The Right Place For Finding The Right Pros Near You!
In January we adopted an older dog from a pet rescue out of state, we quickly found he had many behavior issues from abuse. Although small, he is extremely aggressive and frantic with a “fight or flight” survival instinct. He possessively guards and attacks us. Due to his severe biting, he is not a candidate for re-adoption, if surrendered or returned to a shelter or rescue, he would be euthanized. Even with all of his issues, we wanted to keep him, we love him and feel he can be saved.We immediately researched local dog training companies, we found out quickly that dog training is an unregulated field and there are trainers out there who lack even a basic understanding of learning theory and ethology (science of animal behavior). Online we found many local trainers, all advertising they will train your dog, better yet, drop the dog off and after 6 weeks they will return the dog fully trained. This often does not work, as dogs will revert back to the behaviors that may have worked for them in the past and it is very, very expensive. We even reached out to Ceasar Milan.We found/hired a great dog trainer (from Boise). After several weeks of training, they explained our dog needed more training than they could provide, they had never worked with a dog that was so aggressive and could not identify the “trigger” that was setting him off. We were grateful for their honesty, and they referred us to Paul Leavitt at “One-2-One dog training” ( in Notus, ID).Paul has over 25 years’ experience, specializing in aggressive dog behaviors. Paul is honest, he explained the complexity of what we were up against for saving this dog, specifically the length of time and commitment that is needed. Paul told us up front it would be several months of training, on his first day he introduced tools and tricks which increased our safety and reduced our stress, we immediately began these behavior changing techniques.Admittedly, our dog’s case is extreme, Paul knew immediately that we needed additional resources, he openly works with us and our veterinarian to build our behavior plan. Pauls’ pricing is more than fair, he is down to earth (not a fancy guy), is honest, has integrity and knows how to train dogs! Paul works with us weekly, he is punctual, is not a showboat and will reach out to his vast resources (if needed) to consult on specific issues he may not have dealt with in the past. Paul’s commitment is incredible, he follows up throughout the week, checking in to see how our training is going, etc.Thanks to Paul our dogs’ training is on track, the work is on-going, but we are no longer getting bitten, and are safe in our home. Paul saved this dogs life.We are so grateful! If you need a dog trainer, give him a call, he is awesome!