POSSUM HOLLOW

DOGGY DAY SCHOOL

PET OBEDIENCE TRAINING

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PET OBEDIENCE teaches your dog to be a pleasant, well-behaved, enjoyable member of your family.  Our obedience training is individually designed for each family and their dog.  Some families need a dog that will come when called, walk quietly on a leash, and ride quietly in a car.  Others may need a dog that will run along with a jogger, lie quietly in the corner when visitors are present, or go into a crate happily and remain there quietly.  The commands required for your family will be determined upon registration into our training program.

WE ARE POSSUM HOLLOW FARMS.  We are a working farm located in the hills of North Carolina outside of a small town called Rutherfordton.  Joe Hughes is our primary obedience trainer and also owner/manager of the farm.  Dogs are worked daily or on the schedule arranged with their owners.  Dogs staying overnight are out in large pens during the day and sleep inside the barn in crates at night. 

NATURAL DOG TRAINING is the method we use to teach your dog.  This method follows the techniques used by wolves and domestic dogs as the mother trains her pups.  We use both positive (praise mostly) and negative (collar pops mostly) rewards.  Some trainers use only positive rewards and we feel this makes it more difficult for the dog to learn.  If when you learned to drive a car you were only told when you were right, your learning experience would have been long and frustrating.  However, if you were told both when you were right and when you were wrong (which is true for most of us), you learned quickly and felt good about your success. 

TRAINING THE OWNER is as important as training the dog and usually more difficult.  Your dog's understanding of the commands is only effective if you have an understanding of how to give them.  We work not only with your dog, but also with you to help you learn to handle, understand, and communicate with your newly trained dog. 

OUR TRAINING OPTIONS:

INDIVIDUAL LESSONS.  You bring your dog on a regular basis for private lessons.

DAY SCHOOL TRAINING.  Your dog is dropped off in the morning and picked up at the end of the day.

HOME ON THE WEEKENDS.  Your dog is dropped off on Sunday night or Monday morning, stays with us during the week, and is picked up on Friday afternoons to spend the weekend with you.

TRAINING WITH BOARD.  Your dog stays with us on a monthly basis and you visit when you like and we are home.

Please call or email us at 828-429-6388 or possumhollow@gmail.com for more information.

We have trained over 1500 dogs.  Here are a few...

The unusual photo above was sent to us from the owner showing us her dog with a deer that wondered into their yard.