The Best Dog Training In Georgia

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Cumming & Canton Dog Training Experts

Sit Means Sit Dog Training provides professional dog training in Cumming, Woodstock, and surrounding Forsyth County areas.

Is your dog driving you absolutely nuts? Are you looking for a Georgia Dog Training company to solve your problem? If you answered “Yes” to both questions, you came to the right place!

We, Sit Means Sit Dog Training, are a local team of certified professional dog trainers in Cumming, Georgia. We serve clients primarily in the North Metro Atlanta cities of Cumming, Woodstock, Canton, Suwanee, Hollysprings, and Gainesville, Georgia.

Regardless of your dog’s breed, age, size, or temperament, we have a dog training class or program for you.

Looking for basic dog obedience training? We have you covered!

Looking for aggressive dog training? We have you covered!

Looking for group or private dog training classes? We have you covered!

We welcome you to read through our website to learn more about each of our dog training services. Watch a few of our videos, check out our trainer’s bios, and read a few of our client testimonials. Once you’re ready, contact us for a Free Personalized Dog Training Evaluation!

Free Training Evaluation

About Sit Means Sit Dog Training

Dog Training Programs

Any Dog Any Age Any Problem

Immersion Board and Train.

Immersion Board and Train

Are you the type of person who wants the hard work done for you? Have you always wanted a dog that can sit, stay, come, and heel regardless of the distractions around them? Then our Immersion Board and Train package is for you!

With this elite dog training program, your pooch comes and stays with one of our certified professional dog trainers and is literally immersed in our training program 24×7. We teach them nearly every basic dog training command, plus any additional commands that fit your specific needs. During their stay, your trainer will keep you in the loop by providing progress updates and reports. Then, after a few weeks your dog comes back home better than ever! Our trainers will then teach you and your family the commands we taught your dog and how to properly provide both positive and negative feedback so they can progress their education even further.

Are you ready to make your dog into a super dog of your dreams? Let’s get started with a Free Personalized Evaluation.

Free Training Evaluation 
Day Train

Day Train

Our trainers work with your pup throughout the day to ensure we’re solidifying all your pooch’s new obedience skills. At the end of the day when you come to pick up, we have a review lesson with you to catch you up to speed on everything your pup’s learned.

Throughout the process you’ll be paired with each of our trainers to give you and your pup the strongest training possible. The results will be a happy, confident, and well-behaved companion.

Free Training Evaluation 
Private Lessons.

Private Lessons

Are you wanting to be involved every step of the way through your dog’s training? With our Private Lessons Program, you will be directly involved from start-to-finish. Our Certified Professional Trainers will teach you how to effectively train your dog. The main benefits of the program are listed below:

Full Attention: You and your dog will have our Professional Trainer’s complete Attention. With no other dogs or clients around, the lesson will be 100% devoted to you.

Custom Program: Without the need for a moderate group lesson, our trainer will develop a training program based on your dog’s one of a kind personality, demeanor, and size.

Scheduling Flexibility: We are devoted to working around your busy schedule, even if that means evening or weekend appointments. We can hold private lessons at your home, work, our facility, or other choice of location.

Goal Oriented: We will create specific goals to meet through our training based off what you tell us you’d like to see your dog achieve.

Ready to take the next step? Give us a Call, or fill out a Free Evaluation today.

Free Training Evaluation 
Puppy Management.

Puppy Management

Have you just added a new puppy to your family? The first 20 weeks of your dog’s life is important in shaping their social skills, manners, and behaviors. Starting early is key to creating a strong bond between you and your dog, and also to ensure your dog is social with other people and especially other dogs.

Get off to the right start! We offer private lessons and group socialization classes. Our goal is to help you build the foundation necessary for a well-mannered dog. We will cover basic house training, puppy behavioral training, and social skills important for puppies. You will learn exercises to further your dog’s training while also forming the extremely important bond between you and your dog.

If you’re wanting to ensure your dog will grow to be the confident well-mannered dog we all seek, contact us today for your free consultation.

Free Training Evaluation 
Small Group Classes.

