About Us
We are a team of professional dog trainers. Our goal is to help dogs reach their potential.
Our mission is to help dogs thrive. We have built our team, facility, curriculum, training materials, and our membership with this mission as our core.
Our team has over 100 years of experience of professional dog training.
Our facility has over 13,000 square feet of everything your dog needs to thrive: Outdoor space, agility center, 3 indoor playrooms, and 5 training stations. No two visits are the same.
Our Story
In 2016, Max was a senior executive on Wall Street with a nice office and an amazing view. As is typical for that industry, Max was working long hours and had very little time to allocate to his dog, Albert. Albert is a German Shorthaired Pointer and has an unreasonable amount of energy and drive.
Before starting this job, Max worked from home and spent a lot of time with Albert. But as long days turned into long months and into long years, it was obvious that Albert was struggling to adjust to his new schedule. His health deteriorated, he was irritable, destructive at home, and much more reactive outside.
Max was raised into dog training, his grandfather was a professional dog trainer and Max spent his college years earning money as a dog trainer. It was clear to Max that Albert did not belong in an apartment for 12, 14, 16, and sometimes more, hours by himself.
After trying dog walkers, day cares, and private trainers, Max left his job in 2017 to build LECA. In 2018, he spent most of the year collaborating with animal behavior scientists and researchers to develop our proprietary curriculum and handler training program.
Now, after working with 1000’s of dogs, our program has been proven to drastically improve the lives of dogs and their owners.
Our Training Philosophy
"Dogs can learn productive and positive behavior more easily and remember what they learned when they are in positive psychological and environmental conditions, and when they have the opportunity to observe trusted models demonstrating behaviors." These are the principals of Social Cognitive Learning Theory, on the principals of which our school and curriculum were developed. Read our blog and white paper to learn more about SCT.
We want our dogs to realize their potential. We don't train dogs to pass a test or a trial. They never fail and we do not punish. We seek to establish a strong and positive relationship. Any aggressive responses or punishments significantly impede our objectives and mission.
Positive and reinforcement based training has shown to be more effective than methods that are centered on corrections. This is especially true when there are multiple people working with the dog. Punishments or intimidation can create unnecessary stress and anxiety and cause physical damage to the dog.
Recognition
We are proud to be recognized for our work.
LECA has been named a local favorite by Nextdoor and the Woodland Park Business Association, as well as recognized as the "Kumon for Dogs" by Montclair Magazine.
