PROS:

• Flexibility: this program is great for people with busy schedules! Participants save time on driving and coming to my facility and instead can use that time to work with their dog at home or an environment of their choice. They can ask questions and give feedback whenever works best for them-anytime of day or night is fine by me! Participants can also listen to my replies whenever works for them. They also get to keep the information as long as they want (if on Facebook Messenger).

• Family inclusive: all members of the household can be included in the conversation and can listen, read and watch the messages whenever works for them. This helps everyone stay on the same page.

• Done from home: save time traveling! Also, this is working on building skills and behavior modification where the dog is going to be spending most time-in their home, in their neighborhood, preparing for vet, etc.! This is meant to be done in the environment that behaviors and life are taking place to help the dog.

• Affordability: with a starting fee of $50, this program is affordable for the value.

• Keeping participants mindful: I have had participants say that even though they had a busy week and maybe didn't work with their dog as much (if at all), the program still helped them be mindful of the interactions they were sharing, how they could implement short and easy things into their busy lives, and helped them stay mindful and thinking of their dogs-instead of having training go to the wayside or even regressing.

• Supportive as an additive in training: if participants are doing private lessons, participating in coaching in between sessions can be a helpful way to answer questions and continue working on supporting the participant when not in a session. So often I hear people say they got home and forgot what they wanted to work on, forgot how to do something, couldn't remember something, got overwhelmed, weren't able to make the time or life got busy and they just didn't think of training until the next session, etc. While I work hard to prevent this in my private lessons, life happens and all of these things can happy. The coaching program is a supportive way to make sure that you can remember and implement what you worked on in other sessions, or at the very least be mindful and do small things with your dog to continue building on the relationship and skills.

• Great as a stand alone program: there are so many things that I can help clients work with through the coaching program ranging from introduction to my approach, behavior modification and skill building, etc.

• Short sessions that are easy to digest. During coaching we can work on the participants schedule, offering short bits of information at a time. This keeps things from getting too overwhelming. If more information is given, participants can keep the information for as long as they need-until they are ready to use it.

• For dogs that are easily distracted by other people or animals, coaching can be a great way to build a foundation and prepare and work through socialization and real life distractions.

• Technologically challenged participants should be able to still easily navigate this program. I am not good at technology, but by keeping it simple, we can keep it easy.

CONS

• This program doesn't offer the built in socialization factor of the group sessions or even possibly in person private lessons. To off set this, we have kept costs low to allow for participants to do both coaching and group classes. We also offer a free socialization program. During coaching, I also support participants in how to work and support their dogs in different environments and incorporate socialization in a real life setting.

• Sometimes participants believe they are doing what I am asking or explaining for them to do. When in person, I can watch the person handling the dog and offer tweaks and different ways to do something. To off set this in the virtual coaching program, participants can send in videos of them working dogs. The videos do not have to be amazing quality, but should be good enough for me to easily watch handling/the dog.

• I don't get to see the dogs in person and love up on them. I take cute dog pictures or videos instead.

• We are relying on technology. If you don't have the best service, sending videos may be slow. But that's okay-I am patient. Due to the flexibility of the program, I don't need to see videos by a set time.