Our Anxious Puppy Program is designed to help your puppy reduce anxiety and fears. This can help clear the path for working on manners training and living a happier, more comfortable life together. We can help with topics such as crate anxiety, fear of being outside, distrust of other dogs, low confidence, and much more.
Program Snapshot
- Format: Private lessons with you and your puppy
- Location: We can come to your home or our training facility
- Number of sessions: The trainer will conduct an assessment, then give you a proposed number of sessions
- Positive Reinforcement: We only use positive reinforcement methods, the fastest and best way to train a dog
- Location:
- The Tucker Pup's Training System: A structured, proven training system that combines home exercises, step-by-step videos, and personalized recommendations - all supported by an online platform that keeps everything organized and includes tools that maximize your success
- Behaviors: See Behaviors We Can Work On section below
- Price: $175 per session plus $10 if we come to your home
Behaviors We Can Improve
The Tucker Pup's Training System
The Tucker Pup Training System is a comprehensive, cohesive approach to training — built around home exercises and supported by our TrainTrack platform, so real progress continues between sessions and everything stays organized and on track.
Carefully curated home exercises
We teach you the best home exercises, so you can build repetition and real learning in 30 minutes or less per day
Step-by-step training videos
Clear instructional videos that demonstrate how to perform the home exercises, so you easily remember all of the steps
Personalized recommendations
Daily adjustments designed specifically for your dog, goals, and home environment (private lesson programs only)
TrainTrack platform
Access everything in one place so you maximize your success — view videos of your assigned exercises, read handouts, and track your progress (additional features available in private lesson programs, including video uploads to your trainer and more)
Watch Videos of Home Exercises on Your Device
Program Details
Our Travel Radius
One of our trainers can home to your home if you live within our travel radius. We routinely go all throughout Chicago each day, including to Lakeview, Lincoln Park, Bucktown, Wrigleyville, Gold Coast, River North, downtown, East Loop, West Loop, South Loop, and all neighborhoods in between.
These boundaries go north to Irving Park Road, east to the lake, south to Roosevelt, and west to Western Avenue.
If you live a few streets beyond these boundaries we can likely still come to your home.
Otherwise, you would need to come to our training facility.
Our Trainers Travel All Over Chicago
FAQs
Is it better to work at our home or the training facility?
It can be helpful if we come to your home, so we can see the environment and make any recommendations. In addition, your puppy could be anxious about coming into our facility, if he has a fear of unfamiliar places and people. However, it could be beneficial to come here for at least some of the sessions, as we have many resources to help build confidence.
What if I want to work on puppy manners such as leash walking?
Generally speaking, we recommend addressing fears and anxiety before attempting manners training, which involves outdoor leash walking, recall work in an open space, and more. If your puppy is highly anxious, success with leash walking will very likely be impeded.
What if I want to add or change behaviors?
This is not a problem, within reason. The program can be customized, and we can certainly add sessions and tackle additional behaviors. Having said that, if a behavior is likely too challenging until others are learned, we will discuss that with you. Just talk with us about your goals and we will help achieve them.
What if my puppy is not finished with all rounds of vaccinations?
If we are coming to your home, that is not a problem. If you are coming to our training facility, it is not a problem as long as your vet believes your puppy is on track and you have completed at least two of the three rounds. Rabies is not required for puppies.
How long does it take to overcome a fear?
That depends on your puppy. You could be battling factors such as genetics, breed characteristics, a change in the environment such as coming here from a rural area, or a prior traumatic event. Having said that, we have games and exercises that can certainly help relax your puppy. For many of them, six weeks is plenty of time to build their confidence, while others may take longer.
Price and Payment Options
- $135 for an initial assessment
- $175 per session
- $10 additional per session if we come to your home, plus any parking fees that we incur.
- You can add our Puppy Starter Program, where we work on potty training, crate training, play biting, and socialization.
Puppy socials are an hour of games, training exercises, and rest time, all with puppies of a similar size and temperament.
You can learn more about puppy socials by going back to the main Puppy Training page, and choosing Puppy Socials.
Reviews from Puppy Customers
Yelp has listed Tucker Pup's as one of the top 100 local businesses in the country in 2025. We are the only pet business who made the list from Chicago, and the only pet resort / training business who made the list nationally.
See the List
Positive Reinforcement Methods
Tucker Pup's only uses positive reinforcement, which combines the use of rewards, an encouraging tone of voice, and relaxed body language. We do not use aversive methods include prong collars, choke chains, shock collars, poking, yelling, or leash popping. If you are using any of these with your dog, we can help you successfully stop, and still get the results you want.
Positive reinforcement gives you the best chance of success, and can be the fastest way to get results. Aversive methods cause distrust, fear, and potentially pain or discomfort, all of which can be detrimental to getting the results and relationship that you want.
Common questions:
- Do I need to carry treats for the rest of my dog's life? Treats are for teaching behaviors - once your dog can reliably perform, treats can be phased out at your discretion.
- Do I need to carry treats at all times? No. If there are times where you are not carrying treats, our methods can still work.
- Can I use a different type of reward than treats? It may be possible to use something else your dog values, such as a favorite toy.
- Is positive reinforcement too soft for my dog? Not a bit. The best way to build reliable skills is through trust and motivation. Being tough with your dog can cause him to shut down, have anxiety, ignore you, and not truly learn.
- I have tried treats, but they don't work for my dog. You were likely using low-value treats, including from a store. We will recommend high-value treats that are irresistable for most dogs, including in high-distraction environments.
- Will it take longer to achieve results? This is a common myth. Positive reinforcement can create faster results than aversive methods, because your dog is motivated to listen to you, and truly wants to learn.
- Is it bribery? No! All animals learn behaviors from being rewarded, including humans. You wouldn't go to work for free, would you? Motivation + repetition = new behaviors.
If you are hesitant, please trust us on this one and feel free to ask us questions.
Neighborhoods We Serve
Tucker Pup's is located in the West Loop / Fulton Market District neighborhood. People come to us from all over Chicago, especially from Bucktown, Gold Coast, Lake View, Lincoln Park, Old Town, River North, River West, South Loop, Streeterville, Ukrainian Village, University Village, West Town and Wicker Park.
