Evergreen School for Dogs

Home
United States
Arlington, WA
Evergreen School for Dogs

Welcome to our page. We offer dog training services that specialize in problem solving, obedience training, and aggressive behavior.

We offer private lessons, boarding and training, and training classes. Hello and Welcome to our page. We offer dog training services to Seattle and surrounding areas. Evergreen School for Dogs is owned by professional dog trainers Tommy Grammer and Corday Rice. We specialize in training for the companion dog. Visit our website for information on all of our dog training services we current

ly offer: www.evergreenschoolfordogs.com. Or drop us an email at [email protected]. We look forward to working with you and your dog!

08/05/2026

I had such a surprisingly nice group of board and train dogs this past month, Tater the Pyrenees and Moose the Berner mix were picked up last week, and Speedy, Elvis and Sunny all depart on Friday, leaving me a my gang to start anew into the unknown 😂

I don't always have five dogs at one time that all get along well, and it sure does make my job more fun! I was especially impressed that this group, with some adult dogs and a lot of different personalities and issues, could learn to not only play well together but also practice some picture perfect group stays🤩

I have a whole new group and journey ahead of me this month, and I hope these guys didn't leave me too spoiled!

08/01/2026

Meet Speedy and Elvis!

These two golden doodle brothers have been through a lot in the past few months, but they're smiling through it, showing once again how adaptable dogs can be.

Their owner passed away recently and now they will need to leave home on Vashon Island and start new lives in a new environment. Luckily for them, their owner's niece has stepped up by arranging training and care for the dogs, and will most likely adopt one of them and find the very best placement for the other. She herself had to return home to Colorado to work and prepare for another dog, she had an older female mix already, and in the meantime I will be assessing and training both dogs in hopes for the most positive placement results.

Given some of the behavioral issues that I have seen, it's my recommendation that the two dogs be placed in separate homes. I realize that this idea makes many people sad and some downright angry, but I'd encourage them to place more importance on longterm success in rehoming, rather than their knee jerk emotional reactions to the circumstances. Littermates are difficult in the best scenarios, and with all of the flux currently in their lives, untangling their codependency and shared bad habits with separation would be extremely beneficial.

Both Speedy and Elvis get along very well with dogs of all different temperaments, and placement with another dog that could help balance them out, along with more structure around the home and consistent training could set them each up for a calm and happy life.

Since they've been here I've done a ton of work on all of the basics like leash walking, stays, recall, waits and outs, and have also worked to diminish some of their excessive barking, neediness and general lack of manners. They're both such nice bright dogs and have absorbed the training and new good habits so quickly! I think wherever they both land their new person will be very lucky❤️

07/30/2026

It's not too late for great summer manners!
You still have plenty of time before the dark days of fall and winter to brush up on your dog's obedience and leash walking skills, so come join us as we practice both during our group class/walk.

We usually spend half the class working in a circle on exercises like sit stay, down stay, leave it and u turns, then head out on the trail for a short group walk, stopping along the way as needed. It's a great way to get you and your dog prepped for your own adventures outside!

We still have spots available for class this Saturday, August 1st at 11am, so stop procrastinating and come make some positive changes with us!

For more information and to register follow the link below, and we hope to see you on Saturday!

https://www.evergreenschoolfordogs.com/group-training-class

07/28/2026

Meet Sunny!

Sunny is a 2 year old lab mix here for the three week board and train program. He was recently adopted by relatives after his owner's death, and moved to West Seattle where he now lives with two other adult labs.

The transition has been hard on everyone, and Sunny's hyperactivity and lack of communication skills made a board and train a perfect choice. While he's here I am focusing on manners around people (he's a jumper, a licker, and a space invader in general) and also manners around dogs. The group of other board and trains and my personal dogs have been really helpful in this so far, and I'm already seeing big changes in Sunny.

This is a prime example of an excellent dog that just needs a bit of polish! His underlying temperament is friendly and balanced, he just had to discard some counterproductive attention seeking habits, learn a few skills like leash walking, come when called, out and wait, and he'll be a really fantastic companion for a very long time. You also just gotta love a black mixed breed dog, some of the best dogs you'll ever find!

