"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.
Dog Training for Sensitive, Anxious, and Reactive Dogs
Is your dog already over threshold? Start with the free K9 Stress Bubble Audit.
Take the Free 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.
Training that begins where learning actually happens.
Start with the free 3-minute Stress Bubble Audit
Before we talk about obedience, we need to understand load. This quick audit helps reveal whether your dog is dealing with a skill problem, a stress-capacity problem, or a nervous system that is already over threshold before the walk begins.
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.
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 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.
This is the core method behind Coaching Canine Companions. We do not train behavior in a vacuum. We train inside the field where behavior actually happens: the walk, the doorway, the leash, the dog across the street, the stranger, the car, the yard, the handler’s breath, and the instant before the nervous system tips.
The work is practical, observable, and deeply relational: regulate the system, clarify the communication, build recovery, and then ask for behavior that can survive the real world.
Not just in a quiet room. Not just when everything is easy. We work with the real pressures that reveal your dog’s current capacity.
A dog cannot respond clearly from an overloaded nervous system. Regulation is not a bonus. It is the doorway into learning.
Your timing, leash tone, movement, breath, and belief language shape what your dog can access next.
For deeper cases, the 90-Day Program uses CRA pre-check, CRI tracking, and field tests so change is documented — not guessed.
A practical path for dogs who need more than commands — and humans who need more than another list of rules.
We reduce the internal noise first: arousal, scanning, leash tension, threshold overload, and the patterns that make your dog unavailable for learning.
Once the dog can think again, we build usable skills: movement, leash clarity, recovery, social decision-making, and handler transfer.
K9 Bioenergy Balancing is used as a supportive regulation layer — not a replacement for training. Think of it as structured nervous-system decompression: helping the dog settle enough for learning, connection, and cooperation to become neurologically available.
The right path depends on your dog’s stress load, your location, and how much hands-on support your family needs. Everything here belongs to the same nervous-system-first training ecosystem.
Best when you need Lorrie to work directly with your dog in structured training days — then transfer the work back to you at pickup.
Explore Day TrainingBest for sensitive, anxious, or reactive dogs who need a deeper transformation arc with assessment, tracking, field work, and documented progress.
Explore 90 DaysBest when you need the Coaching Canine Companions framework, field lessons, and coaching support from anywhere — especially when local day training is not possible.
Explore OnlineNo one-size-fits-all obedience ladder. Each path begins with state, capacity, and real-world transfer.
For young dogs who need early confidence, regulation, social exposure, and relationship-based learning before problem patterns harden.
Explore Puppy Training →For local families who need Lorrie to do the hands-on field work with the dog — and teach the human how to keep it alive at home.
Explore Day Training →For deeper reactivity, anxiety, recovery issues, and dogs whose patterns need a structured long arc instead of scattered sessions.
Explore 90-Day Program →Scroll down to see what changes when the nervous system comes first
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.Not just a quieter dog. A dog who recovers faster, reads you better, and can stay connected when the world gets loud.
You learn to influence the first thirty seconds — before the leash tightens, before the scan locks, before the bark arrives.
Recovery time is one of the clearest signs of progress. Your dog does not need to be perfect; they need to come back sooner.
Commands work better because your dog is no longer being asked to learn from inside survival mode.
Your dog stops guessing what you mean. You stop managing every second. The two of you begin moving as a team again.
No more bouncing between conflicting advice. You learn how to read state, choose distance, change rhythm, and guide your dog before the reaction takes over.
When state changes, behavior finally has room to change.
Book a Free Meet & GreetWhy Dogs Bark Excessively — and What Changes It
How Long Does Dog Training Take? When Do Tools Phase Out?
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 → Field Library · Lorrie HarrisWhat if your dog’s reactivity wasn’t a flaw but a key? The opposing forces in behavior — fear vs. curiosity, excitement vs. calm — are clues, not problems to fix.
Read on the blog →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
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, online support, or a simpler starting point.
Book a Free Meet & Greet