Join Suzanne for Beyond Calm and Beyond Words!
Both days are 9am-5pm lunch is on your own. You can do both days or either day. NOTE: Please leave your personal dogs at home.
Beyond Calm: Understanding Arousal & The Think & Learn Zone
Saturday, March 14 • 9:00 AM – 5:00 PM
Understanding arousal is fundamental to everything your dog does—thinking, learning, moving, resting, interacting. Yet it remains perhaps the most misunderstood concept in dog training.
This intensive day explores how arousal affects every aspect of your dog’s learning and performance. You’ll discover why productive arousal matters more than “calm” behavior, and how to recognize and support your dog’s Think & Learn Zone—that optimal neurophysiological state where your dog can access both cognitive abilities and trained skills simultaneously.
What You’ll Learn:
• Productive vs. Non-Productive Arousal: Moving beyond simplistic “calm/excited” labels to understand when arousal serves function versus when it interferes
• The Think & Learn Zone: How to recognize your dog’s optimal arousal range and what happens when they move outside it
• Effects on Physical Capability: How arousal impacts balance, coordination, and fine motor skills
• Flight-Fight-Resolution: Understanding stress responses and recovery patterns
• Building Resilience: Why some dogs bounce back quickly while others remain stuck in non-productive arousal
• Sport-Specific Arousal: How different activities require different optimal arousal levels
When your dog is in their Think & Learn Zone, training remains accessible, learning happens efficiently, and physical coordination stays intact. Outside that zone, skills disappear, coordination falters, and your dog can’t access what they know.
Beyond Words: Body Language & Relationship Dynamics
Sunday, March 15 • 9:00 AM – 5:00 PM
Handler behavior is as complex and nuanced as canine body language. This day focuses on how body language shapes the dynamic relationship between dogs and handlers—and how that relationship affects behavior, training, and performance.
The dog’s understanding of their handler is built in the details: how you typically move, laugh, smile, speak, and breathe in familiar settings. Under stress or in unfamiliar situations, these patterns change—and dogs notice. These shifts signal to your dog that the person they rely on is alarmed, angry, worried, or afraid. Depending on the dog, this can have significant impact on behavior.
What You’ll Explore:
Cross-Species Body Language:
• How dogs read what we say with our bodies—and what they’re actually responding to
• Where human and canine body language diverge, creating misunderstanding
• Breathing as communication: how respiratory patterns signal our emotional state
• Nuanced movement: how small shifts in posture, gait, and gesture telegraph information
• Context and complexity: why body language must be read as a whole, never as isolated signals
The Dynamic Relationship:
• How relationships affect behavior, training, and performance
• Why the same training approach works differently for different dog-handler teams
• Understanding patterns of interaction between dogs and handlers
• How to observe what supports or undermines the relationship
• Learn about Suzanne’s Relationship Assessment Tool (RAT) for customized training solutions
Take one person, add one dog, and you get a third entity: the relationship. This relationship is dynamic and ever-changing, with both handler and dog bringing their habits, personalities, needs, and styles to every moment together. Successful training requires understanding this relationship as the ground on which everything else takes root.
WHO SHOULD ATTEND
• Professional trainers seeking deeper understanding of arousal and relationship dynamics
• Behavior consultants working with reactive or challenging dogs
• Sport competitors wanting to optimize their dog’s performance
• Dedicated handlers committed to relationship-centered approaches
• Anyone who wants to understand how body language and relationship dynamics affect training & behavior
Both Days – 2 people – $700.00
Both Days – 3 people – $1,050.00
Both Days – 4 people – $1,400.00
Both Days – Group Pricing – 10 people – $3,300.00
Saturday Only – $190.00
Sunday Only – $190.00