07/24/2026

Meet Tater Tot!

"Tater" is a 1 year old Great Pyrenees female here for a two week board and train. She is a very social, kind dog that gets along well either everyone! This poses a bit of a problem where she lives in Seattle though, as she's pulling a lot on leash when she wants to visit strangers and friends alike. She also needed a lot of work on recall. When I first read this request in her pre enrollment, I let her owner know that while I would try my best, LGD's in general and Pyrenees in particular are notoriously poor at coming when called. She understood the breed well and let me know she'd be happy with any improvement😅

Thankfully, Tater has been one of the more biddable LGD's that I've worked with, and she's actually a lot better at recall already. During a board and train, I will often use a strict schedule feed of dry kibble to help build food drive if necessary. Her owner had already succumbed to adding all sorts of toppings to her meals to get her to eat, thus making her much less inclined to work for treats during training sessions.

Now her interest in treats is still low compared to a golden retriever for instance, but at least it's there!

Tater and I have had a lot of fun in the past week together, visiting the farmers market, Lowe's and downtown Arlington to work on leash walking and neutrality around people and dogs. She's also gotten to show off her natural genetic abilities while at my property, often lying down behind a fence nearest to the goats and horses, sweetly and quietly keeping guard❤️

07/22/2026

Meet Moose!

This sweet sweet sweet 4 year old Bernese/Golden retriever mix is here for a three week board and train. Did I mention he's sweet?
He also has little bit of a sweet tooth (his dad was in the habit of feeding him nilla wafers among other things, throughout the day 😅), and because he's fairly overweight he can really throw that weight around when he wants to, causing some major leash walking issues!

Moose is also pretty impulsive about making contact with new people, dogs and even smells, a really bad habit if you want a pleasant and controlled walk pretty much anywhere. I've done an equipment change with him and also lots of practice out and about in the past week and it's so much improved already! Of course I'm also practicing all of the usuals like place stay, recall, sit and down stays, and waits and outs, all of which he excels at learning.

This is a really cool mix of breeds, Moose was adopted so we're not sure if it was accidental or not. While I'm personally against the intentional breeding of mixes, as long as shelters are overloaded with mixed and purebreds alike, this one makes some sense at least. I saw a post about a Malinoisdoodle "breeder" the other day and just about lost my mind!
In Moose however, the more independent Bernese balances out a Golden's sometimes overwhelming affection, and the Golden's eagerness to please diminishes some stubborn qualities in the Bernese.

Overall he's been a joy to get to know, stay tuned for updates on this big sweet Moose!

07/21/2026

What exactly are you asking your dog to do when you say “leave it”?

One of many things that I found refreshing while hiking around Mount Baker was a noticeable lack of the leave it chant. This is my term for the way certain owners repeat, "Leave it? Leave it? Leave it?” as they are standing by for or passing another dog. I only heard it once while there🎉

There often doesn’t seem to be any change one way or the other with these individuals' dogs. Either the dog continues to stand still fairly neutrallly, at which point the owner praises them, or they do become reactive, at which point, in lieu of any sort of correction or movement away, the owner just restarts the chant again. All of this seems fairly amorphous and indefinable, thus making it difficult to tell whether the action asked for is being performed or not. It also makes it difficult for the person passing to gauge the situation and adjust their movements and decisions accordingly.

Possibly the dog is doing the leave it perfectly. It was planning on a big explosive reaction, the chanting began, and the dog made a drastic decision to maintain eye contact with the other dog but not explode into barking. And when the dog does become reactive or strains on the leash, is this because they are directly disobeying the command? Or do they understand the task as little as I do? Without advanced dog telepathy it seems impossible to know!

My suggestion to clarify all of this would be to ask your dog for some sort of definable
movement or task to accompany the leave it. I don’t love “watch me” and “look” in general, just because I think they can be too restrictive and cause explosive reactivity if broken midway. I also find things like “find it” or scattering food on the ground very impractical for real-life use and on the trail especially.

