About Us

What’s up pack?!! My name is Steve Del Savio, Owner & Founder of The Maddie Ranch & Pack Leader Dogs.

Beginning in childhood, I always had a passion for the behavior of animals, specifically dogs. Both of my grandfathers where very nature focused so I spent a lot of time outside in nature with animals.

After graduating high school, I went to Pace University in New York where I played NCAA Division 1 Baseball. My intention was to play baseball professionally after college as I was being recruited by professional teams. Plans changed when a severe arm injury ended the possibility of playing baseball professionally.

Feeling uncertain about what career path to take, I decided to begin working in my father’s NYC construction business after I graduated college. At the time, it seemed like the safest decision for a secure future. That’s what most of society was doing and I ignorantly joined right in.

I quickly realized that I was not feeling passionate or fulfilled working in construction. During my spare time, I began studying dog training and behavior through books, seminars, videos and real life, hands on experience working with shelter dogs and dogs owned by friends and family. This was when I discovered my passion and desire to work with humans to help them achieve a balanced life with their dogs.

I decided to leave my career in the NYC construction business to really figure out what I wanted to do with my life. I was living in Hoboken, NJ at the time and up until this point I had never thought about working with dogs as a career. Normally I was in NYC during the day but now that I in Hoboken I started to notice the dog walkers in town. They were letting dogs pull, lunge, bark, jump or just bringing them to run chaotically in a public dog park.

This was when and how the idea for Pack Leader Dogs came about. I wanted to offer the public a higher quality dog walk that was focused on structured exercise, good behavior and of course a fun experience.

As a new dog walker, I began getting the dogs that other walking companies had “fired” because they had behavioral issues. It all started with just one dog but before I knew it, I had multiple packs of 10-15 dogs each!

My dog walking clients were seeing such dramatic improvement in their dogs behavior that they started asking me to teach them what I was doing with their dogs so they could have the same success. This was when I realized my passion for helping people understand their dogs through Dog Psychology! Many of my clients had already worked with a dog trainer, oftentimes multiple dog trainers with little to no results. Sometimes situations were even worse after working with a trainer.

It was obvious to me why the results were so poor. Dog trainers were attempting to train a dog to do obedience, which is commands to achieve
physical positions like sit, down, come, stay, heel, look at me, without understanding the psychology of a dog or understanding why their individual dog was behaving the way it was.

On top of that, the dogs did not view their humans as leaders and were being seen as followers to their dog. Therefore, trainers were teaching humans to become reliant on treats, training tools and techniques to get their dog to listen to them.

Not one of the trainers educated the humans on Dog Psychology, explained the importance of providing leadership to a dog and how to apply it which is an instinctual need for a dog. They didn’t explain how important the energy of the human is in building a balanced relationship. They couldn’t see how something like a lack of structured exercise was leading to frustration or how the owner’s own anxiety was contributing to their dog’s anxiety and so on.

I’ve now spent over 10 years working with thousands of humans helping them achieve a well-behaved dog and a balanced relationship with their dog.

Working with people from all aspects of life and all over the world has given me extensive experience in many different situations. Stay at home moms, billionaires, working class, actors/actresses, veterinarians, pro athletes, executives, couples, dog professionals, influencers, politicians, families in the suburbs, people in the city, citizens of other countries and so on. You name it, I’ve worked with them!

The understanding of Dog Psychology through 10+ years of hands-on experience has allowed me to achieve amazing results with my clients, even when training failed with another dog trainer or multiple dog trainers prior to working with me.

I’ve helped my clients with everything from puppy training to aggression and everything in between including some very rare behaviors.
The customized approach I use always depends on your dog’s individual energy, your own individual energy, the unwanted behaviors being exhibited and the goals you have with your dog. It’s incredibly important to me that you not only learn what to do with your dog but to primarily understand the way dogs see the world through Dog Psychology. The goal is to also help you understand why your dog is behaving the way it is and provide a game plan that sets both the human and the dog up for success!

I built the Maddie Ranch to be destination where both humans and dogs come to find balance. Every dog that comes here is treated as one of our own and we tend to become friends with our human clients!

When it comes to our exclusive Adventure Camp (Specialized Day Care) and Luxury Boarding Program, we frequently get feedback from our clients that they feel an overwhelming piece of mind knowing their dog is staying with our team of Dog Trainers in a beautiful nature setting!

I truly look forward to helping you. Whether it’s finding the right dog for you or your family, what to do with a new puppy, finding solutions for your dog who is misbehaving or helping you take care of your dog where they are treated like my own when you are unable to care for them. Dog care reinvented: Nature’s Way!

It is my honor to be able to share Dog Psychology with you and to be able to bring balance and harmony to you, your dog and your home.