Hand Us the Leash
Are you busy and results-oriented? Love your dog, but don’t have time to train between work, family, and other commitments? Or do you just want to put your dog’s education in the hands of a professional? We can do it!
Instead of sending your dog off to a boarding facility, you can give your dog the opportunity to learn his manners in your own home and neighborhood.
We offer both owner-present and owner-absent latchkey training. Thinking of the latter? We have strict security policies, professional, background-checked employees, and detailed follow-up reports so you know exactly what we did each day. And best of all, you’ll love the results!
It’s the closest thing to a dog training magic wand that there is. But, as a reminder, your dog is a living being and will require ongoing reinforcement and proper handling in order to maintain his trained behaviors. In order to address the human side of the equation, we will coach you and your dog as a team once a week in a transfer session.
We currently have openings to begin latchkey training within 3-4 weeks. If your schedule is particular, we recommend emailing or call before registering to confirm a potential start date.
How Does it Work?
Training Options
We’ll customize a training program to fit your needs; we don’t do a one size fits all curriculum for a white-glove service. However, there are four main tracks that owners tend to follow. You decide which fits your needs best!
Please note that aggression to strangers and fear of strangers are not a good fit with latchkey training. If your dog suffers from these issues, you will need to choose behavior consulting instead.
Manners is our top program choice for bouncy adolescent dogs who are careening through life. If you’ve ever met a 9 month old Labrador, you know we’re talking about!
- We will work with your dog on basic obedience and strengthen his responses to cues like sit, down, stay, come when called, and leave it.
- We will teach leash walking and get your dog manageable for neighborhood walks.
- We will cover people manners and get the bouncing, mouthing, and jumping under control.
- We can focus on problem solving behavior issues as long as we can re-create the problem context. For example, barking for attention is a green light, but that one time he peed on your aunt’s couch isn’t something we can fix with obedience practice.
If you’re dealing with a specific problem and you aren’t sure if we can work with it via latchkey, just ask!
Another common request is for us to take care of the painstaking technical training procedures required to work dogs through handling issues like fighting nail trims or panicking over muzzling at the vet.
Routine care procedures can be mutually enjoyable instead of a struggle! We use positive reinforcement training and build pleasant associations with care procedures via systematic training plans.
We can help your dog learn to willingly accept the following and similar items:
- nail trimming
- brushing & dematting
- trimming, clipping & blow-drying
- toothbrushing
- taking pills
- accepting ear and eye medication
- wearing a muzzle
- accepting restraint and examination
- staying still for care procedures
Leash reactivity is a separate issue than just general leash manners. If your dog pulls, lunges, and barks at other dogs or people on walks, just teaching leash manners won’t solve the problem – it will fall apart as soon as he sees another dog.
Luckily, this is a great problem to work on in a latchkey setting. We’ll send two trainers out, one with a decoy dog if needed, and work your dog through progressively more difficult training setups until he or she can handle seeing and walking past other dogs and people.
We will install simple behaviors like trained U-turns, name response under duress, and teaching your dog to automatically look away from other dogs and back at you.
Please select the Rocket Launch program if your primary goal is to address leash reactivity.
We highly value the safety of our helper dogs; we reserve the right to require muzzle training as a contingency for any dog/dog work. If your dog is very aggressive or has injured another dog, please contact us to schedule a free screening call with a trainer before enrolling.
We must admit that puppies are some of our favorite latchkey clients!
New puppies soak up information and new experiences quickly, and they have a sensitive period of socialization that ends by the time they are four months old. You don’t get a re-do on puppies, so we love it when owners give us a chance to teach good manners and socialize the little ones right from the start.
With puppies, we can cover:
- socialization outings in new environments
- introductions to friendly strangers and dogs
- housetraining assistance and crate training
- basic obedience (sit, down, stay, come… )
- positive introduction to wellness care (nail trims, toothbrushing, vet exams, and grooming)
- exercises to prevent aggression over food or chewies
- polite greetings
- leash manners
- doorway manners
There you have it. Hand us those puppies! As long as you don’t mind us tacking on an extra ten minutes of cuddles (that’s free).
An Inside Look
So, what exactly do we do in our sessions? Take a look at some of our past progress reports (with client approval, of course!) and see what a day in the life of a latchkey dog looks like.
Details Person?
You can read our latchkey policies and contract below to ensure you’re comfortable with the terms.
Pricing
Head Start Package – $1525 for 4 weeks
Want to love living with your dog again? Our core package of 16 sessions gives us enough time to get to know your dog, teach foundation obedience cues and leash manners, and then start using those trained skills to resolve problem behaviors in your home.
Rocket Launch Package – $2950 for 8 weeks
Ready to see a drastic change in your dog? Then begin with our premium package, which includes two months of training plus an extra in-home follow up session after two weeks of living with your ‘new’ dog (33 sessions total). This package is the best choice if you would like advanced obedience or your dog needs work on reactivity or aggression. Once it’s complete, you’ll start to wonder how you ever managed to survive before Hands Full!
If you own two dogs, you may enroll in this package to cover “Head Start” level training for both of them at a discounted rate.
Travel fees will apply for in-home clients outside of the Wichita metro area. These fees are returned directly to your trainer to cover gas costs and vehicular wear and tear.
Charges are calculated based on the distance of your home from the Kellogg/I-135 interchange. Fees are $15/visit 20-29 miles away; $30/visit 30-40 miles away.
Our all-inclusive pricing includes the cost of:
- the meet and greet
- training sessions
- travel within service area
- all training treats
- printed handouts
- training assistants
- decoy dog handlers
- a head halter or no-pull harness for leash walking clients
- training supplies (clicker, treat bag, chewies, etc.)
- a Kong for puppy clients
- any other additional items needed to carry out the training