and committed to training their dogs.
Training Jenny with Shawn was definitely worth it - I highly recommend Shawn and his approach.
In-Home Training in the City
In Providence the home is a condo, a third-floor flat, a loft downtown or a house on the East Side, and the in-home program works in all of them. Shawn comes four times, to the apartment, the stairwell, the sidewalk and the park, and leaves you with a customized obedience and behavior plan for your dog and your household. The price in Rhode Island is $2,000, covering up to five dogs in the home, with lifetime follow-up at no additional charge and no hidden fees.
What we hold a trained dog to is written down under philosophy and benchmarks.
Board and Train, Out of the City and Back
Some Providence dogs need to leave the apartment to be fixed. Board and train is four to six weeks living with Shawn and his pack, trained every day in parks, shops and on sidewalks around strangers and other dogs, so the dog comes back to the city already proven in public. Shawn picks the dog up at your door and brings him back himself, then returns three times to work with you at home so the obedience belongs to you, with lifetime follow-up after that. For aggression, resource guarding, severe reactivity, chronic anxiety and the dog nobody else could reach; $2,500 to $5,000 depending on the dog, agreed on the phone.
City Puppies
A Providence puppy meets more people and dogs in his first month than a country dog meets in a year, and from eight weeks to six months he decides what all of that means. Left to himself he decides that everyone is his to greet and the stairwell is his to announce. Taught properly he learns housebreaking that works in a third-floor flat, a crate he is content in, and a door he does not rush. The right time to start is right away. It starts with a phone call.
Questions from Providence
We live in a loft downtown. Does in-home training work without a yard?
Yes. A yard is where a dog goes to be ignored. The sidewalk, the lobby and the elevator are where he learns to listen.
He has been everywhere on Thayer. He is “well socialized” and still awful.
He is well acquainted. Socialized would mean he leaves people alone unless invited.
He reacts to every dog on Blackstone Boulevard. We walk at six in the morning now.
You have reorganized your life around his opinion. He does not have to like other dogs. He has to leave them alone and keep walking with you.
Call and Tell Shawn About the Dog
A free phone consultation is where it begins: (401) 536-7982. Tell Shawn where the dog lives and what he does in the stairwell and on the sidewalk, and you will get a plain answer about what we would do and the cost. Monday to Friday 8am to 6pm, Saturday 9am to 5pm; at other times, leave a message and Shawn will return it.
Who you are to your dog is EVERYTHING
Shawn Hines
Dog Trainer, Best Buddy Dog Training
No charge, no obligation. We talk before anything else happens.
Best Buddy Dog Training serves these cities and surrounding communities in Rhode Island
Barrington • Bristol • Coventry • Cranston • Cumberland • East Greenwich • Middletown • Narragansett • Newport • Pawtucket • Providence • Smithfield • South Kingstown • Warwick • Westerly • Woonsocket