I think something very simple like a front, a come to heel or if you want something even easier, just a shifting of the dog’s hips away from you and toward the passing dog could make an otherwise inscrutable "leave it" much clearer. Let me know in the comments if you have a concrete task that accompanies leave it, I'd love to hear more ideas!

07/18/2026

We just added two drop in group classes to the schedule, join us for one or both!

Saturday, July 25th at 3 PM
Saturday, August 1st at 11 AM

We'll be practicing a range of fun exercises designed to prepare you and your dog for public outings. For more information and to register follow the link below. Hope to see you there!

https://www.evergreenschoolfordogs.com/group-training-class

07/17/2026

Air Jail on the Trail?

As I was making my way back to the truck on a narrow mountain trail one morning, I rounded a corner and encountered two young women with a medium/small doodle. He was leashed and wearing a sturdy harness, and I immediately offered to step off the trail and allow them to pass. When they got just a little closer the doodle started to puff up and bark, so I said "Hold on, lemme go back where there's a little more space." Before I had a chance the woman holding his leash said "That's okay, he's goin' to Air Jail!", at which point she lifted him by the harness a foot or so off the ground and easily and quietly walked by us. The dog's demeanor had completely shifted from reactive to calm and compliant, and when he was placed back down on the ground he maintained this new attitude, at least while I was there.

Not only was the move extremely appropriate for that moment, the woman had done it with such confidence and lightheartedness that all of us, including Adira, left the interaction smiling!

I've been fully aware of the concept and uses of "air jail" for years and years, but knew it by other names like slinging, lifting, hoisting, etc, and was unaware of the memery of it all until I got back to civilization to check the term. Guess I'm not getting enough screen time, because apparently it was quite the trend and even a Puppy Songs track a few years ago!

Of course along with that popularity there is a huge online backlash by the force free community and others that believe if you do anything even slightly averse to correct bad behavior it's potentially abusive. That's a shame. I think most dogs would happily trade a few minutes of air jail for a 6 hour drama free hike with their owner.

This is also why I think it's so important for trainers, handlers and dog owners to spend the majority of their time learning from actual experiences with their dogs and others' dogs, rather than looking for simple answers or following sweeping "philosophies" online . This dog training stuff is complicated, nuanced and personal, and the reality of it does not garner clicks!

07/16/2026

Getting your dogs to relax outside takes practice too!

Just like everything else you teach your dogs to do, relaxing in a new environment takes practice and structure, especially in the first few days of a trip. If you've ever admired a dog that seems content to lay near his owner off leash even while they're busy fishing or swimming, chances are they've done that activity many times, and it also probably didn't look that great in the beginning. The same goes for those aspirational brewery and coffee shop dogs, I'm willing to bet that their owners don't just drink beer or coffee there once in a blue moon, but go regularly and their dogs have improved with time.

The first couple of days on my trip, my guys were very restless when we weren't walking or doing something otherwise. Especially on the beach, Meadow would be looking for hunting trails that led back into the woods, Adira would be nervously scanning for "intruders" and Wyatt would be politely asking me if we could go back somewhere with softer bedding😂

I had to leash and place them in stays intermittently, and I was using a lot of food rewards to keep them from wandering. You would think they might automatically be very content to be in such a place, but new habits, even appealing ones, take time and energy to form. I was even a little disappointed and frustrated at a few points, thinking "Why can't they just appreciate the moment?!?", as if I'm any good at that either😭

But after a few days everyone, including me, started to have an easier time just sitting or lying around, and that's when it started to really feel like a vacation. Try to keep this lesson in mind (I will too), any time you go somewhere new with your dog or are practicing a new skill. It may be messy and strenuous at first, but give it at least 3 or more tries before you decide to give up, there are usually bigger rewards than just treats for everyone if you do!

Address

24914 27th Avenue NE
Arlington, WA
98223

Telephone

+14252440835

Website

http://evergreenschoolfordogs.com/

Alerts

Be the first to know and let us send you an email when Evergreen School for Dogs posts news and promotions. Your email address will not be used for any other purpose, and you can unsubscribe at any time.

Contact The Business

Send a message to Evergreen School for Dogs:

Want your business to be the top-listed Pet Store/pet Service in Arlington?