Come, Sit, & Stay Well.
You love your dog.
You want the best for them.
I’m here to help you.
Dog Behavior • Training • What Happens Between the Commands
Your Dog Knows What to Do. So Why Is Life Still This Hard?
Your dog may know Sit, Stay, Place, Heel and Come — and still lose their mind when another dog appears.
They may still patrol the windows. Panic when you leave. Guard things. Shut down. Fight with the other dog in your house. Follow you from room to room. Sleep with one eye open. Explode at visitors. Or simply seem worried about the world.
Or maybe your dog doesn't have some enormous behavior problem at all. Maybe they bark too much, drag you down the street, ignore Come and generally make you wonder who exactly is running this operation.
Those are different dogs. They need different things.
I help you figure out which dog is standing in front of us — what is training, what is behavior, what may be fear or stress, what needs management, what deserves a closer look at the whole dog, and what we can actually do about it.
North Myrtle Beach, South Carolina • In-person and travel-based work • Online behavior consultations and video review nationwide
I don't need your dog to fit a package. I need to understand your dog.
Forget the Label for a Minute
Tell Me What Happens.
You don't need to diagnose your dog before you get here. You don't need to decide whether this is fear, anxiety, aggression, reactivity, a training problem or something deeper. Start with what you actually see. That gives us somewhere useful to begin.
“He sees another dog and loses it.”
Barking. Lunging. Pulling. Staring. Maybe you are crossing streets, walking at ridiculous hours or scanning every driveway before your dog does.
Look at leash reactivity Fear & Anxiety“She knows the commands. She’s still a nervous wreck.”
Hypervigilance, shutdown, clinginess, scanning, startling, hiding, pacing or a dog who seems to spend far too much of life waiting for something bad to happen.
Explore anxiety, fear & trauma Bite Risk“My dog has growled, snapped or bitten.”
Don't soften that into “a little reactive” if you know your dog may hurt someone. When bite risk exists, safety and management come first while we figure out what is driving it.
Start with aggression & safety Dogs in the Same Home“The dogs in my house are fighting.”
Household conflict is different from a scuffle at the dog park. Resources, space, arousal, relationships, routines and safety inside the home all become part of the picture.
Look deeper at aggression When You Leave“I leave, and my dog panics.”
Barking and destruction are not automatically separation anxiety. Video can help us see whether we are dealing with panic, confinement frustration, boredom or something else.
Understand separation anxiety Sometimes It Really Is Training“Nothing is terribly wrong. I just need my dog to knock it off.”
Barking. Jumping. Pulling. Ignoring Come. House-training trouble. Door chaos. Puppy nonsense. Not every problem needs a deep emotional excavation.
Go to the common dog problems“My dog just cannot come down.”
They exercise. They train. They have structure. Maybe they can hold Place for an hour. But they are still watching, following, scanning, waiting, monitoring and never really letting go. I pay a lot of attention to the dog who can technically lie down but still cannot truly rest.
Don't see your dog here? That's fine. These aren't diagnoses and they aren't the only behavior problems I work with. They're simply useful places to start looking at the dog in front of us.
When Obedience Didn't Fix It
“But We Already Did Training.”
Good. That tells me something.
If your dog knows the commands, has been through classes, worked with another trainer or can perform beautifully when everything is controlled, I don't automatically assume the answer is another round of obedience.
Knowing what to do and being okay enough to do it are not the same thing.
Your dog can know sit, down, and come “and still be anxious, reactive” and “ready to escalate at any given moment.”
More Than the Command.
Training still matters. I use it when it helps. I just don't assume every difficult behavior means the dog needs another command added to the collection.
What can your dog actually do?
I want to know what training already exists, what is solid, what falls apart under distraction and whether the dog truly understands the expectation or simply performs it in familiar circumstances.
What happens before the behavior?
The staring before the lunge. The pacing before the barking. The tension before the fight. The inability to settle before the explosion. The useful information often starts before the moment everyone calls “the problem.”
Can your dog come back down afterward?
A dog may obey a Place command and still be rigid, staring and waiting to explode. I care about recovery: how quickly the dog can release the event, settle, sleep and return to a more normal state.
What changes when the environment changes?
Home, sidewalk, veterinary office, visitors, another dog, children, confinement, the car, a new neighborhood or a different handler can create very different versions of the same dog. Context matters.
Is the body contributing to the behavior?
Pain, poor sleep, digestive discomfort, age-related change, physical tension, nutrition and overall health can affect tolerance and behavior. That doesn't make every behavior problem a health problem, but ignoring the body makes very little sense when the brain happens to live inside it.
What is happening on your end of the leash?
Handling, timing, expectations, household routines, boundaries, reinforcement, inconsistency and sometimes your own understandable anticipation of the next explosion all become part of what the dog experiences.
Sometimes the dog needs more training. Sometimes we need to stop piling more training onto the dog.
I've worked with dogs who needed clearer rules, better handling and much more consistency. I've also worked with highly trained dogs who could perform an impressive list of behaviors while remaining anxious, over-aroused, hypervigilant or unable to truly settle. Those are not the same problem, and I don't want to treat them as though they are.
The question isn't whether training is good or bad. The question is whether more training addresses what is actually happening with this dog.
Why I Look Beyond Training
Your Dog's Brain Came Attached to a Body.
Behavior happens in a living, breathing dog — not in a training vacuum.
That doesn't mean I blame every growl on gut health, every anxious dog on food or every leash explosion on some hidden medical problem. Sometimes a dog needs training. Sometimes the household needs better management. Sometimes the answer is much less mysterious than people want it to be.
