About
How we train
The methodology, and the reasoning behind it. Chris Crockett, owner and lead trainer. ABC Certified Dog Trainer, training in Franklin since 2012.
- ABC Certified Dog Trainer (ABCDT)
- Animal Behavior College
- Several detection and handling courses
- Detection and handling methodology
- Several classes in conditioning and desensitization
- Classical and operant conditioning, and real-world desensitization technique
- Training in Franklin since 2012
- More than 16 years of hands-on canine behavior and handling experience
The path to the work
The dogs came first, long before the business did. Chris earned his Eagle Scout award at fifteen and came up through the Franklin Police Explorers program with his sights set on becoming a K9 officer or a park ranger. He wanted a working life outdoors, with a dog beside him.
The timing did not cooperate. The year he was ready, funding for the national parks was withheld and the jobs disappeared. So he became an Arborist instead — still outdoors, still a new office every day, still work that occasionally saved somebody’s house or somebody’s life. He did tree work for well over a decade and built a small tree care company of his own, learning the unglamorous half of running a business: payroll, crews, and the things employers deal with that nobody warns you about.
A climbing injury ended that chapter and handed him the question of what to do next. The answer had been sitting there since he was fifteen. He served briefly with the Williamson County Sheriff’s Department with the canine unit as the goal, but that assignment sat years of other work away. He went to study at Animal Behavior College instead — not as a career change so much as a correction. The thread running through all of it never moved: help people, help dogs, and train dogs that help people.
He has been training dogs in Franklin since 2012. In that time he has worked aggression cases and leash reactivity, anxiety and fear, dogs carrying trauma from before they ever met their owners, puppies who simply need a foundation, and detection dogs trained to a working standard. He runs every session and every consultation himself.
The standard the business runs by is simple: put the dog before the dollar. It decides a lot of things — which cases to take, when to tell an owner the truth they did not call for, and when to keep working with a dog somebody else has already given up on.
How he works with a dog
Chris is a well-balanced trainer, which means he does not force one method onto every dog. Each dog gets assessed on its own behavioral profile, history, learning style, and what the owner actually needs — and the plan is built from there, not pulled off a shelf.
The other half of the job is you. Dogs are consistent; people are the variable. He coaches owners through every stage, because the training has to survive in your house after he goes home.
He is a father himself, and most of the dogs he works with share a home with children. A dog that is trustworthy around a family isn’t a bonus feature of the training. It’s the point of it.
He is also honest about limits. Some behaviors take longer to change than owners want to hear, progress is rarely a straight line, and a case that needs a veterinarian gets sent to one rather than drilled.
Specialties
What he works on
Aggression
Assessment first, then rehabilitation. Aggression is a symptom with a cause behind it, and the cause is what gets addressed. Cases are taken on honestly, including the ones where the answer is a longer road than the owner hoped for.
Leash reactivity
The dog who is fine in the house and a different animal on the sidewalk. Usually a mix of frustration, threshold, and handling, and all three get worked.
Anxiety and fear
Fearful dogs are not disobedient dogs. Desensitization and counter-conditioning, at a pace the dog sets, so confidence is built rather than forced.
Rescue and trauma histories
Dogs carrying baggage from before they ever met their owners. What happened before matters, and the plan accounts for it instead of starting from zero.
Puppies and foundations
The cheapest training you will ever buy is the training you do first. Early handling, boundaries, and socialization done properly prevent most of what shows up on this list later.
Obedience and off-leash
Reliable obedience under real-world distraction, then off-leash work for dogs who have earned the foundation to handle it.
Detection
Scent work trained to a working standard, using detection methodology learned through several detection and handling courses.
Owner handling
Leash mechanics, timing, and consistency. The skills that decide whether the training holds once he is no longer standing in your driveway.
Why he does it
“These dogs aren’t my job, they’re my life.”
Chris Crockett
Methodology
The principles behind the training
Every trainer will tell you they are different. What actually separates one from another is what they believe about dogs and whether they will say it plainly. This is ours, in full.
01
Balanced means the dog decides the method
“Balanced” gets thrown around loosely, so here’s what it means in practice: no single tool, reward, or correction is treated as the answer for every dog. A shut-down rescue who flinches at sudden movement and a confident, pushy working-line dog who’s learned to steamroll his owner don’t need the same approach, and treating them alike is how training stalls. We practice an ethical and well-balanced methodology. The dog in front of us decides what that looks like.