Small Group Classes

Are you looking to socialize your dog while still getting the benefits of one-on-one training? Our small group classes offer the best of both worlds. Whether your dog is young or old, they can learn and make some new friends in one of our group classes.

When you sign up for one of our group classes, your dog will be getting the attention it needs by both you and one of our certified trainers. Is your dog having accidents in the house? Not listening to you and getting distracted by the squirrel outside the window? We will cover all these topics in both our Puppy Pre-School and Basic Obedience Classes.

Want to learn more about what our Group Classes have to offer? Contact us today!

Free Training Evaluation 
Lunch and Learn Programs.

Lunch and Learn Programs

Are you an employee at a vet clinic, grooming salon, or boarding kennel? Have you ever wondered about the latest research and findings in dog training? The professional dog training staff at Sit Means Sit has you covered!

Bring your staff to our facility for an afternoon and let our professionally trained staff show you the ins and outs of dog training. We will go over proven methods as well as some tips and tricks. We will also cover important topics such as canine behavioral problems and bite prevention. All in a days work! And the best part? Lunch is on us!

Free Training Evaluation 
Seminars.

Seminars

We love to share our dog training experience with fellow dog lovers. We would be happy to speak with your group about the benefits of reward-based dog training. Our staff can meet with your group, training club, or pet store to cover a wide range of training topics.

We will share why we use reward based training programs and the importance of positive reinforcement. We can also cover using remote training collars, for motivation, retrieving, basic & advanced obedience, bite prevention in schools, and a few of our favorite tricks.

Interested in scheduling a seminar? Contact Us today for more information!

Free Training Evaluation 

FAQs

Get answers to some of our most commonly asked questions:

Each of our training programs is custom tailored to the specific situation. There are a number of factors that we evaluate prior to building a training package for you such as your dog’s age, temperament, previous training, as well as the desired goals of the owner. What will work for one dog and owner, won’t necessarily fit well with another. Because of these factors, we offer a free demonstration & consultation as an opportunity to meet with your family as well as your dog to gain insight into the unique circumstances that affect your dog’s training. During the demonstration we will evaluate the factors and develop a training plan for your dog and family. From the training plan we will be able to give you an accurate idea of cost to accomplish your goals. There is no cost or obligation associated with the free demonstration.

Sit Means Sit uses a variety of training methods and tools to achieve the goals of the customer and their dog.

The Sit Means Sit mission:

Revolutionizing the quality of life with happy, obedient, and confident dogs.

With this mission in-mind, we customize our training approach to meet with our customer's personality as well as what will result in the best possible training experience for both dog and owner. As you view our portfolio of dog training videos, we hope that you will pay close attention to the attitude of all the dogs trained by Sit Means Sit. We pride ourselves on being able to maintain a happy and relaxed attitude in our dogs.

Sit Means Sit specializes in a diversified approach to dog training. We use an attention-based dog training system developed by Founder and CEO, Fred Hassen. This approach utilizes a variety of training tools to enable our trainers to gain the dog’s attention even in distracting situations. One of the tools that we use often in our training program is our customized Sit Means Sit Collar (remote electronic dog training collar). The reason we choose to utilize technology in our training is obvious when you understand the advantages that technology allows us.

Firstly, Sit Means Sit firmly believes in safe dog training. The technology we employ is 100% safe for dogs and humans. The Sit Means Sit Collar uses state of the art digital technology to control the output from the collar to prevent it from harming your dog. The technology that is utilized in the construction of our collar is similar technology to “electronic muscle stimulators” and “TENS” units. You may be familiar with the use of these devices in the medical field (they are very common in the Chiropractic and Physical Therapy fields) or perhaps you’ve seen devices advertised on TV as “electronic muscle massagers”. These devices essentially use low-level, adjustable electronic stimulation to creating muscle contractions. In the medical field, they are used as tools to help alleviate pain, promote blood circulation and encourage healing.

