I like to meet with potential clients for a 90 minutes consultation at their home. During that consultation:
- We will discuss your goals for our training together.
- I will give you my best estimate regarding how many training sessions you will need to reach your goals (or some of your goals).
- I will do some preliminary training with your dog (s) as time allows.
Before we meet:
Once we have an appointment to meet, my office manager will email you an extensive questionnaire. You will fill it in and email back to me at least two (2) days before our initial consultation. Reading through your questionnaire ahead of time will allow me to think about your specific situation and prepare additional questions if needed. I will also bring useful handouts for your circumstances. By completing the questionnaire ahead of time, we can make better use of our time during the initial consult.
As we work together, I will diagnose the problem based on my knowledge of learning theory (the science of how animals learn) and my observations of your dog—rather than relying on interpretation. For example, I might notice that the dog is barking and snarling at other dogs on a leash, but your dog plays nicely when he is off-leash. This observation suggests that the dog is leash-reactive, which is a specific type of aggression.
Once we have discussed your goals and I interact and observe your dog, I will:
Give you relevant information about your dog’s behavior.
Suggest management techniques to provide you with immediate relief from the situation and stop the dog from practicing (and perfecting) the response you want to change.
- Give you my best recommendations for the number of training sessions needed to reach your goals or most of your goals.
- Should we move forward with private training, I will write training plans relevant to your dog’s training.
- I will train your dog so that the new behavior(s) become its default.
- Lastly, I will teach you how to manage and continue to reinforce newly learned behaviors.
“Cayley and I were so impressed with your training methods- they are compassionate and effective. I am happy to report that thanks to your training yesterday Suki settled in her pen while we ate lunch at the dining table today without a peep! And she went into her crate a few times when she was done playing and wanted some alone time, we were amazed! Plus she has taken so well to the puzzle feeding instead of filling her bowl up for meals. You truly love dogs and it shows. We wouldn’t want to trust our sweet Suki with anyone else.” – Carly Murphy, Santa Fe, NM
Location of Training:
For the Initial Consult and future training, I will come to your home if you live in Santa Fe and some areas of Santa Fe County. Since I do not travel for training outside my service area, interested parties will come to my training “hub” in Tesuque. We will meet here for the Initial Consult and follow up training, should we decide to work together.
Fees, Payments, and Policies:
Initial Consult: 90 minutes $160.69 (Santa Fe county tax included). If the meeting goes beyond 90 minutes, the charge is $187.47 (Santa Fe County tax included).
Training Sessions:
Training sessions are 1hr. long. My hourly fee is $135 plus tax. However, there is a price drop per session, depending on the number of sessions needed to reach your goals.
Payments:
Since I can only work with a set number of clients and their dogs at a time, I do ask that people commit to the agreed-upon amount of sessions discussed during the initial consult by paying in full before the training.
Additional Fees:
If there is a need to have a third party help with the training, the client will directly pay the helper $25.00 per session. Alternatively, the client can find a qualified* third party helper – as needed to help out with the training without the need for compensation.
*All helpers need to be willing and able to follow my directions precisely and sign a consent release form.
Payment:
Clients can pay with a check, cash, or credit card. Please note that there is a fee of 2.9% fee per credit card charge.
Mileage:
Will be charged after 18 miles from Tesuque at the rate of $1.20 round trip, per visit.
Cancellation of Initial Consult:
There is a $35 charge for cancelation of the Initial Consult once we have made an appointment if not canceled within 48 hrs. of appt. date.
“Our dog Ernie loves Almudena. She’s a terrific trainer; firm, fun, creative, positive and a great problem solver. Oh, and according to him, she gives the very best treats!” – Peggy Klaus, Berkeley, CA