On a bright, sunny late March morning, Boulder resident Paige Seitz strategically placed small orange cones in a car-free area of the Helena Fairgrounds parking lot.
Her two canine students – three more joined 40 minutes later – waited patiently next to their guardians, looking around and sniffing the ground. Callie, a sweet black mix with a grey muzzle, and Gimme Bacon, a curious French Bulldog, were ready for the first group dog walk organized by Seitz’s three-year-old business, Moonlight Mutts.
“I don’t think enough people know about her,” said Boulder resident Christina Binkowski, Callie’s owner, who was there with her husband Bruce. “It’s nice to have someone in Boulder.”
Most of Seitz’s clients live in Helena, but she’s been working to attract customers in central Jefferson County, including dog owners in Boulder, Basin, and Jefferson City. “I would love to have more work closer to home,” she told The Monitor.
In the Helena parking lot, dogs were given a green or yellow bandana to indicate their comfort level with people and other dogs. Kicking off class, both Callie and Gimme wore yellow, indicating some anxiety around others. The Binkowskis adopted Callie a little over a year ago.
She’s been mostly good and seems to love their 14-year-old dog, Taz. But Callie tends to get nervous and protective around other dogs, especially if she fears Taz is under threat. They hoped Seitz would help them train their dog to be able to play with others, Christina explained.
Just before the group walk, the 31-year-old Seitz presented the dogs and their owners with a few basic commands. “Look!” she advised, is meant to get dogs to stop being distracted by noises, other dogs, or scurrying squirrels, and make eye contact with their owners.
“Touch” is meant to get the dog to place their nose in the palm of their owners’ outstretched hand. Finally, “1, 2, 3,” should prompt the dog to come to heel at their owner’s side. Seitz added that every proper response should earn a treat, an enthusiastic pet, or a “Good dog!”
Verbal commands, she explained, help owners avoid the physical aggression of yanking their dog’s head around while improving behavior.
“If they’re trying to go sniff something, and they drag you over to it, then they reward themselves for pulling,” said Seitz. “Even though it can make your walk a lot longer and a little more tedious, just stand there. Be boring.”
Seitz’s animal training career began some 15 years ago, as a teenager on a Colorado alpaca ranch. She trained the guard dogs that protected the alpacas from predators and fell in love with the work. “Seeing the change in their behavior and the change in their owner’s understanding, it just builds a better relationship,” Seitz said.
Seitz’s personal life also prompted her to pursue dog training professionally. When she and her husband started dating, their two dogs would often get into fights, adding a great deal of stress.
“They hated each other. They hated people,” Seitz recalled. “They were actually my inspiration to get back into training, because neither one of us was going to get rid of our dogs, and we had to make it work.”
After Seitz and her husband moved to Montana in 2019, she gained dog-training accreditation at PetSmart and began working as one of the company’s trainers. “So that we could have peace in our own home, and so that I could really help other people too,” Seitz said, adding that their two dogs are now best friends.
Seitz enjoyed working at PetSmart but soon felt that too many dogs were being left out. PetSmart only does group training and bars dogs with serious behavioral problems.
“It was so hard for me to turn people down. They desperately wanted help,” said Seitz, who realized that few Helena-area trainers specialized in dogs with severe behavioral issues. “So I was like, ‘Well, why don’t I do it? Somebody has to.”
Seitz completed a fundamentals training certification from Victoria Sitwell Academy and a dogs aggressive master course run by Michael Shikashio, a highly regarded dog trainer, and hung out her shingle.
She named her company Moonlight Mutts to honor the days when she and her husband had to walk their dogs at night to avoid potentially difficult encounters with others – dogs and people.
Seitz offers a three-hour foundations package for $375, a seven-session package for dogs with behavioral issues for $750, and a package of 10 one-hour training sessions for aggressive dogs for $1,200.
Dog owners can also test the waters with a $60 training consultation – which is the route the Binkowskis took before the late March outing. They had never planned to get another pup as they were happy with Taz.
Even when Christina brought Callie home, they’d expected to foster her for a couple days. But not longer after, Bruce walked into their bedroom and told his wife they had a problem. “I can’t get rid of her,” he admitted.
Now that they’ve got their pup, they’re determined to give Callie the best life possible, including teaching her to get along with other dogs. Seitz is happy to assist.
“I want people to actually have their dog be their best friend,” she said.
