FAQs

If you are reading this, something brought you here. Maybe it was a few clicks around our site, a vibe, or a feeling that resonated. Trust that. We’re honest, we’re open-minded, and we love getting creative. We’re human-loving dog trainers who want to partner with you to better understand this incredible weirdo you live with and to support your journey through all life stages. You’re busy, you’re overwhelmed, or you’re just ready to get right to it and save yourself the heartache of a lot of dog training Youtube searches that create more confusion than a rabbit-hole doom scroll. Welcome! We’re compassionate and ethical and won’t take your money if we don’t think we can help. ✌️

Excellent question. We’d love to get to know more about your dog and we’ll make a personalized recommendation for what’s really going to help you. True story, it’s pretty commonplace in our industry as they say for people to invest nearly 2-3 times over before seeking results. Yeahhh, we don’t like those stats either.

Set up a call. 👈 Click the green link set up a time to chat and we’ll give you a ringy dingy 📞

This question is more loaded than a baked potato at the fixings bar at a 1980’s Wendy’s. 🍔

(Cracks knuckles). Here we go.

We are integrative trainers and our approach is heavily steeped in the use of positive reinforcement and is not limited to that. We borrow from the world of ethology and neuroscience and offer a relationship-based approach to training using body language, play, hand signals, words, movement, hands-on touch, food, and equipment to communicate with and guide the dog. The biggest tool that we use in our dog training is YOU. We teach you how to better understand, relate to, and be a clear communicator with your dog which means the world to them.

The environment where the dog lives day to day greatly impacts the reality of a dog’s life and what a dog/owner team “needs”. We tailor our advanced-level learning to what is needed and valued and also teach our teams how to tap into biological fulfillment which is different than “just keeping your dog busy” (trust us on that one 😉). We have compassion for the unique needs of each dog-human team. Our approach aims to help you deepen your understanding of your dog’s needs while being flexible enough to help you and your dog deal with whatever life throws at you.

Great question. Typically you are matched by program participation. However, if you are reaching out for support with behavioral issues, you are absolutely going to be paired with a Trainer/Senior Trainer. 🧚

Nope. There are so many factors that influence training outcomes, the biggest being handler participation. We guarantee we’ll be honest with you and help you understand all of your options as you delve into life with your dog. You are welcome to peruse our social media to see dogs being worked in all of our programs and to see client feedback.

You can begin training immediately with any pup.
Regarding super teeny, young puppies. Puppies that are in good health with their first to the second round of vaccinations are welcome to participate in training at our studios. Ideally seeing a pup in our programs at 10-12 weeks is a good starting point. If working with us virtually, age isn’t a restriction, anything goes!

We really embrace dog training as a lifestyle, which means any opportunity is a learning opportunity. If you can thread training into your daily life, you will work on creating routines that help real-world manners stick. If you want to do break-out sessions with your dog we’d recommend 5 minutes and taking a break.

You can enroll in programs online. However, if you need help, reach out to us at hello@opbarks.com

Typically puppies that are in good health with their first to second round of vaccinations are welcome to participate in training at our studios. We accept vaccines or titers to participate in our programs.

No, your dog does not need to be spayed or neutered as a requirement to participate in our programs.

Though we sympathize with clients with emergency situations, experience has demonstrated that exceptions to our policies are too costly for our business, disruptive to our schedules, problematic for the training process, and unfair to other clients. Reservations, appointments, and class sessions, once confirmed, are locked in for the dates and times selected. Full details are available here.

Yes. We offer tuition assistance and payment plans for our programs.

We do have online offerings that are affordable as a starting point. We also offer financing plans for our programs. Check out our Podcast or Free Resources account for Q&A replays, and educational content.

We don’t offer tours or auditing our programs, but you are welcome to come in for an evaluation, have us meet you and your dog and get a sense of our vibe and spaces.

We don’t tend to encourage visits unless you are going to come and do a lesson with your pup. Why? Whelp, most people are going to be super celebratory and gushy with their pups and then they leave. What may happen is a dog that they gets frothing and whipped up with the intensity of that interaction, which may leave a dog reeling after your departure. We don’t want to undermine the training process and with some dogs it could present a challenge, as you can imagine. We provide lots of updates, video updates and photos of dogs while with us and in our programs.