Most adult dogs I meet arrive one of four ways
Training a grown dog is not remedial work. It is training that accounts for who your dog already is, what they have practiced for years, and what they have learned to expect from you. See which one sounds like your house.
You adopted them grown
The rescue told you what they knew, which was not much. You are a few weeks in and finding out about things nobody mentioned: the leash, the doorbell, the other dog on the sidewalk.
Life got busy
You meant to do the training at six months. Then came work, kids, a move, a bad year. Your dog is four now, weighs seventy pounds, and still greets people by climbing them.
It faded
You did the puppy class and it worked. Then somewhere around eighteen months it quietly stopped working, and you cannot point to the week it happened. That is normal, and it is fixable.
Something new showed up
The dog who used to be fine with everything is suddenly not fine with something. Maturity changes dogs, and not always in the direction you were expecting.
None of those mean you missed your window. Adult dogs often learn faster than puppies, because they can hold focus for longer than four seconds at a stretch. What changes with a grown dog is not whether they can learn. It is that we have to plan around the habits they already have.
Two ways up. Which one fits your dog?
The short version: if the problem is manners, that is Ascent. If the problem is emotion, meaning your dog is scared, over threshold, or dangerous, that is Odyssey. Not sure? That is exactly what the free evaluation is for.
Ascent
For the good dog who never got the manners. Loose-leash walking, a recall you can trust, calm greetings, and settle. Six weeks to everyday manners that hold up in real life.
Plenty of dogs sit close to the line, and you should not have to book a home visit to find out which side yours is on. Describe what your dog actually does and I will tell you which program fits, including if the cheaper one is the right answer.
Have a puppy under a year old instead? Start with puppy training from Puppy Pros, our puppy division.
What both programs have in common
Ascent and Odyssey go to different places, but they run on the same rails.
We train where the problem is
Your living room, your front door, your street, the shopping centers and parks you actually use. Training that only works in a quiet room is not training you can use.
Your dog sleeps at home
Neither program is a board and train. Your dog stays in their own house, in their own bed, with their own people, for the entire thing.
Goals get written down in week one
Specific, checkable goals for your dog: the distance, the situation, the outcome. You are never guessing whether this is working, and neither am I.
You learn the system, not the tricks
A dog who only listens to the trainer is a rental. I hand you the reasoning, so you can solve the next problem yourself, including the one we never covered.
Support while you are in it
Message me between sessions when the walk falls apart on a Tuesday. You are not stuck waiting until next week. Odyssey goes further and keeps going after graduation: support for the life of your dog, plus two tune-up sessions a year.
That line is open before you hire me too. Call (321) 209-0504 or send a text.
Not local to Brevard?
Both programs run on video, and nothing gets watered down.
See remote training →The pack we’ve worked with
Real dogs, trained right here in Brevard County
Bailey
Pub Manners Friends
Luca
Oliver
Tillie
Bruce
Cooper
Ripley
I have been where you are.
My own dog was reactive. I know what it is like to check the street before you open the front door, and to plan a walk around who else might be out in the neighborhood. A lot of why I work the way I do traces back to that dog.
I am a Certified Professional Dog Trainer with a master’s degree, and I work with every client personally. No handoffs to an assistant, no packaged curriculum that gets handed to whoever books next. My philosophy is balanced and evidence-based: build behavior with reward, set boundaries that are clear and fair, and never trade your dog’s trust for a fast result.
Because I am one person, I take a limited number of adult clients at a time. That is on purpose.
It also means when you call, you get me. Call (321) 209-0504 and you are talking to the person who would actually be training your dog.
More about me and how I got here →I come to you, across Brevard County
Adult training happens in the places the problems happen, so sessions run at your house and in your neighborhood. Most of my work is in Melbourne, West Melbourne, Palm Bay, Viera, Suntree, Rockledge, Merritt Island, Satellite Beach, and Indialantic. If you are somewhere else in the county, ask me. I travel.
