The Wag Doctor

I guide pet owners through improving their pet's behaviors using proven techniques.

About

I wanted to become a veterinarian. After college I worked at a local animal hospital as preparation for going to veterinary school. I'll never forget that Tuesday afternoon when, after yet another puppy euthanasia for problem behavior, I knew my calling was in animal behavior instead.

I studied animal behavior in grad school and started this service to better the bond between people and their pets. I'm now an experienced animal behavior expert, service dog trainer and AKC Canine Good Citizen Evaluator.

Contact me:

Better Real Life Behavior

Wherever you are on your dog relationship journey—from considering your first puppy to wanting your pup to have better household manners to house training a newly adopted dog to trying to get your adult dog to stop his destructive chewing or anywhere in between—my life's work is to help you get the most out of your dog's real life behavior.

Going to a dog class can be great, especially a socialization class like puppy kindergarten. But as great as obedience classes can be, they aren't very helpful for many of the daily life issues that strain the bond between person and dog.

Whether you want a great family pet or a psychiatric service dog, you will always be your dog's most important trainer because you will spend way more time with her than anyone else. I want to help you reach your dog behavior goals by guiding you through doing that training well.

I help pet owners like you train their own pup to be a joy to live with in actual real life. I want to help you train your pup while in your own home, while going for walks in your own neighborhood, and as much as possible within your existing lifestyle.

Dr. Matt is a graduate of

How It Works

1. You reach out. We discuss your pet training goals and any pet behavior problems you may have via email, phone, FaceTime or Zoom—whatever works best. I'm not a salesman and never pressure or guilt people. We'll honestly decide if this is a good fit.

2. If so, I'll provide you with a training and/or behavior modification plan, explanations, guidance and encouragement. The duration of the plan will depend primarily on whether we're preventing problems with a puppy (shorter) or dealing with an existing problem in an adult or adolescent (longer).

An example of this dog training guidance is how to teach your dog to heel. It's neither pain-based nor only treat-based. Instead, it's effective scientific and traditional wisdom.

3. You'll pay $49 a month for however long you find this beneficial to you. No cancellation hassles or anything like that. I'll give you my cell number. You'll get in touch via email, text, FaceTime or a phone call whenever you have a question, a concern, have a video to share, or simply need encouraging. I'll also check in regularly to see how things are going. If necessary, we'll recalibrate the plan and keep working together.

„

" We cannot thank you enough for all your advice and help! Your training was so much easier to follow and he is doing great now. We love him so much!"

Nancy F.

Worcester, MA

Shockingly Unwanted

Many dog trainers use painful electrical shocks to teach dogs not to do unwanted behaviors. Indeed, dogs learn quickly to not jump up on people when their e-collar zaps them as they start to jump up.

Aside from my serious ethical problem with using pain to teach basic manners, dogs don't actually learn longterm from pain delivery devices. They do learn quickly but that lesson quickly fades without ongoing reinforcement from those devices.

That's why those dog trainers tell you to always keep those collars on. If it was real learning, the dog would eventually no longer need to wear the shock collar because he would have learned not to do that behavior!

Real lifelong learning can take longer initially. But not only does it last a lot longer than pain-based training, it genuinely builds the relationship bond your pet has with you like nothing else.