In the dog training field, specifically Sit Means Sit, remote dog training collars are used as a tool to provide a remote controlled cue. The cue is designed to neither cause pain nor to disrupt the dog’s emotional state, but rather to function as an adjustable “tap”. The approach used by Sit Means Sit trainers is to treat the “tap” from the collar as a cue for the dog to pay attention. This is no different than tapping a person on the shoulder to gain their attention. The goal of tapping them on the shoulder is not to hurt them or cause emotional distress, but rather to let them know that you want to communicate something to them.

The “tap” delivered from the Sit Means Sit Collar is a highly adjustable sensation that can be set to levels that are often imperceptible to people. Obviously this adjustability is necessary because some dogs are sensitive, while others are quite tough. There is no way to determine what levels your dog will respond to until you begin to train them with a collar. Another reason why the collars are so adjustable is because distractions from the environment are never consistent. Relate this to training with a treat. How many times will that treat work perfectly indoors, but fails to maintain your dog’s attention when a cat is running by. Sit Means Sit has found that dogs can be taught to pay attention around extreme distractions very effectively.

During the fundamental Sit Means Sit training, the dogs and handlers are taught how to condition their dog to the collar in a constructive and positive manner. By adjusting the level of the collar appropriately for the dog and the situation, as well as linking the tap from the collar with an item of high value, we can effectively teach the dog that the “tap” from the collar is related to something of value. This approach to fundamentals allows for a smooth transition into distraction training and off leash control through attention to command.

You can relate the advantages that a Sit Means Sit Collar can provide you in dog training with the advantages that a state-of-the-art smartphone provides you. Cell phones these days are no longer just phones, but mini-computers with built-in cameras, internet access and applications. These tools enhance our communication with others, allow for a diversified means of gathering and sharing information as well it’s just flat out cool what can be done with them, provided you have the knowledge. You can still choose to use you old-fashioned wall-mount telephone in your kitchen if you like, but now you’re restricted to the the length of the cord, and it’s not exactly easy to send photos to your in-laws using that wall-mount phone. Effectively limiting what you can do while you’re talking on the phone. There’s nothing wrong with doing things that way, it’s just limiting. This same relationship can also be said of using a leash to train your dog. It’s just limiting. With a smartphone you can do it all from the convenience of wherever you want.

Building on the premise of safety, the use of a remote controlled cue allows for greater freedom of communication, and in turn more efficient training through the enhancement of near-instantaneous timing. Being able to re-direct your dog’s energy or attention while he is at a distance from you greatly enhances the reliability you can achieve in a short period of time. It's also allows for you to communicate with your dog without confrontation from yelling. Also, the uniqueness of the Sit Means Sit approach stands head and shoulders above other technology-based dog training systems because of our ability to establish a neutral communication system allowing for unprecedented problem solving abilities, and through our enhanced communication skills a truly politically correct training approach. We invite you to view our training first-hand by contacting us for a free demonstration with a local trainer.

Training with a remote dog training collar like the Sit Means Sit dog training collar is really no different than training your dog with a leash or with treats. Reinforcement in any form is a required and necessary part of your dog’s life. Even after they are trained, it will still be necessary to maintain your rules and boundaries. This is really no different than we encounter with people learning to drive a car. Obtaining your driver’s license only shows that you understand the rules of the road, and have demonstrated your ability to operate a car safely. It does not guarantee that you will stop at every stop sign, and drive the speed limit all the time. Obviously there are a lot of factors that change as you drive, and some drivers are more honest than others. The bottom line however is that there are police officers responsible for maintaining the law and enforcing the rules that we have agreed to.

When looking at dog training from this standpoint, it easy to see how reinforcement of rules will be inevitable at some point. Every dog is different though, and some dogs require more or less reinforcement than others.

The good news is that proper and thorough training will result in your dog being more reliable even without training equipment or training ‘aids’ as we call them. Training your dog to be reliable without a Sit Means Sit dog training collar on is a matter of transferring attention through conditioning. There are three broad phases of training that you will encounter as you train your dog. Sticking with the your training and reinforcing your rules consistently over a long enough period of time will get your dog as reliable as they can be. The phases of training are as follows:

Phase 1: The Teaching/Control Phase ~ 6-12+ weeks

During phase one, the goal is to achieve control over your dog, teach them the rules, boundaries and desired behaviors you want. It also the time to teach the dog to pay attention and perform these commands around distractions. This phase lasts between 6-12 weeks on average, however in certain situations it may take longer to gain the reliability needed before moving on to phase two. Once your dog is capable of performing commands quickly and reliably around a variety of distractions with minimal problem solving required, then your dog and you are ready to move on to phase two.

