Making training practical!
LeMaster K9 strives to make training practical for your needs! Customizing location, training plans, tools, meetup times, and other resources to meet your goals for your dog and to replicate and prepare for real life scenarios!
Do you want to strengthen the bond you have with your dog?
Training actually helps to strengthen the bond between you and your dog. Unlike what some might think, training doesn’t have to be a chore for you and your dog. Training can be a fun and rewarding experience for both of you! Believe it or not, you are already training your dog every day in many small ways whether or not you even realize it. So what are you training? You may actually be teaching your dog things you don’t want them to do! If you’re ready to take charge and be intentional about what you’re teaching LeMaster K9 is here!
Training is available in private sessions, group classes, or through our board and train program!
LeMaster K9 is based in Santa Clarita, California and offers in person training to the Saugus, Valencia, Newhall, Canyon Country, and Castaic areas as well as portions of the San Fernando Valley, Antelope Valley, Fillmore, Santa Paula, Ventura and beyond!
Private sessions:
Individual training sessions start with discussing your training goals and creating custom plans for you and your dog. LeMaster K9 will come to your home or prearranged location. Each lesson will be followed up with notes and homework, so you can refer back to your personalized plan. You will be able to maximize your training by practicing with your dog on your own.
Contact me for eligibility, availability, and pricing
Group sessions:
Must have completed a minimum of 3 private training sessions to be eligible. Allows you to practice what you have learned with a community of other dog owners. Provides the opportunity to work on advanced skills in a group setting. Excellent for applying your new skills to real world scenarios.
Contact me for eligibility, availability, and pricing
Private board and train:
Private board and train is the most deluxe package. Unlike many other board and train programs that house the dogs in a kennel facility, your dog is actually welcomed into our home. Additionally, only a very limited number of clients are accepted at a time for this program enabling LeMaster K9 to focus special attention on your dog. This is the most intensive training program LeMaster K9 offers and is recommended for more significant behavioral cases, or anyone interested in improving their dog’s behavior. Also available for long distance clients.
Drop in training:
Drop in training is also available for current clients. This includes the option for field trips or training at offsite locations. During a drop in training session, LeMaster K9 will come to your home, pick up your dog, and take them to an offsite location (such as a park, neighborhood walk, indoor location etc). While this does not replace your involvement in training it is a great option if you are on vacation, work long hours, or just want to enhance your dog’s life. This is an opportunity for your dog to be enriched physically and mentally through exercise and mental stimulation. It helps to reduce boredom (and associated problematic behaviors), gives an outlet for your dog’s energy, and continues their training (learning new behaviors or brushing up on existing obedience), all under the guidance of your professional trainer. Available in 60, 90, or 120 min options.
Contact me for eligibility, availability, and pricing
Virtual training:
If you are not local to Southern California please reach out to learn about virtual training options. Virtual training may be a good fit for your goals or LeMaster K9 may be able to refer you to a trainer who is local to you. Virtual training requires a strong dedication on the part of the owner to practice and implement what they are learning in order to see progress.
Behavioral issues
Does your dog pull on the leash and bark or lunge at other dogs? Is your dog nervous, anxious, or fearful of new people or places? Does your dog exhibit destructive behavior while you’re gone from the house?
Obedience
Does your dog ignore you when you call or need some basic manners? Does your dog jump or get over-excited when meeting strangers? Does your dog need some leash manners? Perhaps you’ve just gotten a new puppy and you’re making the wise decision to start young with his training. Maybe you’re just ready to up your pup’s obedience?
Trick and sport training
Are you ready to teach your dog some amazing tricks? Maybe you’re ready to jump into some nose work? Trick and sport training can be easier than you think once you learn how to communicate with your dog. This is a great way to strengthen your relationship, enhance your dog’s life, mentally stimulate them, and create goals for your training. You can even work towards getting official titles and it may surprise you just how much fun it is!
Testimonials
“Training with Heatherlyn has significantly increased our confidence in handling our German Shepherd, Memphis. Memphis, who used to be highly reactive to dogs and bikes, has shown remarkable improvement. Heatherlyn has equipped us with invaluable tools and knowledge to manage Memphis’s reactivity effectively. My family has noticed his vastly improved behavior and we are all thrilled with the transformation. We are immensely proud of the progress Memphis has made, and we have even taken a group obedience course with other dogs through Heatherlyn, which was a new experience. We used to worry about walking the old Memphis around the neighborhood, dreading encounters with other dogs and fearing a huge scene. Thanks to Heatherlyn’s exceptional training, we can now enjoy life outside the house with Memphis. Our walks are more pleasant and we look forward to many more adventures together.”
