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Tri-Cities Dog Training Experts

Sit Means Sit Dog Training Tri-Cities provides comprehensive obedience training in Kennewick, Richland, Pasco Washington and surrounding areas!

Whether you are bringing home your first puppy, looking to improve your pup’s basic obedience, or address challenging behaviors such as anxiety, fear, and aggression – no matter the age or breed, we have a training program to help you get from where you are today, to where you would like to be. Our Mission is to enhance quality of life through training and education to ensure the most successful results for you and your pup to live your best lives.

 

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About Sit Means Sit Dog Training

Dog Training Programs

Any Dog Any Age Any Problem

super puppy training

Puppy Program

Our puppy training programs emphasize socialization, confidence-building, basic obedience commands, the prevention and addressing of undesirable behaviors, and the benefits of play. As with our adult programs the trainers will coach and guide you, equipping you with the skills and knowledge needed to help your puppy put their best paw forward.

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private dog training

Private Program

Designed for the family who would like to be hands on and customized with each individual family and pup’s needs and goals in mind. With this option, the trainer will meet with you and your pup one-on-one in hour-long sessions, held in our downtown facility.  The trainer will coach, guide, and equip you with the knowledge and skills needed to overcome your specific challenges and reach your unique goals.

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Immersion Program

Designed for the family who would like a jumpstart, is limited on time, or is facing especially challenging behaviors with their pup. With this option, your pup will train with our team during the day, then go home at night.

This provides all the benefits of a traditional board and train program while allowing for those extra snuggles with the family at night. The trainers will coach and guide you in one-on-one and mini-group training sessions to equip you with the skills and knowledge needed to conquer challenges and to attain your goals.

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Day Train Program

Designed for the family who would like a jumpstart, is limited on time, or is facing especially challenging behaviors with their pup. With this option, your pup will train with our professional team during the day, then you, your pup, and a trainer will review everything your pup has learned and how to continue training at home throughout the week. Guiding you and your pup on a path of learning success.

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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.

Steve SpragueHead Trainer

My first “professional” dog training gig was at the age of 12. I talked my neighbor into letting me train his dog at the price of $10 per trick. Because of that arrangement I was able to be the first kid on the block to have a Diskman. More significant than the money and reward I earned, that summer taught me the hard lessons of patience, consistency, determination, but also the great joy of working with dogs.

Since then I have made it a goal to continually increase my knowledge and improve my training skills. This continual quest for improvement led me to the opportunity to see my first Sit Means Sit trainer in action. What he was able to accomplish with a dog in such a short time blew my mind. For the next few years I studied the Sit Means Sit system and training methods, watching many dogs transform into happy, obedient, dependable companions.

After seeing the consistent results of this proven system, I decided to become a certified Sit Means Sit trainer. Now I am happy to be able to bring this system from America’s largest dog training company to the Tri-Cities, Washington.

Service Areas

We proudly serve the following areas in Tri-Cities.

Cities

  • Richland
  • Kennewick
  • Pasco
  • West Richland
  • Finley
  • Burbank
  • Walla Walla
  • Benton City
  • Yakima
  • Ellensburg
  • Wenatchee
  • Moses Lake
  • Ritzville
  • Hermiston, OR
  • Pendleton, OR
  • La Grande, OR

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!

 

Leia’s Transformation

 

River and Roscoe’s Training Journey

Reactive Dog, Dozer

Rocko – Old Dogs Can Learn New Tricks!

5 Star Reviews

We love customers and their dogs. They love us.

Nancy G.

Steve is a miracle worker! Our Blue Heeler/Lab Mix Effie, was a wild, excitable, no space bubble, extremely friendly, jumping on you, nearly untrainable/controllable nine month old pup…Effie was the first dog ever that we had no success training as we had with all our dogs/pups in the past. We tried every training technique to…

Julie B.

Before Sit Means Sit, we couldn’t take our dog to the river, a park, almost anywhere! We became so frustrated and actually quit going places with her because she would chase wildlife. Now, she listens and even when she is not on leash, we know she will come when called. We still have some work…

Keri M.

When I started training, my dog created chaos whenever someone, friend or stranger, came to the door. Our walks consisted of her dragging me along and reacting to every dog we encountered. She now greets people calmly, walks by my side on a loose leash and will only greet another dog when given permission. She…

Marsha L.

Our Labradoodle, Mikey, was so hyper and out of control until we met Steve, with Sit Means Sit. Mikey has been transformed into a different dog since the training with Steve. We would highly recommend giving him a call if you need dog training. He is the best and we are so happy to have…