How full is your dog’s bubble? Free 3-minute audit.
Take the AuditIf your dog listens beautifully at home but falls apart outside, the answer is not usually more commands, more pressure, or a louder “leave it.” The real work begins earlier — in the stare, the breath, the leash change, the body shift, and the moment before behavior breaks.
At Coaching Canine Companions, we help sensitive, anxious, reactive, and easily overwhelmed dogs build regulation first — so learning, trust, and real-world behavior can finally hold. Led by Lorrie J. Harris in North Kingstown, Rhode Island, with programs you can do at home from anywhere.
Training that begins where learning actually happens.
How full is your dog’s bubble right now?
Before we talk about obedience, we need to understand load. Six questions, three minutes, no account.
Watch it here, or keep the link: https://youtu.be/XibYeLtaphU
In Rhode Island? The same framework runs in person through Day Training and the 90-Day Field Immersion.
Canine Sensory Connection is six months of small work, done at home, that gives your dog’s oldest sense something meaningful to do — and teaches you to read what changes in her when it does. Four modules, one a month. Eighty-one short evening cards. The Canine Resilience Assessment at Day 0, Month 3 and Month 6, so her recovery can sit side by side on the page and you can see the difference rather than guess at it.
The whole program at your own pace: four modules, eighty-one evening cards, three assessments and seven Self-Checks, all yours to keep. No calls. Begin any day.
Begin at your own paceEverything in the Independent Edition, with Lorrie reading along: a written debrief of your Day 0 assessment within 72 hours, and a written reply to each Self-Check on Days 14, 28, 42, 56, 70 and 81. No calls.
Begin with LorrieA live group of about twelve guardians on Zoom, twelve sessions beginning Wed, Jan 13, 2027, so every dog is seen and nobody works through this alone. Enrollment closes Wed, Jan 6.
Join the invitation listNot sure which level fits? The free audit will tell you.
Most families arrive here after trying harder: more treats, more commands, more corrections, more videos, more conflicting advice. The missing piece is often not effort. It is timing, state, and the moment before escalation.
"My dog is sweet… until the world gets too big."
At home, your dog may be loving and responsive. Outside, the environment can swallow their thinking brain whole.
"Walks feel like scanning for threats."
You are not just walking the dog anymore. You are reading the street, holding your breath, and bracing for impact.
"Training works until it matters most."
Your dog knows the cue. But under pressure, the nervous system decides what is possible before obedience ever gets a vote.
"I need someone to see what I’m missing."
That is where this work begins: not with blame, but with a more accurate read of your dog’s state, threshold, and recovery.
Above the water is everything you can see — the behaviors that brought you here. They are real. They matter. But none of them is actually the problem. They are the symptom.
Most traditional training focuses on what is visible above the water. We spend our time exploring what lies beneath it — a skill called attunement: learning to read the rhythm of the breath, the position of the ears, the shift of body weight, the smallest signals most people overlook. These are your dog’s words. The question is not whether your dog is communicating. It is whether we have learned to listen.
Behavior is late. By the time your dog barks, lunges, freezes, pulls, or shuts down, the nervous system has already made its decision. That is why repeating commands often fails in the exact moments you need them most.
Field-Based Regulation Training works earlier. We look at state, threshold, pressure, movement, leash communication, handler rhythm, and the dog’s ability to recover after stress.
The work moves in two phases. First, regulation: we lower the internal noise — arousal, scanning, leash tension, threshold overload — until your dog can think again. Then integration: movement, leash clarity, recovery, social decisions, and handing the work back to you. K9 Bioenergy Balancing sits alongside as a quiet regulation layer, never a replacement for training.
The goal is not a dog who performs calm on command. The goal is a dog who can stay connected enough to learn when real life gets interesting.
Most training assumes the handler is the instructor and the dog is the student. The measurements suggest something closer to a circuit.
Researchers have begun tracking heart rate variability — the beat-to-beat rhythm that reflects autonomic state — in dogs and their people at the same time. The two systems do not run independently. They move with one another, and among the factors that predicted a dog's heart rate variability was the owner's own tendency toward tension and distress.
Which means the quiet things are not soft things. Your breath, your posture, the moment your hand closes on the leash before anything has happened: these are upstream of the behavior you came here to change.
That is why this work does not begin with the bark. It begins where the bark was decided.
Heart rate variability and activity were measured in 29 dogs and their owners across rest and interaction. The authors describe the pair as physiologically and emotionally co-modulated — a connection comparable to human attachment relationships.
Koskela, A., et al. “Behavioral and emotional co-modulation during dog–owner interaction measured by heart rate variability and activity.” Scientific Reports 14, 25201 (2024). doi.org/10.1038/s41598-024-76831-xRegulation is not the gentle alternative to training. It is the part that comes first.
The right path depends on your dog’s stress load, where you live, and how much hands-on support your family needs. Every path begins with state, capacity, and real-world transfer.
Small daily sensory work at home, with assessments at Day 0, Month 3 and Month 6. On your own, with Lorrie writing back, or in the January live group.
