Welcome to Balanced Canines:

About

Hello, my name is Nicole Hitch and I am the owner and founder of Balanced Canines, located in Alexandria, MN.  A little introduction about myself and why I started Balanced Canines: I love animals!!! From the time I was little, I have loved everything about animals and always knew I wanted to work with them. I grew up on a farm where I had the opportunity to work with, observe and learn about working with many different kinds of animals but I loved the horses and dogs most of all. Once I graduated from High School, I went to college and became a teacher, and while honing my teaching skills, continued to be fascinated by and curious about animal behavior and always had my hand in working with animals in some form or another and was always, always observing the way they behaved. Over a decade ago, I began getting more serious about learning all I could about working with and training dogs when my husband and I got our first puppy, a cute little Golden Retriever named Kya. Through loads of learning, coaching, asking questions, observing, practice, mistakes and more learning, I began to fine tune my skills in relating with dogs in a way, that I never had on the farm. Through this experience, Kya became the kind of dog who I could take anywhere and we had the kind of connection that I had always wanted! Which brings us to today, I currently live in Alexandria, MN with my husband, two daughters and 2 dogs (Athena a husky/border collie mix, and Nova an English Cream Golden Retriever.) Our current dogs actually are the ones who inspired me to open Balanced Canines.  Long story short, Athena was a rescue and like many rescued dogs came with invisible baggage.  Though I have many years of experience working with animals, her behavioral baggage forced me to realize that there were no resources for dogs like her or their dog parents in this area, then we got Nova as a 10 week old pup and I also realized that there were no local puppy groups that focused on balanced puppies and teaching the puppy parents how to positively relate with their new pups so they could avoid the behavioral pitfalls that often times land these sweet dogs in surrender or rescue situations to begin with.  I also knew that my dogs were not the only dogs that needed my help and I wanted to share my background and expertise with those who might be struggling with their dog(s) and create a resource for people wanting more education on how to positively connect with their dogs, have a deeper relationship and get the behavior they desire from their furry friends, thus Balanced Canines was formed.