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539 Boone's Lick Rd, St. Charles, MO 63301

St. Louis' Best Dog Training

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St. Louis & St. Charles Dog Training Experts

Show Me St. Louis

Featured on Show Me St. Louis. Check out our head trainer, Chase and his dog Moose on KSDK’s Show Me St. Louis!

Sit Means Sit Dog Training provides professional dog and puppy obedience training in St. Louis, St. Charles, Chesterfield, Ballwin, and surrounding St. Louis County areas.

Here at Sit Means Sit, we strongly believe in the loving and lasting relationship between a dog and their owner, which is why it can be frustrating and sometimes downright defeating when your pup is having obedience issues. Luckily, our professional dog trainers are here and ready to help. We know that each dog is unique in their personality and behaviors, so we make sure to cater each program to target your dog’s specific needs.

Our dog trainers are here to help no matter the age, size, breed, or temperament. Whether you want to get your puppy off on the right paw or have a senior dog with bad habits, we offer specialized training programs to fit what you need.

Help your dog become more confident, happy, and obedient by contacting the best dog trainers in STL!

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About Sit Means Sit Dog Training

Dog Training Programs

Any Dog Any Age Any Problem

Day & Trains

Day & Train

With our Day & Train Program, you get the best out of a fully immersed training program without having to say goodbye to your pup for days (or weeks) at a time. With this program, we will pick your dog up in the morning and return them in the evening. During this time, they’ll have a full-day experience filled with training activities that are specifically tailored to their needs. Then when you come to pick Fido up, we’ll go over how you can continue, maintain, and enhance their training at home.

Why You Should Choose Our Day & Train Program:

  • You like the idea of having someone else train your dog but don’t want to leave them somewhere overnight
  • Sessions are held at a variety of locations to help socialize your dog and train them around real-world distractions
  • Our lessons are customized to help ensure we can help your dog meet the goals we set for them

Ready to kickstart your canine’s obedience skills? Contact us today for your FREE consultation.

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Private Lessons

Private Lessons

Our Private Lessons are designed for pet parents who want to be directly involved in their pup’s progress and personally responsible for their success. The trainer you’re paired with will teach you how to train your dog and specifically address the things that are most important to you. All Private Lessons are customized to help ensure we can meet the unique goals you set for your pooch.

Why Choose Our Private Lessons?

  • You can take pride in knowing that you were actively involved in your dog’s progress.
  • We tailor our lesson plans to match your pup’s specific goals and personality.
  • We walk you through the program step-by-step, so you’ll be learning right alongside Fido.

Ready to get personal with your pup’s progress? Contact us today for your FREE evaluation.

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Puppy Class

Puppy Class

This is a great stepping stone for dogs ages 10-20 weeks to learn how to socialize. It will help you learn the basics to have success with your puppy.

Things taught are potty training, Lure training, Marker Training, and overall confidence building. Contact us to reserve your spot today!

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Group Class

Group Class

Our Group Classes are an excellent way to continue your dog’s obedience training journey. These classes will help reinforce the skills your canine already learned in one of our other programs. Group Classes are also unique in that they allow you train your dog under severe distractions with other owners just like you.

Benefits of Our Group Classes:

  • Group classes are beneficial for your dog’s socialization skills
  • Your canine will learn advanced obedience skills
  • You and your pooch will stay fresh on their obedience skillset
  • You’ll get to meet other pet parents who also want what’s best for their pup
  • Held at convenient places/parks across town as well as our training facility in St. Charles

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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.

Chase McDowell

Chase McDowellOwner/Head Trainer

Chase has been training dogs since 2018 when he started as a client with Orlando Sit Means Sit and worked his way up as an employee all the way to owning his own Franchise. He focuses on balanced training and keeping goals front and center to make sure his clients are empowered, knowledgeable, and proud of their hard work and results. He believes having a well-trained dog also means having a happy dog and believes that every dog can be trained. Chase is excited to use all the tools in his belt to help his clients meet their training goals.

Chase is an AKC Canine Good Citizen Evaluator #101978

Catherine McDowell

Catherine McDowellOwner/Operations

Catherine also started out with Sit Means Sit as a client and is now the operator and manager of Sit Means Sit Saint Louis. She is married to Chase and shares their three dogs Toast, Lucy, and Moose. Catherine has been learning to train dogs alongside Chase and is excited to share her knowledge with people looking to have a better relationship with their dog.

Service Areas

We proudly serve the following areas in St. Louis & St. Charles.

Cities

  • St. Louis
  • Clayton
  • Kirkwood
  • Fenton
  • Ferguson
  • Florissant
  • Bridgeton
  • Maryland Heights
  • Creve Coeur
  • St. Charles
  • Chesterfield
  • Ballwin
  • Eureka
  • St. Peters
  • Cottleville
  • St. Paul
  • Ladue
  • Arnold

Don't See Your Location?

Sit Means Sit has 157 locations across the US and Canada.

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Dog Training Videos

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

Moose in Chicago

A Day Off With Moose

Longwood Arts Festival

SMS St. Louis Dog’s Moose Showing Off His Training

5 Star Reviews

We love customers and their dogs. They love us.

Nikki G.

Our dog Allie is a Great Pyrenees/Labrador mix. I knew that she’d be different than any other dog we had — she was dignified as a queen and clearly felt that her opinion was the only one that mattered. You have to understand, I would ask her to sit and she would maintain eye contact…

Shannon H.

We took our two pitbulls to Sit Means Sit for training. Sit Means Sit did a wonderful job training our dogs. Kileaux was always easily distracted and Nikita was a rambunctious puppy. The staff was very knowledgeable and helpful in teaching us how to work with our dogs on continued training. It is hard to…

Marie B.

I am so pleased and impressed with Sit Means Sit in general. My Aussie puppy did a three week board-and-train since my work schedule limited my ability to go to group classes. They were very understanding and did an excellent job of explaining every aspect of their training methods, their e-collar, and were very open…

Patrick A.

We signed up with our Golden Retriever, Kobe when he was just 12 weeks old. We wanted to be proactive and not have him develop any unwanted behaviors and to get him training at a young age. We’ve had many challenges the past few months but Chase was instrumental in helping us get to where…