Ben and Becky McGill had a few rowdy clients Monday at their new business on Bowling Green’s East Main Avenue, but it was nothing a few tasty treats and some interventions couldn’t resolve.

The McGills, after operating their Good Boy animal-training business through home visits for nearly a year, have opened a headquarters in the former home of the Knotty Pretzel business that closed in February with plans to convert to strictly a food truck.

Becky McGill said the headquarters was needed because of the growth of the business and the demand for group lessons.

“It (Good Boy) took off fairly quickly,” she said. “We had a lot of growth from April to September of last year, and it was all word of mouth.”

That growth was such that the McGills went from doing all the training themselves to where they now have five trainers on staff.

Such growth reflects the increase in dog ownership during the COVID-19 pandemic, Becky McGill said.

“More people got puppies during COVID,” she said. “They’ve never been trained. We get them socialized and offer general obedience training for the first six weeks.

“We then offer advanced obedience training, teaching agility and tricks, a lot of fun things. There are more dog owners now, and we’re happy to help them.”

That help comes in a lot of forms.

Becky McGill said Good Boy staffers work to lessen aggressive behavior and excessive barking while working with dogs.

Many of the animals work toward and achieve the American Kennel Club’s Canine Good Citizen certification that involves such items as sitting and lying down on command and walking on a loose lead.

Ben McGill, a native of Australia who has been training dogs for 16 years, said much of Good Boy’s training is adapted from applied behavior analysis, or ABA, techniques that have been used in behavioral interventions for children with autism spectrum disorder.

“We don’t use punishment,” Ben McGill said. “If a dog has a maladaptive behavior such as aggression, we change the way they experience the world.

“It (ABA training) has completely changed how I’m doing dog training. Since switching to ABA, I’ve yet to have a single dog that we haven’t been able to turn around.”

Good Boy client Ashlee Manley is sold on whatever techniques the McGills are using. She said getting a second West Highland White Terrier at her house proved to be a disaster until Good Boy intervened.

“I didn’t anticipate the trouble that adding a second dog can cause,” Manley said. “About 36 hours after having two dogs, I was frantically looking for dog trainers in Bowling Green.”

Manley’s plea for help was answered by Ben McGill, who came to her house weekly to help train the dogs to get along.

“He changed our lives,” Manley said. “The dogs went from not getting along to being friends in about four months.”

Manley’s younger dog later died, and now she has a five-month-old puppy that Good Boy is also training.

“Ben has helped us train a 10-year-old dog, a 4-year-old and now a 5-month-old,” Manley said. “He has done great with every one.”

With more clients like Manley coming to him with problem animals, Ben McGill said Good Boy has experienced rapid growth.

“We’ve been very busy,” he said. “Aggression among dogs has gone through the roof. We’ve seen a lot of fear-based aggression since COVID.”

As one of Good Boy’s trainers, Samantha Koostra, says: “It’s a little crazy. The Good Boy phone never stops ringing.”

Those calls have led to work for Good Boy in Glasgow, Scottsville, Russellville and even into Tennessee.

While he and his staff will continue to make house calls, Ben McGill said the downtown headquarters that can handle up to five dogs at a time is a big boost for his business.

“The group lessons are a good way for dogs to learn socialization,” he said. “We can do all the evaluations for the Canine Good Citizen in this facility. We now have a location that suits our needs very well.”

– Follow business reporter Don Sergent on Twitter @BGDNbusiness or visit bgdailynews.com.