Dog Clicks: Fall 2026 Positive Dog Training in Midcoast Maine

Long before I started clicking with horses, I was clicking with dogs! My introduction to clicker training came in 2000, when my husband and I brought home our chocolate Lab puppy, Ula. We took her to train with Thomas Lambert of Canine Connections, and clicker training was a completely new concept to me. I loved it immediately.

Instead of simply asking a dog to do something and correcting mistakes, clicker training made me pay much closer attention to how I was communicating. Was my timing clear? Did Ula understand what I was asking? Was I rewarding the behavior I actually wanted?

Ula was an excellent first student—smart, willing, and very easy to train. We went on to take obedience, agility, and flyball classes together until she was about six years old.

Then came the Poodle Doodles, which meant about six more years of dog-training classes!

And now I have two young Jack Russell Terriers keeping me on my toes and giving me plenty of opportunities to continue experimenting, learning, and practicing.

All of that has come full circle with Dog Clicks at Moose Ridge Farm.

From Click to Connection

Starting in September 2026, I’m offering a new six-week Dog Clicks: From Click to Connection series at Moose Ridge Farm in Lincolnville.

These are positive-reinforcement, clicker-based classes designed to help dogs and their people develop something more important than a list of obedience commands: clear communication, confidence, trust, and a way of learning together.

Of course, we’ll work on practical skills such as:

• Sit, stay, come, and focus

• Polite leash walking

• Calm handling

• Reward timing

• Using the clicker as a clear communication marker

• Confidence around new objects and environments

• Simple agility and enrichment games

But the bigger goal is helping you understand how your dog learns.

Once you have that piece, training becomes useful far beyond the classroom.

Why Train a Dog at a Horse Farm?

Because real life doesn’t happen in a perfectly quiet training room.

At Moose Ridge Farm, we have the opportunity to work in a variety of spaces and gradually introduce different distractions. Depending on the lesson and the dogs in the group, we may train in the indoor arena, barn aisle, office, fenced yard, around the farm pond, or along the surrounding woods.

One week your dog may be practicing focus and loose-leash walking in the arena. Another lesson might involve navigating a simple obstacle, settling calmly in a different environment, or practicing recall outdoors.

The farm gives us room to make training practical, interesting, and fun!

Dog Training Is Really People Training, Too

One of the things I have always appreciated about clicker training is that it makes the trainer more thoughtful.

The clicker gives your dog very precise information: Yes—that thing you just did is what I wanted.

But for that communication to work, we humans have to improve our timing, observation, consistency, and reinforcement skills too.

That is also why these are family-friendly dog-training classes. Mindful children are encouraged and welcome to participate!

Dogs live with the whole family, and life is much easier when everyone engages with the Click Treat Reward curriculum, understands the cues, rewards the same behaviors, and follows similar household expectations.

Training becomes less about one person having a “trained dog” and more about the entire family learning how to communicate with their canine companion.

Fall 2026 Dog Clicks Schedule

Puppy Class
Mondays, 6:00–7:00 p.m.
Beginning September 21, 2026

Dogs Ages 1+
Tuesdays, 6:00–7:00 p.m.
Beginning September 22, 2026

Late Fall / Early Winter 2026 Sessions

Puppies: Mondays beginning November 2
Dogs ages 1+: Tuesdays beginning November 3
Time: 6:00–7:00 PM
Length: 6 weeks
Cost: $200 per dog
Location: Moose Ridge Farm, 191 Moose Ridge Farm, Lincolnville, Maine

Both cohorts run for six weeks.

Tuition: $200 for six lessons
Location: Moose Ridge Farm, Lincolnville, Maine

Classes are intentionally kept small so there is time for individual instruction while dogs also gain experience learning around other dogs and people.

New to Clicker Training?

If you are a brand-new client, I strongly encourage scheduling a private dog-training lesson before joining the group.

Private lessons give us a chance to get to know your dog, talk about your goals and challenges, introduce the foundations of clicker training, and work on your timing before adding the distractions of a class environment.

I also offer private in-home dog-training sessions, which can be especially helpful because we can work on behavior where everyday life actually happens.

A private lesson isn't required before joining the fall series, but it can make the transition into group training much easier for both dog and handler.

Twenty-Five Years of Clicking—and Still Learning

One of the reasons I continue to enjoy positive-reinforcement training is that there is always more to learn.

I have now used and taught positive-reinforcement training with horses for more than 23 years, alongside the years I have spent training my own dogs in obedience, agility, flyball, and everyday life.

More recently, I spent three incredibly informative days at the Karen Pryor Clicker Expo, attending sessions on animal behavior and dog training and bringing home new ideas to explore with both my canine and human students.

And my Jack Russells make sure I get plenty of homework.

Whether I am working with a horse, a puppy, an adult dog, or a person learning to handle a clicker for the first time, the principle is much the same:

Clear communication changes the relationship.

That is what Dog Clicks: From Click to Connection is really about.

Come train your dog at a horse farm, learn some new skills, have some fun, and discover just how much can happen with one little click.