Phase 2: The Reinforcement Phase ~ 6-12+ weeks

During phase two, the goal is to begin phasing out your training aid (remote dog training collar). In phase one, we use the dog training collar on a regular basis to regain attention and maintain our rules. Now in phase two we begin to reduce our dependence on the dog training collar and introduce consistency via variable reinforcement. You may or may not need your dog training collar, but we want to teach the dog that you are still in control even if the perception of the dog is that you are not. This phase will last between 6 – 12 weeks on average, and will require you to stick with phase two for longer than average. It’s also not uncommon as dogs mature and age to have to revert back into phase one training again for several weeks depending on how your dog’s performance and behavior is. When your dog is capable of performing commands without the need for reinforcement for approximately 6 weeks, then your dog is very likely to be reliable without their training aid present. We are ultimately looking to have your dog learn how to filter our distractions entirely. When this is achieved, your dog is much less likely to act out in an unwanted manner because of distractions.

Phase 3: The Maintenance Phase ~ Ongoing

The third and final phase of training a dog is the maintenance phase. During this phase, you will likely be using your dog training collar or other dog training aid very little as your dog is capable of ignoring distraction. The catch however is that they are still capable of distraction (they are not robots). A smart trainer recognizes this and is ready to maintain their rules, commands and boundaries at anytime. It is not uncommon to have a dog who sense the lack of maintenance and begins to revert back in their behavior. The benefit of having done your dog training properly to begin with is that regression is easily minimized and dealt with by simply jumping back into training for a short time to remind the dog of the expectations.

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Trainers & Staff

Professional trainers. Attentive friendly staff.

Alex Tutterrow

Alex TutterrowOwner

Alex was born in North Carolina and raised In Marietta, Georgia. His passion for training dogs began in college. After graduating from the University of Georgia Alex served as a police officer for six years. 15 years ago he saw a need for quality balanced dog training in North Metro Atlanta and opened Sit Means Sit North Metro. Over the past 15 years, Alex has become the areas most trusted and sought after trainers.

Alex has been happily married for 15 years and is the proud father of 2 boys and 2 girls . They share their home with a boykin spaniel and little schnoodle puppy.

Amy Murphy

Amy MurphyOperations Manager

Amy grew up here in Cumming. Her love of dogs began at an early age. Her mom was one to never say no to a stray; so from large to small, they took in them all. These days Amy and her family own 4 dogs of their own, have 2 foster dogs, and continue to be rescue advocates.

As our office manager, Amy is not responsible for the training of our dogs, but she always makes it a point to get to know and love our client’s dogs just as if they were her own.

Teresa Christian

Teresa ChristianSenior Trainer

Teresa’s love of dogs and horses started at a very early age. She grew up in NC training and showing horses and loving her dogs, Tinkerbell and Gretel.

Teresa brings her diverse k9 experience to the SMS team. After graduating from college Teresa got a job working for an emergency veterinary hospital and working part time teaching basic obedience classes. Since then her love and knowledge of training dogs has grown and she loves learning and trying new things.

Teresa has titled one of her dogs in AKC obedience, participated in Rally, fly ball, agility, dock diving and most recently K9 nose work and is also certified in K9 emergency first aid and CPR. Teresa is also a K9 search specialist and an active member of VATF2 FEMA USAR team and is currently training and handling her 3rd certified disaster K9 Rip.

Teresa lives in Forsyth County on a small farm with her husband of 30+ years, 2 dogs, 2 horses and a cat. Her 2 adult children have settled in north Georgia as well.

Jenn Johnson

Jenn JeffersonTrainer

Jenn grew up in Suwanee Georgia and her passion for animals started as a small kid. She began working in vet offices at 15 and started learning animal behavior in college. She has a degree in psychology and loves showing owners and their pets that anything is possible.

