CALLING ALL DOG LOVERS!
Unleash Your Dog’s Potential with Dynamic Training Supported by Play, Curiosity, Attention, and Movement
Welcome to the Mighty Dog Project! My name is Jill Duran. I am a dog trainer, canine fitness coach, and canine neurophysical movement educator providing online and in person dog training. Whether you are looking for help raising your family dog or creating a fun enrichment and/or physical fitness program for your dog, I can help. I offer effective, positive, and innovative methods for working with dogs of all ages.
Reach for the Stars with Your Dog
Training Rooted in:
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Mutual Respect
Valuing our dogs’ experiences, learning history, genetics, and environment, helps bring understanding to their behavior. With clarity, we can build fair and workable solutions to undesirable behaviors.
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Safety
By creating a safe learning environment, our dogs can fully engage with the learning process, leading to greater integration of new behavior patterns and improved self-regulation.
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Communication
Because dogs primarily communicate nonverbally through body language, we can better understand our dogs by developing our observation and active listening skills.
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Play
Play teaches curiosity, confidence, and emotional regulation. It helps our dogs develop a sense of self and learn to relate to others and the world around them.
Training/ Education
When it comes to dog training, I encourage my clients to “think big” and to ask the question “What would be the ideal outcome?”
Whereas pathological training focuses on behavior you want to suppress or fix, my training methods focuses on behavior and actions you want to build.
We begin each training session asking:
Where do you want to go (outcome) and what will keep you and your dog going (reinforcers)?
Where are you now, i.e., what relevant skills can you and your dog already do?
What additional skills do you and your dog need to reach your goals?
What learning and/or management strategies will we use?
My approach is flexible and adaptable, meeting the needs of each dog and pet parent.
Common behaviors we can build together, include: waiting at gates/doors; building attention; recall; greetings; settle or rest; loose leash walking; appropriate chewing; play and curiosity; and confidence around novel objects, dogs, and people.
We can also build a repretoir of tricks including spin, crawl, roll, target, and over/under. The sky’s the limit when it comes to trick training!
Fitness & Injury Prevention
A movement and sensory enrichment program built on exploring weight shift, balance, coordination and proprioception can enhance your dog's function, reduce the risk of injury, and boost confidence. As dogs become nimbler in their movement patterns, they tend to become nimbler in their emotional patterns, leading to improved decision making and self-regulation.
Together we will assess your dog, identifying areas of restriction, imbalance or tension that could be hindering optimal function. I will then design a plan that allows your dog to explore novel and progressively challenging movements.
Canine fitness offers a valuable, holistic approach to maintaining and improving the health and performance of all dogs, young and old. It may help with brain functions, including attention, memory, problem solving, cognitive flexibility, decision making, and inhibitory control.
I can educate you on a simple home program to maintain strength and mobility in your companion.
Services
Neuro-Physical Learning
As a Guild Certified Feldenkrais Practitioner®, I offer hands-on sensory and movement lessons for dogs. By exploring new sensations and movement possibilities, dogs can learn to move with greater ease and fluidity; regulate their nervous systems; and improve function and biomechanics. The Feldenkrais Method® can benefit dogs with chronic pain, arthritis, or other conditions that affect movement. The Method may assist in post injury/surgery recovery. Neuro-physical learning may include communication and guidance through touch, cues, and/or demonstration.
Movement provides a direct route for creating behavioral and emotional change in our dogs. Movement is good medicine!
Dogs often experience improved mobility, stability, proprioception, and increased vitality.
*The Feldenkrais Method® of somatic education focuses on the learning capacity of the nervous system. The method is based on the concept of neuroplasticity, which is the brain's ability to adapt and change throughout life by forming new neural connections through learning and experience. 
Mighty Dog Core Principals:
Play and curiosity support learning.
You are capable of training your own dog.
It is my job to help you and your dog develop your potential.
Together we will construct an individualized coaching plan that prioritizes your dog’s physical and emotional state.
Your dog is capable of learning and improving in all areas of life.
