Sit Means Sit - Massachusetts — Local services in Easton

TLDR: Dave is a very special person, period full stop. This is the best money you will ever spend on your dog.

We are somewhat experienced dog owners who brought our English Lab puppy Pancake home in November of 2023 after losing our beloved 2 pitty mixes to cancer. We knew we wanted to take our training with our new puppy to a high level, and we were delighted to learn that an absolute legend (he will never admit this) lived and ran his business in our town. We got in touch with Sit Means Sit Massachusetts when Pancake was 3 months old to learn about their program. My conversation with Dave’s staff on this initial call was sign #1 that Dave was running a world class operation. Dave’s staff member spent 15-20 minutes learning about Pancake, our goals, and walking me through the process. She was also able to share her experience having her own dog trained by Dave and the success they had. She also let me know that Dave prefers to wait until dogs are 5-6 months old before introducing the e collar, however he would do puppy lessons before the dog reached that age. Within days, we signed up for both his training program as well as a puppy lesson. This was all done efficiently and professionally with the use of a system, calendar invites, and reminders when we approached each session. A few weeks later we took Pancake to Dave for our puppy lesson. Within 15 minutes he had taught us (most importantly) and Pancake how to behave around distractions, including his amazing dog Otter. When we returned home, we realized he had given us the keys to unlock a step change in our puppy’s behavior. We now understood how to teach him that he couldn’t put everything in the house in his mouth and that he needed to pay attention to us. This allowed us to teach him all of the basics over the next several weeks. This brings us to Dave’s unique formal training approach, which I believe is a game changer. Unlike traditional 2-4 week board and trains (we had done this 4 times with our prior dogs), Dave spends a full day with your dog at his facility and then spends time w you at the end of the day to teach you how to continue the training. Dave was extremely thorough teaching us how to use the collar to communicate w our dog as well as the why behind everything we were doing. We were given guidance for what to work on over the next week ahead of our next scheduled lesson w Dave. For our next lesson, Dave took Pancake and I to Lowe’s to show me how to handle him in a very stimulating public environment. Pancake did incredible heeling through distractions, placing and staying, and even heeling while I pushed a shopping cart around the store. Dave gave me all the tricks on how to anticipate the challenges, and how to handle them appropriately. A week later we met Dave for our third and final lesson at a popular park where there where many other folks walking their dogs. We immediately knocked down one challenge after another. Heeling past reacting dogs, placing on challenging objects, working through a little bit of Pancake’s fear of loud truck noises, and even going off leash around other people and dogs for half the session. It was amazing to watch a 5 1/2 month old dog display such incredible behavior. As someone who has done several board and trains, it is clear that Dave has cracked the code. Sure a trainer who spends 2-4 weeks with your dog can teach them great skills, but those skills quickly diminish when the dog is returned to the owner and the owner doesn’t have the knowledge to continue to train the dog. Dave’s program is intentionally designed to ensure that you the owner gain the skills they need to train their dog for life. While our formal lessons are now complete, Dave is only a phone call or text message away to answer any questions and continue to provide us guidance. I can vouch for the fact that he’s extremely responsive, and you can tell that he really cares. Which brings me to the most important point. Dave is an extremely talented dog trainer and an equally good person. 5 stars...

