The Thinking Dog System

Service area: Houston, TX

Puppy Training focuses on preventing undesirable behaviors, building healthy leader-follower relationships, and covering manners, toileting, chewing, biting, crating, and communication. It utilizes an “Art of Praise” and confidence-building exercises.

Private Dog Training offers tailored lessons that begin in the client’s home and progress to more distracting environments. These sessions address both standard curriculum and specific behavioral issues, and can serve as a prerequisite for joining group classes.

Group Dog Obedience Classes provide an economical way to learn and offer opportunities for appropriate socialization. Clients typically undergo an evaluation and may require initial private sessions to prepare both dog and owner for the group setting.

Advanced Dog Training prepares dogs for competition levels, including Rally Obedience and Traditional Obedience. This program emphasizes precision, adherence to rules and etiquette, and mentally preparing the handler. Future plans include agility, fly ball, weight pull, and field trials.

Behavioral Rehabilitation addresses aggressive dog behavior, nervousness, and biting. It focuses on understanding canine communication and needs, with an initial in-home consultation involving all family members to establish a unified approach. A structured management program, including specific exercises, techniques, tools, and vocabulary, is provided.

Canine Good Citizen Training and Certification prepares dogs and owners for the AKC Canine Good Citizen test, as well as the Community Canine and Urban Dog levels. Training covers leash control with distractions, handling loud noises, introductions to other dogs and strangers, and off-leash reliability.

Dog Daycare with Pack Social, Skill Building, & Pack Therapy is an innovative daycare program established in 2001. It is rooted in training, games, activities, and social skill building, designed particularly for dogs that struggled in conventional daycare. The program uses highly skilled and stable dogs to help unstable dogs learn to socialize in a safe, controlled environment.

Pricing Summary

Group obedience classes are described as the most economical option. No specific pricing rates or packages are provided.

The Thinking Dog System, operating out of Club Canine, is Houston’s premiere dog obedience training provider. They offer a proven and rewarding training system that aims to create a balanced-minded, attentive dog capable of making good decisions. Their approach goes beyond traditional treat-based training, focusing instead on teaching owners to be effective leaders and communicators, fostering a confident, respected, and trusting relationship.

They provide a comprehensive range of services including Puppy Training, Group Obedience Classes, Private Lessons, Advanced Training, Behavioral Rehabilitation, and Canine Good Citizen preparation. In addition to training, they offer Doggy Daycare and Board & Train services.

The business emphasizes “fair and balanced leadership” and “clear communication for real world reliability,” aiming to equip dogs to handle busy urban and social settings safely. Their system is built on over 60 years of family experience, claiming success where conventional pet dog training has failed.

Accomplishments

Dean Miller: Began training in the family business in the early 1980s and graduated from Bud Brownhill’s Institute of K9 Behavior Therapy in the early 90s. He developed a specialized canine unit as a criminal investigator and later started his own training businesses in Los Angeles and New York before opening Dogs California LLC in Houston in 2000. In 2001, he developed the “Pack Socials” program for doggy daycare. In 2004, he branded “The Thinking Dog” training system. His American Pit Bull Terrier, Krom, was the highest-ranking APBT in obedience in 2004 and 2005, ranking top 25 all-breed nationally, and achieved a score of 199.5 out of 200, ranking #6 nationally at the UKC Invitational in 2005. Dean and his students have won numerous AKC and UKC High in Trials and Front and Finish Platinum and Gold awards. Krom also won first place and HIT at the APBT National show in 2007 despite a partially torn ACL. Dean is co-owner of Club Canine and director of behavior and obedience for Fido Fit. He serves as a legal consultant on dog bite and aggression prevention and has been a consultant, evaluator, speaker, and program developer for various organizations, schools, universities, and rescue groups. He was the past director of Behavior and Obedience for Loving Spots Dalmatian Rescue and past South West Regional Director of Training for Heart Therapy Service Dogs International-2000.

Dallas Trull: Has over 10 years of experience working with dogs in a kennel environment and five years performing grooming duties, learning from a top AKC conformation competitor. He has been a student and apprentice in The Thinking Dog Training System since 2011. Dallas has titled his personal dogs in Beginner Novice Obedience (3 consecutive 190+ scores, 3 podiums), Rally Novice Obedience (all first-place finishes), and earned two legs of his Novice A Obedience title with a high score of 193.5. He is the lead manager for Club Canine’s learning dog daycare programs (Pack Socials, Pack Behavior Therapy, Puppy Partners) and assists in teaching group classes, AKC S.T.A.R. Puppy curriculum/testing, and AKC Canine Good Citizen testing.

Don Miller: Has trained dogs with the family since the mid-1980s in Southern California, learning directly under Bud Brownhill. He was one of the first to successfully attend and graduate from the K9 Institute as a Certified Trainer. Over 15 years, he honed his skills by running classes, conducting private lessons, performing behavioral aggression rehabilitation, and conducting behavioral evaluations for legal cases. He fostered and rehabilitated many dogs with severe behavior and aggression disorders, including Akitas, Rottweilers, Pit Bulls, Chow Chows, Dobermans, Spitz, and small Terriers.

Caroline Boatman: Serves as Club Canine’s gatekeeper, handling public relations, front office organization, and managing Pack Socials as a floor manager and dog handler since the facility’s inception. She successfully resolved her own miniature Yorkshire Terrier’s unstable behavior using The Thinking Dog System. With her Pit Bull X, Lucy, she competed at the Reliant World Series of Dogs show in July 2013, earning her first two legs of her title with scores of 198 and 198.5 out of 200. They completed their Companion Dog title in Fall 2013 with scores of 198.5 and 197.5. Lucy is used as a Club Canine ambassador and a testament to the training program.

How to Get Started!

To get started, clients need to schedule an initial In Home Training and Behavior session with one of the trainers. This session is designed to assess the dog’s needs and begin developing a training plan.