Meet Our Buffalo and WNY-based Professional Dog Trainers / Canine Behavior Consultants

Max Collignon & Lauren George – Head Trainers

Lauren and Max are lifelong animal lovers, and have always had a natural way with animals and dogs in particular. Before starting their careers in professional dog training and canine behavior consulting, Lauren was a graphic and web designer helping small businesses and start-ups, and Max was a research biologist and holds both an MS and PhD in ecology and behavior; they also spent over a decade working together as dogsitters as a side gig.

While raising their first dog MJ, a chow-husky-retriever mix, Lauren and Max learned the importance of building a solid foundation of trust and the training habits needed to have a well-adjusted and happy dog. They did a lot of work with MJ, which included working thru his fear-based aggression issues, training confident recall for off-leash hiking, and scent detection and tracking work (just for fun!). The reward was an engaged and well-mannered dog, and it helped them discover their own shared passion for dog training and canine behavior.

Over the years, Lauren and Max’s love of dogs and joy in interacting with them continued to grow. Upon returning to their native New York, they decided to pivot their careers and focus on working with dogs full-time. For over a decade they worked as dogsitters, caring for and interacting with dogs of all ages, breeds, and temperaments. They’ve also formerly helped out at a local shelter, volunteering working with dogs to help improve their chances of getting (and staying) adopted. When the chance arose to join Canine Trade Group and become professional trainers and behavior consultants, they jumped at the opportunity.

Lauren and Max have completed the Canine Trade Group Professional Dog Trainer’s Course – an intensive program designed to fully prepare canine behavior specialists to work with all manner of canine behavioral issues. This course included an in-depth study of canine learning theories leading up to several weeks of hands-on training. During this time, they learned how to address even the most challenging of dog behavioral issues, including aggression, anxiety, and reactivity issues.

Lauren and Max have continued to emphasize education, gaining knowledge, and learning new skills to have as many approaches to helping dogs with behavioral issues as they can. To this end, they have completed the Aggression in Dogs Master Course developed by Michael Shikashio addressing all forms of canine aggression (human aggression, dog-dog aggression, prey and other animal aggression, fear aggression, resource guarding, etc.), the Dog Meets Baby Course from Dominika Knossalla-Pado for successfully introducing dogs to new babies and toddlers, and studied and implemented many methods for utilizing play (including tug and ball) as reinforcers for training, to name just a few of the continued education pursuits they’ve taken. In their free-time, Lauren and Max practice agility with their current dog Bear, a malinois-setter-pittie mix, as well as going on hikes and playing with their rambunctious high-drive pup; their most recent extra-curricular pursuit with Bear has been training scent-work with him.

From years of living fulfilling and engaged lives with their dogs – as well as caring for friends’, family’s, clients’, and shelter dogs – Lauren and Max know the importance of building a rewarding relationship with our canine family members, and the importance of learning to confidently work with and communicate with our dogs. As professional canine behavior consultants, Lauren and Max want to help you learn to train your dog in a way that respects you and your dog’s unique relationship while achieving practical results for your dog’s behavioral issues to keep everybody in the home safe and happy. Their goal is to help you and your pup(s) to have the best, most enriching relationship and life together possible!