Kylie Fitzgerald is a certified dog trainer through the Canine Animal Sciences Institute, but her love for animals started long before earning her credentials.
Growing up with dogs, cats, and farm animals, Kylie always knew she wanted a career that allowed her work with animals every day. She got her start studying animal science at a vocational agriscience high school and working as a veterinary assistant, later going on to earn her bachelor’s degree in business.
Since then, Kylie has held a variety of dog-focused jobs, which eventually led her to Active Dog as part of the Farm staff. She found a passion for training when she began working through behavior challenges with her own two dogs. Kylie believes training should strengthen the bond between dogs and their people.
Her approach focuses on trust, patience, and positive reinforcement, helping dogs learn in a way that’s fun, encouraging, and sets them up for success.
Both of our packages below include an initial phone consultation, transportation to and from our farm in Bethlehem/Watertown, CT as well as one, follow-up, in home meeting.
For dogs under 7 months of age
For dogs over 7 months of age
*Heel position is sometimes difficult to achieve 100% success rate on short time table
What is positive reinforcement training?
The key to training a dog using positive reinforcement is rewarding our dogs when they are doing appropriate behaviors, and either ignoring or asking for alternate behaviors when they are doing inappropriate behaviors.
Where do we meet for training?
Private sessions are typically done in the clients home. This is because dogs learn best in environments that they are comfortable in (at first!). It is also important for me to observe your dog in their own environment so that I’m able to see the “big picture”. Once we do a few preliminary visits, we can meet in public places such as pet stores and parks.
Who should be present for private sessions?
The dogs primary caretakers should certainly be present, and ideally anyone else in the home that interacts with the dog on a regular basis. This way, everyone is able to be on the same page, and learning can accelerate!
Isn’t it important to correct our dogs when they are being “bad”?
While using physical or verbal corrections on our dogs may appear to give us the results we are looking for (by inhibiting behavior), there is a huge risk of fallout. Dogs may start showing defensive aggression, and may become fearful and “shut down”.
Do I have to work with my dog outside of our sessions?
Yes. The sessions are designed so that I am teaching you how to teach your dog. Dogs learn by repetition and consistency, therefore its vital that you practice with your dog every single day.
If we don’t show our dogs who’s boss, they will try to dominate us!
The use of the word “dominance” in dog training is long outdated. Dominance Theory is based on a study done in the 1930’s/1940’s, wherein unrelated wolves were placed in captivity. This study found that these unrelated, captive wolves engaged in violent fights in order to gain dominance over the other wolves. However, this is not normal wolf behavior- natural wolf packs consist of a male and female wolf that mate for life, and their offspring (it is a family unit). Dominance Theory doesn’t apply to wolves, and certainly cannot apply to our domesticated dogs. Read more about this here: Debunking the “Alpha Dog” Theory – Whole Dog Journal