Our Services

Training & Behavior Modification

Training

We provide state of the art reinforcement training for animals. Whether you are trying to solve basic manners issues for your companion animal, need help with your competitive edge or would like assessment as to why your training is not working we have solutions for you. ($150/hour, sessions in packages of 5)

Behavior Modification

We serve the needs of people wanting to modify or manage aggression, fear, compulsive or obsessive disorders, and separation anxiety problems. This group of behavior issues requires a complete medical screening and our working hand-in-hand with your veterinarian. Cyclical reports to your veterinarian are provided to document the animal’s progress and compliance issues. ($150/hour, sessions in packages of 10)

Due to the nature of our work, aggression services are rendered in sets of appointments that are prepaid before service starts, after the initial consultation.

Medical rule out and pre-screening process

All behavior problems that are chronic or deemed dangerous require veterinarian prescreening to eliminate the possibility of health disorders presenting as behavior problems. A Step Beyond works in concert with your veterinarian in the treatment of chronic behavior disorders by providing consultation reports and updates on progress directly to your vetrinarian. When appropriate, we work as a team with your veterinarian to insure that all aspects of your pet’s behavior are being considered and treated.

Behavioral guarantees

We wish that we could guarantee that your pet’s problem behavior will be completely cured after our visit with you, but such a claim is not professionally ethical, realistic or responsible. How your dog responds to training or behavior modification depends on many factors, including genetics, early environment, current environment and how much time you have to work on treatment and training protocols. Because of these factors, it is impossible to predict exactly how any one dog will respond to treatment. The single most important factor in behavior work of any kind is the consistency and compliance of the owner and the completion of their homework.

Results

We will do all that we can to maximize your chance for success and facilitate the change you desire. At the conclusion of the program, owners will be able to:

Respond thoughtfully in multiple situations
Manage their dog to gain cooperative results
Assess accurately the nature of their dog’s progress and problem solve directly

Appointments

Appointments are made by contacting us. Our staff will contact you to start the first steps toward a consultation.

Because of high demand for our services, we cannot provide phone or email consultations for initial appointments, training or behavior modification advice, or euthanasia assessment. We strongly believe that providing any service without the benefit of seeing your dog’s behavior, taking a complete history and ruling out all medical issues that masquerade as behavior problems is professionally inappropriate.

We require that all clients fill out a pre-appointment behavioral inventory questionnaire for our staff to review before we schedule an appointment for you. We recognize that not everyone will feel comfortable in doing so. However the questionnaire is one of the most valuable tools we have for understanding the entirety of the behavior issues you are attempting to solve.

After you contact us, we will email you the extensive questionnaire. Please fill it out completely so that we have all of the appropriate information required to help you and your dog.

Once we have the behavioral inventory in hand, we will carefully review it for baseline information. Then a staff member will call you to make your appointment. It is a necessary first step in providing you with a quality training experience.

Because of the nature of the cases we take, all clients are asked to sign a contract in order for services to be rendered.

Initial appointments for serious behavioral problems usually last about 2 hours and cost $300. Most follow up appointments are about an hour in length, and cost $150 per session.