But when something isn't adding up, I'm willing to look at the rest of the dog.
If your dog hurts, doesn't sleep well, lives in a constant state of arousal, feels lousy, cannot recover from stress or is struggling physically, I want to know that before we decide the answer is simply more obedience.
The Body
Pain, stiffness, digestive discomfort, hormonal changes, sensory loss, aging and other physical changes can alter a dog's tolerance, reactions and willingness to engage.
Sleep & Recovery
I care whether your dog actually rests. A dog who spends the day monitoring windows, following people and sleeping lightly may never fully come down from one event before the next one arrives.
Food & Nutrition
Food is not an obedience command, but nutrition supports the body and brain doing the work. When behavior and wellness seem to overlap, I don't pretend the food bowl has nothing to do with the dog attached to it.
Arousal & State of Mind
More exercise is not always the answer. Neither is endlessly keeping a dog busy. Some dogs need help learning how to switch off, recover and exist without constantly doing something.
Environment & Lifestyle
Household chaos, repeated triggers, lack of predictability, too much stimulation, too little appropriate enrichment or a lifestyle that doesn't fit the dog can keep behavior problems simmering.
History, Handling & Relationship
What your dog has learned, what has worked before, what has frightened them, how people respond and what happens every day around the behavior all help shape what we see now.
Looking at the whole dog does not mean inventing a complicated explanation when a simple one fits.
I am not looking for six hidden root causes because your adolescent dog jumps on Grandma.
I'm widening the lens when the behavior, the history, the training and the dog in front of me tell me that we should. The goal is better information — not a more impressive diagnosis.
The K9 Coach Top 10
Okay. But My Dog Just Needs to Stop Doing This.
Fair enough.
Not every dog problem needs a deep dive into emotional behavior. Sometimes the dog has been practicing something annoying for six months and nobody has actually taught them what to do instead.
Pick the problem. Start with the basics. Then see what the dog tells us.
Reactivity
Dogs, people, bikes, golf carts, squirrels — and suddenly you are hanging onto the leash for dear life.
House Training
Still finding puddles? We probably need to tighten up what happens between potty trips.
Crate Training
Barking and complaining are one thing. Frantic escape attempts and full-blown panic are something else.
Barking at Everything
Neighbor. Delivery truck. Leaf. Possibly a ghost. Your Neighborhood Watch Captain may need a new job.
Digging
If there is now a crater where your flower bed used to be, filling the hole isn't teaching the dog much.
Jumping on People
It was adorable when the puppy weighed nine pounds. Grandma may have a different opinion now.
Leash Pulling
If your dog drags you for two miles every morning, they are getting two miles of practice pulling.
Chewing & Stealing
Socks. Shoes. Remotes. Paper towels. The expensive thing you swear was nowhere near the dog.
Door Chaos
The bell rings and suddenly nobody in the house has a brain. Fortunately, we can practice this without a visitor standing there.
Won't Come When Called
“Fluffy! Fluffy! FLUFFY! COME!” Calling twelve times is not recall training.
Pick Your Problem. I'll Give You the First 10 Things I'd Look At.
The full Top 10 gives you practical starting steps, then points you to the K9 Coach articles, guides and lessons that go deeper when you need them.
Snapping, biting, serious aggression, panic or dangerous behavior? Don't force that problem into a basic training checklist. Tell me what is actually happening so we can decide on a safer starting point.
Tell Me About Your Dog →Work With Me
We Start With the Dog. Then We Decide What Help Makes Sense.
You don't need to shop for a training package before I know what is happening.
Some dogs need a focused consultation. Some benefit from video review and continued coaching. Some situations deserve several concentrated days together in North Myrtle Beach.
Tell me what you're living with first. We can figure out the format second.
Behavior Consultation
Start HereA closer look at what your dog is doing, what happens before and after it, what you've already tried, what may be missing and what the most sensible next steps look like.
Online + Video Support
You Don't Need to Live HereVideo lets me see behavior in the place where it actually happens. Online consultations can be especially useful for reviewing patterns, handling, household dynamics, recovery and the moments that disappear when a stranger walks into the room.
Behavior Immersion
Come With Your DogFor more complicated cases, you and your dog can travel to North Myrtle Beach for concentrated owner-involved work over a weekend or several days. We can observe more, talk more, work in real environments and see the dog across more than one carefully scheduled appointment.
Not sure which one you need?
Good. You don't have to decide. Tell me what is happening with your dog and I'll help you determine the most sensible place to start.
Hi, I'm Dana.
Dog behaviorist. Trainer. Canine nutritionist. Holistic pet health coach. And a person who has spent a lot of years asking why some dogs still aren't okay after everyone says they should be.
My professional work with dogs began in training and behavior. Over the years, that work expanded because the dogs kept teaching me something important: sometimes training solves the problem beautifully, and sometimes training gives us useful skills while another piece of the dog is still struggling.
That is why my toolbox became bigger. Behavior and training are still central here at K9Coach, but my education in canine nutrition, natural wellness and other whole-dog modalities gives me additional places to look when the behavior picture doesn't make sense.
I don't need to be the first professional you've called. Sometimes I'm most useful when you're sitting there after trainer number two or three saying, “Okay... so what are we missing?”
I can also work alongside an existing trainer or veterinarian. Good work does not require pretending one person has to be everything your dog will ever need.
Meet Dana + See My Education & Experience →Tell Me What Your Dog Is Doing.
You don't need the right diagnosis, the right training language or the right service picked out. Tell me what happens, what you've tried and what life with your dog looks like right now. We'll start there.
North Myrtle Beach, South Carolina • Local and travel-based behavior support • Online consultations nationwide