Virtual sessions are an option too, and for some dogs they work better than in-person. Anxiety and aggression cases are the clearest example, because a stranger walking into the house is often the exact thing we are trying to change. Virtual clients work with me from anywhere in the world.
Both programs are backed the same way
We set your goals in writing before we start. You put in the work, I put in the work. If your dog isn’t hitting those goals, here is what happens, in order.
We keep going at no charge for a week, with daily check-ins to close the gap.
A dedicated session on exactly what isn’t sticking. New angle, same destination.
Still not there after both? Ask for your money back and you’ll get it.
Questions I get about training an adult dog
Is my dog too old to train? +
No. The dogs I take through the adult programs are usually somewhere between three and seven, which is well past the age people start worrying about, and they pick things up quickly. The idea that a window closes at some age is one of the most persistent myths in this field. Older dogs do bring history with them, and we plan around that, but they also bring focus and patience that a four-month-old puppy simply does not have yet. Age shapes how we build the plan. It is not a reason to skip it.
Do you offer board and train? +
No, and it is a deliberate choice. Your dog sleeps in their own bed every night of both programs. Behavior that gets built somewhere else has to survive the trip home, and a lot of it does not. Training that happens in your actual house, on your actual street, with your actual family, is training that holds up in your actual life.
How do I know whether we need Ascent or Odyssey? +
The rough test is whether the problem is a skill gap or an emotional one. A dog who pulls, jumps, and blows off recall usually does not know what to do instead, and that is Ascent. A dog who lunges, barks, panics, or freezes is having a feeling first and a behavior second, and that is Odyssey. Plenty of dogs sit close to the line. You do not have to figure it out on your own, and choosing wrong is not something you can do to yourself here: the free evaluation is where we sort it out, and I will tell you if the cheaper option is the right one.
If you would rather sort it in two minutes than book a home visit to find out, call (321) 209-0504 and describe what your dog does. That is usually enough for me to point you at the right one.
Do you work with aggression and bite history? +
Yes. Bite-history dogs are a significant part of what I do in Odyssey. The free evaluation is where we work out whether we are the right team for each other. If your situation falls outside my scope, I will say so and point you toward the right kind of help. Either way, you leave that conversation with a real next step instead of a sales pitch.
If you would rather not type this into a booking form, call me. I have heard it before and I am not going to judge you for it.
What training methods do you use? +
Balanced and evidence-based. Positive reinforcement is the foundation, paired with clear communication and fair, proportional accountability once your dog understands the rules. When a dog has play drive I train through play as much as I can, because a dog who can respond to you while excited is a dog who can respond when it actually counts. Whatever the mix, your dog ends up with boundaries and a simple, consistent communication system.
How long does it take? +
Both adult programs run six weeks. Manners work tends to move fast and finish on schedule. Behavior work is not linear, and some weeks look like nothing is happening right before something clicks. That is exactly why we write goals down in week one and measure against your dog rather than against a calendar, and why the guarantee has an extension built into it.
What does it cost? +
It depends on which program fits and what your dog needs, so I go through it properly on the free evaluation once I have actually met your dog. What I can tell you up front is that you get the full price before you commit to anything. Odyssey also includes support for the life of your dog and two tune-up sessions a year, which Ascent does not.
If you want to understand what drives the scope before putting a meeting on your calendar, call (321) 209-0504 and ask. I will walk you through what makes one dog’s plan bigger than another’s.
What happens on the free evaluation? +
We talk, I meet your dog, and I watch the things you have been describing. Then I tell you what I think is going on, which program fits, and what a realistic outcome looks like. It runs about thirty minutes, it is a real conversation rather than a script, and there is no obligation at the end of it. If I am not the right person for your dog, I would rather find that out now than after you have paid me.
More questions? The full FAQ covers scheduling, what to expect between sessions, and how support works after you finish. Or ask me directly: call (321) 209-0504 or send a text. You are not signing up for anything by asking.