When Callie turned two and Coby turned one, our dogs became different dogs. To say the least, they were out of control. I’m not sure exactly what caused it (was it adolescence, jealousy, the long winter that gave them cabin fever?), but we definitely needed help. The dogs were a lot more aggressive with each other and also with other people outside our home. People they knew before and didn’t have problems with. The doorbell would ring and all heck would break loose, I could barely open the door not fearing they would do something harmful. They were also crazy leash aggressive. They would pull us down the street for a walk and charge at all people and other dogs in our neighborhood. It was so embarrassing that we clearly had no control whatsoever. Even my 9 year old daughter couldn’t walk them out of fear. We lived in a great friendly neighborhood with other dogs and kids. We needed our dogs to behave. We didn’t want kids being afraid of them. As full time working parents, our dogs went to a local doggie daycare 1-2 days a week. For some reason or another, Callie soon started acting out and being very aggressive with other dogs. Dogs that she played with weekly for months!! We were told that she could not come back. We couldn’t understand why the sudden change of aggressive behavior at a daycare that we thought she loved. We took her to the vet for a check up to be sure all was ok. At that visit, the vet recommended training. There was a board and train program close by, and he had even sent his own dog there. So we made the call to Dave at Sit Mean Sit for help. Our initial consultation went great. Dave could see all the behaviors the dogs needed help with. He recommended the 10 day board and train program. We signed them both up for the same 10 days. What we really liked is that they would be trained together which I think was key in their relationship with each other. The key to this training was constant consistency. The dogs were trained 12 hours a day for a consecutive 10 days. That was time that we didn’t have to spend training them. It was 10 days that would change all of our lives dramatically. After their 10 days, my doggies came home, and they were no longer out of control. During that time they learned how to listen, focus, relax, compose, and release whatever was keeping them from being well behaved dogs. It’s been about a month now. My daughter walks them every day. They go to a new doggie daycare. We let them walk next to us without a leash on walks some days. We sit outside with them and they stay next to us without running off or even barking. People come up to them and they wag their tails and let them pet them. When we say “Quiet”, they listen… When we say “Off”, they listen. They are no longer reactive. The doorbell rings, and they don’t run to attack anyone. They stay in their “Place”. Today they are the best dogs we could have ever asked for. We are truly enjoying our newly trained pups! We are so grateful for the services of Sit Means...

I have no idea even where to begin other than saying Sit Means Sit has changed our lives (and it has only been 2 days since we picked Bear up from the Board and Train Program). Our 1.5 year old rescue, who is a Chihuahua/terrier mix, was an absolute terror (despite being the cutest thing we have ever seen). Since we adopted him in April, we quickly realized that we were going to have to change our lifestyles solely because we knew we could not trust taking Bear into any sort of foreign situation without having to leave immediately. He showed aggression towards strangers, but especially other dogs. After having him for about 5 months and experiencing countless times of complete frustration, we finally bit the bullet and sought out help. Sit Means Sit was a recommendation from a friend so we scheduled a consultation with Dave. About 10 seconds after meeting with Dave, we immediately knew we were in good hands. Not only is he obviously an amazing trainer and runs an outstanding organization, but he has a personality/demeanor that you would want your dog to be with. He sat us down and let us explain our situation and then he suggested what he thought was best for Bear and how they would approach it. After our convo, Dave took bear outside for a "demonstration" with his Shepard so we could see how he would approach the training. After 5 minutes, I was sold and knew right away that this was the place for Bear. We decided to go with the 1 week board & train program. They posted a photo of him after his first day and then a couple of videos in between on their FB page so we could follow his progress. Once we went to pick him up, the Sit Means Sit team took the time to train us on how to train Bear and made us feel completely comfortable/confident that we could keep up the training ourselves. In addition, they "train for life" meaning they are more than happy to schedule follow up's after the training program is over to ensure everything is going smoothly. Dave even called me the night we picked him up to see how our first day went and if there were any problems. They truly are in it for the dogs best interest. 2 days after picking him up, we have been able to do the unimaginable. Yesterday, we took him to Castle Island where he encountered multiple dogs walking by and did not make a peep nor act out. Today, I was able to take him to pet smart and walk around without having to look over my shoulder every 2 seconds to see if there was a dog near by. He saw multiple dogs, big and small, and was an absolute gentleman. When I say this is something that I absolutely thought would NEVER happen, I mean it. I am in complete awe. I would highly recommend Sit Means Sit to anyone who like myself, felt completely hopeless. No matter what your dog's problems are, Sit Means Sit can help. Thank you, Sit Means Sit,...