See the three levelsFor local families who need Lorrie to do the hands-on field work with the dog — then hand it back to you at pickup so it lives at home.
Explore Day Training →For deeper reactivity, anxiety, and recovery issues — a structured long arc, with progress documented at Day 0, 45 and 90.
Explore the 90-Day Program →The Coaching Canine Companions framework, field lessons, and coaching from wherever you are, when local day training is not possible.
Explore Online Training →Early confidence, regulation, and social exposure, built before fear has a shape to take.
Explore Puppy Training →Every day training client leaves with a handout. Not a brochure. The page that ends up taped to the fridge, folded into a coat pocket, and reached for the moment the leash goes tight.
The Field Handouts gathers twenty-nine of the guides Lorrie gives her own day training clients, the ones they reach for most, into one complete book. It begins where every dog begins: the Three D’s, what it means to be available, and the Orientation Walk. Then it turns to the situations that bring people to her door. Other dogs. Trucks. A crate that won’t settle. A recall that breaks. A baby on the way. A new puppy in a house that was already full.
Written by Lorrie J. Harris, founder of Coaching Canine Companions, for the families she trains in person.
29 handouts. One complete book. Free. Read on your phone or print the pages you need.
Enter your name and email. Your guide opens right away—no account, no inbox search.
The method is not kept behind a door. Twenty-one free field lessons show real dogs under real pressure — handler mechanics, the orientation walk, the art of the pause, and what recovery actually looks like when it is working.
Watch the twenty-one free Field Lessons →What your body tells your dog before you give a cue: gaze, breath, weight, and the leash hand. A field lesson on conscious disclosure.
Why Is My Dog Reactive on Walks?
Revolutionizing Dog Training: A Journey Beyond Obedience
Before the Bark — the signals every dog gives before the behavior
I thought I was raising a polite, perfect dog. Maui knew better. He mirrored the tension I carried. This is the story of when training stopped and returning began.
Read on the blog → The EvidenceHeart rate variability, autonomic state, and what the research actually supports — including where the evidence runs out and the honest limits of what any of it can claim.
Read the research →I founded Coaching Canine Companions because I kept meeting dogs labeled stubborn, dominant, dramatic, or difficult — when what I saw was a nervous system working too hard to feel safe.
My job is not to overpower your dog. It is to help you understand what your dog is showing, intervene earlier, and build the kind of trust that can hold when the world gets complicated.
This is training for the dog you love at home — and the dog you need help reaching outside.
More About Lorrie“What usually changes first is not the dog. It is where you look.”
Lorrie J. Harris, founder of Coaching Canine Companions
Ethical trainers cannot guarantee a perfect dog, a fixed timeline, or a life with no hard moments. Real behavior change depends on the dog, the human, the home rhythm, and consistency between sessions.
But we can guarantee a better kind of support.
If you are committed to the work and your dog is not making meaningful forward movement, we stay curious. We refine the strategy, adjust the pressure, clarify the handoff, and keep looking for the place where the system is stuck.
Good training does not blame the dog when the plan fails.
It reads the system more honestly.Coaching Canine Companions is a dog training business in North Kingstown, Rhode Island, specializing in nervous-system-first training for reactive, anxious, sensitive, easily overwhelmed, and behaviorally intense dogs. The work focuses on regulation, recovery, handler timing, leash communication, and the moment before barking, lunging, freezing, pulling, or shutting down.
Most obedience training starts with the visible behavior. This approach starts earlier: with state, threshold, recovery capacity, handler presence, and the dog’s body language before behavior becomes loud. The goal is not suppression. The goal is a dog-human team that can stay connected when real life gets complicated.
These are the questions most families ask when they are trying to understand whether Coaching Canine Companions is the right kind of help for their dog.
Coaching Canine Companions is based in North Kingstown, Rhode Island, and serves local dog families through day training, workshops, and in-person support. Online dog training guidance is also available for families outside Rhode Island.
Canine Sensory Connection is a six-month program from Coaching Canine Companions that you do at home, from anywhere. It gives a dog's sense of smell meaningful daily work and teaches the guardian to read what changes in the dog when it does. It includes four modules (one a month), eighty-one short evening cards, and the Canine Resilience Assessment at Day 0, Month 3 and Month 6.
The Independent Edition ($479) is the whole program at your own pace, with no calls. The Accountability Partner Edition ($637) adds Lorrie's written debrief of your Day 0 assessment within 72 hours and a written reply to each Self-Check on Days 14, 28, 42, 56, 70 and 81. The Live Edition is a group of about twelve guardians on Zoom, by invitation; the next group begins Wednesday, January 13, 2027, and enrollment closes January 6.
We help sensitive, anxious, reactive, easily overwhelmed, and behaviorally intense dogs, including dogs who bark, lunge, pull, freeze, scan, shut down, or struggle to recover after stress.
Nervous-system-first dog training starts with the dog’s state, stress load, threshold, and recovery capacity before asking for obedience. The goal is to help the dog become available for learning instead of forcing performance from inside overwhelm.
Yes. Reactive dog training is one of the core reasons families come to Coaching Canine Companions. The work focuses on the moment before the reaction, handler timing, leash communication, safe distance, recovery, and a clearer training plan.
