Staten Island BFF Dog Training
There’s a good chance your furry friend won’t be your bestie for your whole life. But you’ll be theirs. Let BFF help you make every day together even MORE AMAZING.
What Would Make Life With Your Puppy or Dog Better?
Maybe you just brought home a puppy and want to raise a well-rounded dog with good manners.
Maybe what you call “going for a walk” looks, to the untrained eye, a little more like going for a drag.
Maybe your dog has a less-than-desirable response when they see another dog. Maybe you have young children and your dog doesn’t always keep all four paws at a safe height. Or maybe your dog seems to have a lot more manners when you’re home than when you’re not.
Whatever brought you here, there’s a reason the behavior is happening — and understanding the “why” is where good training begins.
As you browse through this site and explore the different behaviors we work with, you’re going to see us talk about the “why” a lot. There are a few reasons for that.
First, in many cases, if you don’t understand why a behavior is happening, there’s a pretty good chance the training protocol you choose may not work — because you may be trying to solve the wrong problem.
Second, maybe you want to take this training journey on your own. If you do, understanding why your dog is doing something can help you figure out what to do, how to do it, and why you’re doing it.
We would feel blessed if our site helped you help your dog.
However, you won’t find a complete step-by-step training protocol for every behavior on this site. Without meeting your dog, we don’t know exactly why they’re doing what they’re doing. And without understanding the “why“, along with the answers to a few other important questions, we can’t responsibly tell you exactly what you — or we — should do about it.
This site is designed to help you better understand what may be happening, why it may be happening, and the principles that can help put you on the right path. If you choose to take on the challenge yourself, we certainly hope you’re successful, find the site helpful and wish you and your dog the very best.
What Can We Help You With?
On our Services We Offer page, you’ll find some of the more common behaviors, problems, and training goals we can help you with.
It would be nearly impossible to list every problem, behavior, or training goal a dog owner might have.
There are two types of training we do not offer: protection training and service dog training.
Outside of those areas, there’s a pretty good chance we can help. If you don’t see your specific concern on our Services We Offer page, feel free to call or text us and tell us what’s going on. We’ll gladly let you know if we think we can help.
The “WHY” We Teach our Clients Truly “Makes us Different”.
Our ultimate goal isn’t just for you to know what to do with your dog. We want you to understand why you’re doing it.
We strongly believe we’ve done a good job if you leave knowing what to do.
We’ve done a great job if you leave understanding why you’re doing it.
That’s true whether you’re working directly with BFF Dog Training or simply using this website to learn.
You don’t need to know dog-training terminology to choose us or to use this website. In fact, that’s one of the reasons we built it the way we did.
Throughout the site, you’ll see certain dog-training words and phrases that you can click on to Learn More.
If you already know what a term means, keep reading.
If you don’t, just click it.
We’ll explain what it means in plain English, give you examples when they’re helpful, and explain why that concept may matter when you’re training your dog.
We believe you shouldn’t have to blindly follow instructions from any dog trainer without understanding what you’re doing and why you’re doing it.
Whether you’re working directly with BFF Dog Training or simply using this website to be more informed, we want you to understand why the training works so you can continue building on it long after the trainer is gone — or long after you’ve left this site.
The better you understand the why, the better equipped you’ll be to help your dog now and for the rest of your dog’s life.
So don’t worry if you come across a word you’ve never heard before.
That’s exactly what the “Learn More” is there for.
We don’t just want to do a good job. We want to do a great one — even if all we ever do is help you understand the why.
Our P.A.C.K. Training Philosophy
BFF Dog Training has four general pillars:
Together, they make up our PACK and guide how we approach every dog we train.
P — Patient
Dog training takes a lot of it.
Dogs don’t come to us already knowing what we expect from them, and learning doesn’t always happen on our schedule. We give dogs the opportunity to learn, make mistakes, and try again.
Very often in life, when somebody tells you to “be patient,” it means things are probably going to take longer than expected.
In dog training, it’s almost always the opposite.
Being patient is often what gets you results quicker.
When we slow down enough to make sure the dog actually understands what we’re teaching, we usually spend a lot less time fixing confusion later.
A — Adapt
There is no single method, tool, reward, or technique that is right for every dog in every situation.
Part of being adaptable is recognizing quickly when something isn’t working and being willing to change it.
We know our first choice isn’t always going to be our best choice.
We train the dog in front of us.
Every dog brings something different to the table, and our job is to adjust the training accordingly.
There are no cookie cutters in our dog training tool belt.
C — Consistent
Dogs might be the best animals on the planet at picking up patterns.
They are truly amazing creatures when it comes to doing this naturally.
So we tap into that ability and use patterns as a major part of how we teach them.
What we allow, reward, and expect should be as clear and consistent as possible — as close to 100% of the time as we can realistically get.
The more predictable our communication becomes, the easier it is for our dogs to understand us, understand what we would like them to do, and understand what we would like them to change.
Consistency creates patterns.
And patterns help create clarity.
K — Kind
Kindness matters in dog training.
Dogs don’t choose to be confused. They don’t deliberately misunderstand what we’re asking, and they aren’t giving us a hard time simply because they’re having a hard time doing something.
Sometimes they don’t understand. Sometimes they’re distracted. Sometimes they’re afraid, frustrated, excited, or overwhelmed. And sometimes they simply haven’t learned enough yet to do what we’re asking in that particular situation.
Kindness is giving a dog a fair opportunity to understand what we are asking them to do or not do before holding them accountable for it.
Kindness is recognizing when they need help, when they need more time, and when what we’re doing needs to change.
Kindness doesn’t mean allowing them to avoid rules or boundaries.
Being kind and having expectations are not opposites.
The fact of the matter is, clearly teaching a dog what they can and cannot do can be one of the kindest things you can do for your dog. It removes confusion, helps make their world more predictable, and gives you reason to praise.
Praise your dog every time it’s earned, and your dog will think you’re the kindest person on the planet.
Patient. Adapt. Consistent. Kind.
These four pillars are behind everything we do at BFF Dog Training. Different dogs may need different approaches, but the philosophy behind how we teach them never changes.
We use the PACK mentality with every dog we train.
BFF Dog Training 