Alex Romero

Alex RomeroTrainer

Alex R was able to experience firsthand growing up what it takes to train and take care of dogs — especially working line German Shepherds and Siberian Huskies. She currently owns two German Shepherds — a retired therapy dog and her personal service dog — and continues to train and create extraordinary adventures with them. At Sit Means Sit, Alex R is excited to show owners the endless possibilities of what they can do when they put time, determination, and effort in bonding and connecting with their dogs.

Alex R disfruto de el beneficio de crecer con perros desde pequeña aprendió como cuidarlos y entrenarlos. En intercambio sus mascotas le enseñaron a caminar y a querer incondicionalmente. Especialmente con las razas Pastor Aleman y Husky Siberiano. Actualmente, Alex es dueña de dos Pastor Aleman, una perra de terapia retirada y su perro de servicio. Con los que comparte amplias oportunidades de aventuras y entrenamiento. Como entrenadora a Sit Means Sit, la mission y vision de Alex R es entusiasta, le encanta compartir su conocimiento para ayudar a las personas y sus mascotas a ver todas las posibilidades de lo que se puede lograr cuando se invierte tiempo, determinación y esfuerzo para tener una relación mas completa y satisfactoria con sus mascotas.

Colleen Griffin

Colleen GriffinTrainer

Colleen’s love for dogs sprouted in downtown Atlanta as well as near Munich in Germany. She’s taken care of a variety of animals through her experiences with her sister as a veterinarian and dog sitting. She currently takes care of a doodle and a pomeranian mix. Caring for many dogs and working in doggy daycare made her realize how trained dogs are happier dogs with a healthier relationship with their owner. She has a degree in Psychology with an emphasis on Behavior Modification and looks forward to bettering lives for future Sit Means Sit clients.

Kendell Greer

Kendell GreerAnimal Care Specialist

Kendell grew up here in Cumming. She graduated from Forsyth Central High School, and is finishing up college University of North Georgia studying criminal justice. Her love for animals and caring for them began very young, always begging to rescue any stray animal they came across- dog, cat, even groundhogs. She has been working around animals since she was a tween, pet sitting a variation of dogs with different needs. A goal of Kendell’s is to do victims advocacy work, & incorporate being an advocate for rescues as well.

Service Areas

We proudly serve the following areas in Cumming & Canton.

Counties

  • Cherokee County
  • Dawson County
  • Forsyth County
  • Hall County
  • Lumpkin County
  • Pickens County

Cities

  • Ball Ground
  • Buford
  • Canton
  • Cumming
  • Dawsonville
  • Duluth
  • Gainesville
  • Holly Springs
  • North Alpharetta
  • Suwanee
  • Woodstock

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Dog Training Videos

Check out a few videos to see our dog trainers at work!

SMS Dog Training Overview

What Are You Waiting For?

Pups Preparing for the Final Test

Sit Means Sit Franchise Graduation Test

5 Star Reviews

We love customers and their dogs. They love us.

Michael B.

Thank you so much Jen, Michael and Alex for helping with my German Shepherd puppy Mojo. We have learned so much and now feel more confident to able to take her to public places and know she will be calm and well behaved!

Jane B.

We are the owners of Jamie – the dog who was labeled a “red zone” dog by another trainer. Alex believed from the start that Jamie was not that type of uncontrollable animal. Nancy worked with Jamie in the immersion program, and she and Alex worked with us at our home and in group classes…

Laurie & Oliver

I’m Laurie, Oliver the German Shepherds mom. I don’t have facebook so I’m writing on this page. I need to give you bullet points otherwise I would not be able to stop writing about Oliver’s handler, Nancy and the care & training she and the staff provided Oliver. Patient, Positive, Funny, Enthusiastic Clean facility, Caring…

Michelle D.

I can’t thank Alex and team enough to for their dedication in training Me on how to help Stella with her aggressiveness towards other dogs while on leash. Today was our 4th lesson and she is a different dog!!!! The methods used don’t break a dogs spirit like other methods I’ve seen. Excellent program that…