02
Classical and operant conditioning both have a place
Two different mechanisms, and the work uses both. Classical conditioning changes how a dog feels about something — the trigger that used to mean tension comes to mean something else. Operant conditioning changes what a dog chooses to do, by making the consequence of a behavior clear and consistent. Which one leads, and how much of each, depends on the behaviors that actually need modifying, how the dog takes to the training as it goes, and what your family needs out of the finished result. What does not change is that behaviors are never forced onto a dog.
03
Clarity is the kindest thing you can give a dog
Dogs aren’t confused by rules. They’re confused by rules that change. A dog who doesn’t know where the line is has to test for it constantly, and a dog testing constantly is a dog under stress. When a dog knows exactly what earns a yes and exactly what earns a no, the guessing stops and the anxiety usually goes with it. Consistency isn’t strictness. It’s information.
04
Nothing gets corrected that was never taught
The dog learns what to do before it ever learns what not to do. Motivation comes first — food, praise, play, whatever that particular dog will actually work for — and the behavior gets built until the dog understands it cold. Only then does accountability enter the picture, and only for something the dog demonstrably knows. Correcting confusion doesn’t teach a dog anything except that you’re unpredictable.
05
Behavior has a cause
Aggression, reactivity, and anxiety are symptoms, not personalities. A dog lunging at the end of a leash isn’t being stubborn, and a dog who bites isn’t broken. Something is driving it — fear, frustration, pain, a history that predates you, or a pattern that’s been unintentionally rehearsed for years. We assess the cause before we address the behavior, and a case that looks medical goes to a veterinarian instead of being trained at.
06
The dog sets the pace
Every dog is different, and the speed at which they learn will vary. The work is built step by step, with attention to detail at each one. We won’t force behaviors on a dog to hit a schedule — we go at the dog’s speed. Pushing a dog past what it can hold costs more time than it saves, because you end up rebuilding the same behavior twice with a dog who now distrusts the process.
07
Structure is not the opposite of freedom
Dogs aren’t looking for unlimited options. They’re looking to know where the edges are. Clear boundaries, a predictable routine, and a handler who means what they say all lower a dog’s baseline stress — the dog no longer has to run the household, and most of them are visibly relieved to hand the job back. The obedience is a byproduct. The security is the point.
08
Train for the real world, not the living room
A dog who sits in a quiet kitchen has learned to sit in a quiet kitchen. Behavior only counts once it survives distraction, distance, and duration — another dog across the street, a guest at the door, a squirrel with a head start. So the work moves out of the easy environment on purpose and gets proofed where it actually has to hold.
09
Tools are decisions, and they get explained
No tool trains a dog. A tool either makes communication clearer or it makes it muddier, and which one it does depends on the dog, the handler, and the timing. Tool decisions get made after we’ve seen your dog, not before, and they’re explained to you before anything is used. You’re entitled to ask why, and to get a straight answer.
10
Results, not tricks
We train dogs for results, not for tricks. Nobody calls a trainer because their dog can’t shake hands. They call because walks are miserable, guests are a problem, the crate is a fight, or they’re scared of their own dog. The measure of the work is whether daily life got easier — not whether the dog can perform on cue in the driveway.
11
You are half of it
Dogs are consistent. People are the variable. The training has to keep working in your house after we leave, which means the leash mechanics, the timing, and the follow-through become yours. We coach and educate owners through every stage. Being taught to handle your dog differently isn’t an add-on to the training — it’s most of it.
12
Honest limits beat comfortable promises
We don’t guarantee specific outcomes, because anybody who guarantees behavior is guessing. Some cases resolve faster than an owner expects. Some behaviors get managed for life rather than cured, and an owner deserves to hear that early instead of after they’ve spent months on it. If we agree more work is needed, we’ll gladly provide additional training.
13
If you stop learning, you stop growing
We strive to stay on the cutting edge with the most up-to-date training methods and techniques. If you stop learning, you stop growing. A trainer who hasn’t changed their mind about anything in ten years isn’t experienced — they’re just repeating themselves.
Tell us what your dog is doing. We’ll tell you straight what it takes to change it.
By appointment only. Our phone and email are always open, and we return messages as soon as we’re able.