Training

Training at Cottonwood Ranch and Kennel

Ted Hoff has been training all dog breeds for over 30 years. His expertise spans a variety of training disciplines from basic obedience to the finely tuned retriever gundog.

As a young boy of 10 years old he got his first dog, a black Labrador retriever named Pearl Bailey. Ted and Pearl built a relationship focused on obedience and retriever training that led him to a life long pursuit of developing relationships with dogs. As a renowned dog trainer of the western slope, Ted has learned obedience and training techniques from a variety of resources, books, seminars, and personal training interaction. As a dog trainer, Ted’s most important influence is his unique relationship with dogs that comes from an intuitive understanding of how dogs think and behave in a relationship with their owners. Ted’s ability to ‘whisper’ with dogs has lead to a very personal style of dog training that relies heavily on positive reinforcement, consistent interaction, and a deep understanding of the dog’s body language. The Kennel focuses training on positive reinforcement and consistent interaction with the dogs to achieve the desired end result of a well-trained dog. Ted’s positive calming techniques separate him from other dog trainers. He observes the dog’s body language while building trust and calming the dogs through touch and praise. This positive reinforcement training allows Ted to spend a great deal of time with the dog that results in a well-trained animal.

While dog training Ted also spends time with the owner to teach them the training techniques that their trained dog has learned at the kennels. This is profoundly important in dog training because it gives the owner an understanding of obedience training and how to continue the positive reinforcement that reinforces the relationship between dog and owner, the dog’s life long trainer. The dog and his/her owners leave Colorado’s western slope  and Cottonwood Ranch and Kennels with a deep understanding of the  training techniques and concrete tools to help them continue positive reinforcement training with their dog as they grow and situations change.

A well-rounded day at the kennel includes exercise, socialization, and purposeful play. Each training session is a repetitive short session where the dog learns the to be calm, attentive, and follow through with training. The end result is well trained dog that has a strong relationship with the trainer. “Camp” starts when the dog is released from their training session for open play. These training sessions help increase a dog’s attention span. Most importantly theses sessions allow the trainer the opportunity< to create a special relationship between dog and owner that leads to the desired positive life-long experience. 

One on one training with the dog’s owner is done here on the ranch at time of pick up of newly trained dog. Please contact Ted as training nears completion for time and date for pickup and dog owners’ training.

Dog Training:   $1200/month
Followup training$45/day (after initial month with Ted)