About Us
1000+
Dogs trained
900+
Clients Coached
25+
Years of Experience
We pride ourselves in creating better relationships between humans and their K9 companions.
Our Approach
Having a dog that is polite, attentive and respectful is a joy to have as a companion. To attain that, both owners and dogs need coaching. Our approach is grounded in building a great owner/dog relationship because through building trust and respect with our dogs, they are eager to please and make good decisions. And, when dogs are invested in the relationship with their owner, the likelihood that they engage in dangerous or rude behavior (jumping, biting, not coming when called, etc.) decreases.
We’ve found that a cookie cutter approach to training doesn’t honor the individual learning styles of dogs. To accommodate this, we use a variety of training methods that focus first on building a trusting and respectful relationship and then on obedience and technical training. We aim to keep both our two-legged clients and our four-legged clients engaged and interested in learning.
OUR LEADER
Andrea Lewis
Andrea was born to work with dogs and has had a lifelong dream of opening a training facility! As a young girl, she was entrenched in the dog community as her father showed English Bulldogs while at home, her family had six dogs that she tirelessly trained.
Traveling around the country attending dog shows, she made numerous friends and was fascinated learning about different dog classification, breeds and group talents. It was here where she met her first Australian Shepherd. In a conversation with the Aussie’s owner, who was involved in Search and Rescue, Andrea became fascinated with the things dogs were capable of accomplishing. After finishing her Bachelor’s degree in Human Communication, Andrea began training Search and Rescue dogs and continued this work for more than a decade.
While attending graduate school, Andrea developed a partnership between local animal shelters and the Department of Juvenile Corrections. Her vision was to offer a chance for shelter dogs to acquire basic obedience skills while, at the same time, to reduce violence with incarcerated juveniles. As a reward for good behavior, inmates were allowed to spend an hour working with a trainer and a shelter dog. The outcome of that program was that many abandoned dogs became more adoptable while inmate violence reduced more than 40%.
While developing this program Andrea met some wonderful people who were studying coyote behavior. Through this, she was able to spend a year observing coyotes in the wild and then just about a year observing a wolf pack in CO. Those experiences have informed and refined her understanding of dog behavior, allowing her to better troubleshoot issues such as resource guarding, fear and aggression.
Following a career as a College Professor, Andrea earned a coaching certificate and for almost a decade helped people clear the clutter from their head and become more inspired and successful. As it turned out, many of her coaching clients also had unbalanced dogs. Over and over again, Andrea observed that the more unbalanced her client was, the more unbalanced their dog was. From this, her tribe of Better People, Happier Dogs was born.
Following her own lifelong passion, Andrea turned her hobby of training dogs into a full-time business. Today, she coaches dog owners to be better leaders for their K9 companions, troubleshoots problematic behavior and helps families and pets live happier lives together.
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Andrea came out and we immediately started implementing structure around everyday things and our girl began to improve.
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"Andrea came out and we immediately started implementing structure around everyday things and our girl began to improve."
