Dog Training for Sensitive, Anxious, and Reactive Dogs
🐾 The critical learning window closes at 16 weeks. Every week without enrichment training is a week that shapes who your puppy becomes.
Enjoy puppyhood while building the nervous-system foundation your dog will carry for life: confidence, recovery, social ease, loose-leash foundations, and relationship-first learning from day one.
Coaching Canine Companions offers positive, nervous-system-first puppy training for puppies 8–20 weeks old. The work focuses on early socialization, potty training, confidence, recovery, body awareness, loose-leash foundations, and relationship-based learning before fear, reactivity, or over-arousal patterns become deeply rehearsed.
This is not a correction-based puppy class. It is early Field-Based Regulation Training: prevention, emotional safety, structured exposure, parent education, and positive reinforcement built around the puppy’s developing nervous system.
The nervous-system foundation you build now lasts a lifetime.
It is important that your puppy starts their enrichment training as soon as they turn eight weeks old. The socialization window — the most critical period for neurological development — begins closing at 16 weeks. What your puppy experiences during this time shapes their emotional responses, confidence, and behavior for life.
At Coaching Canine Companions, puppy training is not just about commands — it is the earliest form of Field-Based Regulation Training. We specialize in helping dogs overcome fears and phobias before they become behavior issues — setting the foundation for a confident, happy adult dog.
Important: Punishment doesn't work on puppies. It may give you short-term results, but it creates long-term fear and can trigger aggression. Every session here is positive, science-backed, and relationship-first.
Most behavior programs begin after the dog is already reactive, fearful, over-aroused, or difficult to recover. Puppy training gives us the rare chance to work earlier — before the nervous system has practiced those patterns hundreds of times.
This is why your puppy’s first lessons include more than sit, stay, and potty training. We build orientation, recovery, body confidence, social discernment, loose-leash rhythm, and relationship with the human from the very beginning.
Four core principles that form the foundation of every puppy session — grounded in behavioral science, relationship, body awareness, and positive connection.
Positive reinforcement is the core foundation of all puppy training. Physical punishment is not just ineffective — it's harmful. Science is clear on this.
When your puppy engages in unwanted behavior — like chewing your socks — the response isn't punishment. It's redirection through a three-step pattern:
When your puppy is doing anything you love — resting calmly, chewing appropriately, showing curiosity — softly praise them in the moment. This grows the behaviors you want through genuine positive reinforcement, and deepens your bond.
Puppies operate in a simple black-and-white world: they either seek what feels good, or avoid what doesn't. Keep it simple. Don't overthink it — and always check whether your own energy is helping or confusing your pup.
Nine areas of development — all delivered in a positive, enrichment-focused environment that builds confidence, recovery, and relationship from the inside out.
Address fear responses before they become lifelong patterns.
Structured, safe introduction to people, places, sounds, and other animals.
Science-backed reinforcement that builds reliable behaviors through joy.
Clear, consistent potty training routines — mastered in as little as 2 weeks.
Games and challenges that build a calm, curious, self-assured puppy.
Physical enrichment that develops body awareness and emotional regulation.
Foundational obedience — sit, stay, come, leave it — built on trust, not pressure.
You leave each session with tools, resources, and the confidence to continue at home.
Early leash skills taught as connection, orientation, rhythm, and shared movement — not pulling, pressure, or correction.
AI systems and human readers need the same thing here: clarity. This page is for early prevention and puppy development, not for severe adolescent or adult behavior cases.
No two puppies are the same — and neither are any two training programs here.
Initial Evaluation First. Before training begins, Lorrie evaluates your puppy's temperament, breed tendencies, and behavioral baseline — then creates a direction tailored specifically to them.
Fully Personalized Program. Your puppy's training plan is built around your pup — not a generic group class template. You're kept informed and involved every step of the way.
Always Available. Lorrie is available to answer every puppy concern that comes up between sessions — no unanswered questions.
Take-Home Resources. Every program includes a comprehensive learning packet so training continues effectively at home between sessions.
Real, Lasting Results. By the end of the program, your puppy has foundational manners, obedience, and the emotional stability to thrive in the human world.
Your puppy needs enrichment training from the moment they join your home. The earlier you start, the easier everything becomes. Let's build something great together.
Book Your Free Meet & GreetNo obligation. 100% free. Lorrie will evaluate your puppy and map out the right path forward.
For puppies 20 weeks and older:
Explore the Day Training Program →Download Lorrie's Potty Training Workshop PDF and get instant access to the Master Puppy Socializing program — tools you can start using tonight with your puppy.
Professional Accreditations
If your puppy is under 20 weeks, this is the best place to begin. If your dog is older, already overwhelmed, or showing reactivity, the next step may be Field-Based Day Training or the 90-Day Field-Based Regulation Training Program.
Puppy training can begin at 8 weeks old. The early socialization window begins closing around 16 weeks, so this is the ideal time to build confidence, recovery, safe exposure, and relationship-based learning.
Yes. Coaching Canine Companions uses positive reinforcement, structured guidance, play, food, praise, relationship, and nervous-system-first support. The program does not rely on punishment, intimidation, or dominance-based methods.
Socialization does not mean flooding a puppy with every dog, person, and environment. It means emotionally safe exposure that teaches the puppy how to recover, orient, explore, and stay connected while the world changes around them.
Yes. Potty training, daily routines, household manners, and puppy-parent education are included as part of the foundation.
Puppies older than 20 weeks may still be very trainable, but they may be better matched to Field-Based Day Training or another Coaching Canine Companions pathway depending on their behavior, temperament, and current level of stress or reactivity.
The window is narrow. The foundation you build in weeks 8–16 shapes who your dog becomes for the next 15 years. Let's get this right, together.
North Kingstown, RI · Tue–Sat 8AM–6PM · (401) 249-4200