-Karina and Joe
“Heatherlyn has been very helpful with training our Goldendoodle puppy, Ellie Joy. We needed assistance with Ellie being able to walk on a leash without pulling. Heatherlyn recommended a specific collar and leash and gave us specific instructions to assist us to have relaxed walks. Thank you so much Heatherlyn for your expertise!”
-Stacy
“We cannot say enough good things about our experience training with Heatherlyn! We rescued our dog Buster and he came with a few quirks. Heatherlyn was able to quickly diagnose his issues and gave us practical, effective tools to use to work with him. Buster loved Heatherlyn and trusted her, so training was always a positive experience for him. Friends and family compliment us on how obedient Buster is – he is a joy to be around! We are so thankful that we found her and so is Buster!”
-Krista and Gordon
“Heatherlyn’s exceptional training really comes out in my German Shepherd Vienna. I wouldn’t go anywhere else for specialized training. Thanks to Heatherlyn, she has made Vienna my best friend.”
-Nathanael
“Heatherlyn is an accomplished dog trainer that really helped me with my newly adopted leash-reactive dog. Heatherlyn thought the best way to start with training would be for her to take him home with her for a week board and train. She was great about keeping me informed about how things were going. Once back home, she showed me how to distract him at the appropriate times when we would hear or encounter another dog. After a few training sessions we added my other dog into the walks and the rest is history. I feel better knowing they are getting their walks in with a decreased amount of stress on both dogs.”
-Kayann
“Heatherlyn was so good with our new husky. Our fur baby had some issues with resource guarding, and he wasn’t at all trained when we got him. She gave us ideas on how to safely reduce the incidences of resouce guarding and encourage bonding between us. She gave us advice on how to keep the other dogs safe. She also provided well-written follow-up notes by email to review the lessons, and all practice exercises were there for us to see at any time. It was very convenient and effective. I would highly recommend Heatherlyn to help you with any dog issues you might have. She is very knowledgeable and good with dogs, and her services are fairly priced.”
-Jamie
“Heatherlyn is a fantastic dog trainer. She has been training our Giant Schnauzer Teddy since he was a puppy. She sends a detailed report after every session. We have little’s in the house and is more than willing to allow them to be part of the training session. Highly recommended.”
-Vince
“Heatherlyn is amazing! If you want a great dog for years to come start with Heather.”
-Julie
“We wanted to have a friend for our 10 year old Schnauzer so we ended up rescuing a 6 year old Corgi. Things between them started slow and people kept telling us to give them more time together. Almost six months together and they still were not showing signs of becoming friends. We wanted to hire a professional dog trainer and after a recommendation from our vet we decided to hire Heatherlyn LeMaster and we could not be more pleased. Spoke to Heatherlyn on the phone to tell her background of our dog situation, Heatherlyn came right within the week, felt out our two dogs and how they interacted. From there she showed the whole family ways to work with the corgi to take care of some of the pushy personality traits that he displays. Since working with Heatherlyn, our two dogs are better friends. Before we couldn’t even leave them alone without separating them in the house, now they roam the house while we are gone without any negative interactions. We are very pleased with the results from just one training session with her, if you are looking for a person to help with your animals, we would recommend Heatherlyn LeMaster.”
-Troy
“Heatherlyn is an amazing trainer! I rescued a dog and then was going out of town shortly after, and Heatherlyn was able to schedule me quickly before my trip. She gave great feedback and helped me set and understand goals for having a successful relationship with my dog. Heatherlyn helped me understand my dog’s body language better, and she provided notes and after session homework we can practice. And the results were immediate! After one session and implementation at home, my dog can ring bells to go outside, is much more polite and enjoyable to walk, comes when he’s called, and has better behavior. It was so cool to see my dog’s potential when a professional like Heatherlyn showed me how intelligent and capable my dog is under the right management skills. LeMaster K9 is a great investment that I would highly recommend to anyone with a dog.”
-Victoria
Training Philosophy
One of the most critical aspect of dog training is establishing a method of communication. Dogs do not automatically understand our language, and sometimes a “bad dog” is merely a confused dog. I believe in creating a positive and encouraging space for your dog to learn. I use positive reinforcement to teach your dog to enjoy learning and to establish good communication.
Dogs naturally use correction to communicate with other dogs. All it takes is watching a group of dogs play to quickly realize that they use this as a completely natural and understandable method of communicating what is appropriate and inappropriate. Utilizing corrections is sometimes appropriate in dog training. I use a variety of tools depending on the individual dog, from head halters, martingales, prong collars, and electronic collars.
LeMaster K9 