Classes with Amy Cook, Ph.D.

This is Amy’s signature Play Way class!

If your dog feels fine at home but struggles once the world gets involved, you are not alone. Barking or lunging on walks, freezing or scanning in new places, or just seeming generally stressed are all signs that your dog is overwhelmed and needs help.

This class uses Therapeutic Social Play to help dogs learn how to take in their world and know that it is safe, rather than starting from a place of escape or defense. Play Way builds your dog’s optimism, and the relaxation that supports it.

This is not about distraction or getting dogs hyped up. It is a calm, low-pressure, silly interaction that helps dogs stay under threshold, notice what is happening around them, and recover more easily. Over time, many dogs move through familiar challenges like walks, training, or new environments with less tension and more curiosity.

This course is designed for pet dogs navigating everyday challenges, sport and performance dogs who need a solid emotional foundation, and everyone in between. If you have heard about the Play Way and wondered how getting silly can be therapeutic, this is that class. And yes, play is magic.

Sound Advice: Conquering Noise Sensitivity

Is your dog worried about the noises around her? This class is for you! Whether the issue is in your house with your dog barking at the sounds outside, or you have a dog that can’t go out because buildings creak and doors slam, this class can help.

Many classes just have you follow the old recipe, giving food after small versions of your dog’s feared noise, but this class is different!  Noise parties are way more persuasive than handing your dog a treat, and we work with a variety of safe sounds first before tackling their high stakes sound!  No other class has this approach.

If your dog barks at what he hears and stresses up, or shakes and withdraws and stresses down, we can work to make him feel more at ease.  Noise issues tend to get worse if we don’t step in and help, so dogs really need us to have a solid plan to intervene and help them through this emotional challenge! 

This class teaches strategies for managing and handling dogs that are reactive to dogs and people without adding the stress that can make everything worse.

Helping them get over their fears is best done when you can set up ideal conditions, but real life means you have to take your dog for a walk outside, and even when you do your best to set things up, surprises happen!

You need management strategies that help you get through daily life that support your larger goals of reducing reactivity in your dog.

In this class you’ll learn skills for managing your dog both in public and at home.

The Social Approach

In this class you will learn just how much you matter. Your own physical movements and social signaling affect almost everything you do with your dog, from training and performance, to hiking, walking, and everyday living together.

Social signaling is the way your body language talks to your dog. When your body misaligns with your intentions, your dog can get confused and frustrated, and your dog’s way of trying to tell you can be easily misinterpreted. Let’s get on the same page!

This class is a sampler of the concepts belonging to The Social Approach, a new system developed by Josefin Linderström and Amy Cook, PhD, who will introduce you to elements aimed at relieving common conflicts that arise between you and your dog, smoothing out communication.

We will show you our essential concepts, each of which will teach you how to listen and respond with social competence, and give you practical skills that meet their social needs meaningfully, and you will have fun doing it!

In this class, you will learn:

-how space bubbles affect almost every interaction you have with your dog
-how to say with your body what you’re saying with your words
-how to “listen in dog,” and know what to say back
-how to rely your dog’s strengths, and see “naughty” in a new light
-how to tell a joke your dog will laugh at!