Darn Good Dogs Chicago

Puppy Training – two packages, one for puppies under 16 weeks and one for teens 4 to 12 months old.

Team Training – you and your dog learn together, preventing or solving problems, teaching good manners, and building a foundation.

Day Training – a trainer does the teaching while you are at work, well suited to puppies.

Behavior Issues – customized work on over-arousal, reactivity, jumping and mouthing, resource guarding, fearfulness, and anxiety, using relaxation exercises, enrichment, confidence-building games, and gradual counterconditioning and desensitization.

Sessions run in your home, virtually, or as a hybrid. There is also a free mini course on setting a reactive dog up for success.

Pricing Summary

Rates are not published. Behavior clients start with an initial consultation, in home or virtual, which gathers medical, socialization, and training history, reviews goals, and produces one or more written training plan proposals. That consultation is required before any package is purchased.

Book a free 20-minute discovery call to talk through the right format and what it costs.

Policies

An initial consultation is required before purchasing a behavior package. Behavior programs run weekly or biweekly with a minimum of ten sessions. Fearful dogs may begin virtually until they are comfortable with a new person, then move to in-home work at their own pace.

Darn Good Dogs Chicago states that it does not tolerate discrimination and pledges to treat all people with respect and dignity regardless of skin color, age, faith, gender identity, or socioeconomic status.

Darn Good Dogs Chicago is a private, in-home dog training company working across Chicago’s near-northwest side and lakefront neighborhoods. Joan Marie Dauber founded it in 2022 after more than 16 years as a professional trainer, and she works alongside Joan Harris, who has trained dogs and their people around Chicagoland for over 30 years.

Both trainers earned their Dog Trainer Professional certification through the Karen Pryor Academy and passed the CPDT-KA knowledge assessment from the Certification Council for Professional Dog Trainers. Their approach is force-free and positive reinforcement only, built on clicker training and the science of how dogs actually learn.

Most of the work happens in your home, where the behavior is. Two puppy packages cover puppies under 16 weeks and teenagers from 4 to 12 months, Team Training builds manners and a foundation with you and your dog together, and Day Training lets a trainer do the teaching while you are at work. Virtual sessions are available anywhere.

The deeper specialty here is behavior. The team works with over-arousal and leash reactivity, jumping and mouthing, resource guarding, and profound fear or anxiety, including the adjustment struggles common in dogs adopted from Southern rescues. Joan Marie focuses on aggression and reactivity and on helping shy dogs gain confidence in a busy city. Joan Harris spent years as Director of Canine Training and Behavior at PAWS Chicago, the Midwest’s largest no-kill shelter, and still teaches group classes there.

Accomplishments

Joan Marie Dauber holds the Karen Pryor Academy Certified Training Partner credential, graduating with distinction, and is CPDT-KA certified through the Certification Council for Professional Dog Trainers. She is pursuing Fear Free certification and attends the annual Aggression in Dogs (now CANIS) Conference. She volunteers at PAWS Chicago and has received multiple awards for her training and volunteer work there. She appears in the Netflix series The Future of, episode “Dogs,” in a puppy mill rescue, and has been featured by Fox 32 Chicago, WGN, and Chicago Magazine.

Joan Harris is a Karen Pryor Academy graduate and CPDT-KA certified, with more than 30 years training dogs in Chicagoland. She served as Director of Canine Training and Behavior at PAWS Chicago, where she evaluated the shelter’s dogs and trained staff and volunteers in safe handling and canine body language. She has earned obedience, tracking, and protection titles with her German Shepherds, and has been quoted on dog behavior by the Chicago Tribune, NBC Chicago, CBS Chicago, ABC Chicago, and Block Club Chicago.

How to Get Started!

Book a free 20-minute discovery call with one of the trainers, or call (312) 734-1015. Behavior clients then schedule an initial consultation, in home or virtual, before a package begins.