The main pathways are Canine Sensory Connection (a six-month at-home program, available anywhere), local dog day training, the 90-Day Field Immersion, puppy foundations, and online dog training. The right path depends on your dog’s stress load and your family’s support needs.
No. Coaching Canine Companions does not use dominance as the foundation of the work. The method is relationship-centered and focuses on regulation, clarity, communication, recovery, and practical real-world handling.
Absolutely. Reliable recalls, loose-leash walking, polite greetings, and calm behavior around distractions all matter. The difference is where we begin: not with obedience, but with relationship. Obedience is not the foundation — it is the fruit. When trust grows, attention grows. When confidence grows, learning grows. The behaviors families hope for begin appearing not because the dog was forced into compliance, but because the relationship became a place where good decisions naturally emerge.
The K9 Stress Bubble Audit is a free short assessment that helps identify whether your dog’s challenge may be related to stress load, recovery capacity, threshold, or nervous system overwhelm rather than a simple obedience problem.
The best first step is to book a free Meet & Greet. From there, Lorrie can help you decide whether day training, the 90-day path, online support, or a simpler starting point makes the most sense for your dog.
Lorrie J. Harris is the founder and lead trainer of Coaching Canine Companions in North Kingstown, Rhode Island. She developed Field-Based Regulation Training and the Canine Resilience Assessment, and she is the sole practitioner across every program the business offers. Clients work with Lorrie directly rather than with assigned staff trainers.
No. Coaching Canine Companions does not build its work on electronic collars, prong collars, or dominance theory. The method is relationship-centered and begins with the dog's nervous system state, threshold, and recovery capacity, on the understanding that a dog in survival mode cannot access learning no matter what tool is used.
The Canine Resilience Assessment (CRA) is the structured evaluation Coaching Canine Companions uses to read a dog's baseline state, stress threshold, and recovery capacity. It produces a written report rather than a score, and it establishes the Day 0 baseline used in the 90-Day program, with reassessment at Day 45 and Day 90.
In day training, your dog comes for structured training days and goes home the same day. Lorrie does the hands-on field work during the day, then transfers the handling back to you at pickup so the learning is rehearsed in the home it actually has to survive in. Day training is sold in multi-session packages rather than as single sessions.
Canine Sensory Connection, the six-month at-home program, is $479 for the Independent Edition and $637 for the Accountability Partner Edition; the Live Edition is by invitation. Local programs — day training and the 90-Day Field Immersion — are quoted after a free Meet & Greet, because the right tier depends on your dog's stress load. Day training is sold in multi-session packages rather than single sessions. The Meet & Greet and the K9 Stress Bubble Audit are both free.
It depends on the dog's stress load, history, and how consistently the work continues between sessions, so no honest trainer can promise a fixed timeline. Recovery time is usually the first thing to shift: the dog comes back sooner after a trigger, well before the trigger stops mattering. The 90-Day program reassesses at Day 0, Day 45, and Day 90 so progress is documented rather than estimated.
Coaching Canine Companions is based in North Kingstown and works with families across Rhode Island, most often in North Kingstown, Wickford, Saunderstown, East Greenwich, Exeter, Narragansett, South Kingstown, Providence, and the surrounding South County area. Families outside comfortable driving range typically use online training instead.
Yes. Canine Sensory Connection is a six-month program you do at home, from anywhere: $479 for the Independent Edition, or $637 with Lorrie as your accountability partner. Online dog training is also open to families anywhere. Day training and the 90-Day Field Immersion are for families within driving range of North Kingstown.
Coaching Canine Companions is open Tuesday through Saturday, 8 AM to 6 PM, at 19 Lawnwood Road, North Kingstown, Rhode Island 02852. Email Lorrie@CoachingCanineCompanions.com. The best first step is a free Meet & Greet.
Scent work is a search game. Your dog uses her nose to find a little food hidden in one of several open boxes or places around a room. You are not teaching her to smell; she already does that far better than we can. You are giving the smelling somewhere to go. In Canine Sensory Connection, a search lasts a minute or two and happens at home, at her pace.
It can be a useful part of the picture, and the research is still young. In a 2019 study, dogs who did two weeks of nosework became more optimistic on a standard judgment test, while dogs who practiced heeling did not (Duranton & Horowitz). In a 2025 survey of 566 professional trainers, 57% believed scent work helps with reactivity toward unfamiliar dogs; those are professional impressions, not controlled trials. Scent work is not a cure, and it is not a substitute for veterinary care or an individual behavior plan. What it does well is show you, in a few minutes at home, how much she has to spare and how quickly she comes back.
“How do I get my dog to do what I want?”
“Who must I become so my dog feels safe enough to walk beside me?”
That single question changes the way you hold the leash, the way you respond to mistakes, the way you interpret behavior — and the way your dog experiences you. When the relationship changes, behavior almost always follows.
Start with a free Meet & Greet and we will look at what your dog’s nervous system actually needs next — day training, the 90-day path, Canine Sensory Connection, or a simpler starting point.
