We adopted a doberman mix and it was clear on day 2 that this was not going to be an easy dog. He was very willful, energetic and had some very unpredictable aggression issues - as in I could not walk him without him lunging and even, to my horror, nipping people on several occasions. My dog was also determined to rip my shoulder out of it's socket. Now we walk without incident and pulling. There have been other bumps along the way, but John always handles them in a very calm and compassionate manner. My dog, who is not overly affectionate, loves to see John: his tail always thumps upon John's arrival.
August 2018
After just the initial session I feel more confident and wiser! I’m beginning to believe my 10 mo Blk Lab/Golden Ret. will be free of bad habits soon. I don’t feel helpless anymore!
November 2015
We have a wonderful Lab mix that we adopted at 2 y/o. She was/is great with people, gentle with kids and generally pretty good... Except we could not control her around animals (esp. deer, cats and squirrels all around where we live) and if food was present all bets were off--she is the epitome of chow hound. So, our first instinct was to do treat training, but we came to find out that she would respond wonderfully, as long as we had the treats, but when we ran out, she was back to the same old tricks. We wanted John to train her out of those behaviors, however--as he told us and we soon came to learn--he doesn't really train the dog as much as the people. The focus... read full review
We adopted a doberman mix and it was clear on day 2 that this was not going to be an easy dog. He was very willful, energetic and had some very unpredictable aggression issues - as in I could not walk him without him lunging and even, to my horror, nipping people on several occasions. My dog was also determined to rip my shoulder out of it's socket. Now we walk without incident and pulling. There have been other bumps along the way, but John always handles them in a very calm and compassionate manner. My dog, who is not overly affectionate, loves to see John: his tail always thumps upon John's arrival.
After just the initial session I feel more confident and wiser! I’m beginning to believe my 10 mo Blk Lab/Golden Ret. will be free of bad habits soon. I don’t feel helpless anymore!
We have a wonderful Lab mix that we adopted at 2 y/o. She was/is great with people, gentle with kids and generally pretty good... Except we could not control her around animals (esp. deer, cats and squirrels all around where we live) and if food was present all bets were off--she is the epitome of chow hound. So, our first instinct was to do treat training, but we came to find out that she would respond wonderfully, as long as we had the treats, but when we ran out, she was back to the same old tricks. We wanted John to train her out of those behaviors, however--as he told us and we soon came to learn--he doesn't really train the dog as much as the people. The focus... read full review