Alpha K-9 Obedience

I adopted a Border Collie/Cattle Dog/German Shepherd rescue puppy at 4 months old, and around 8 months old, he started to increasingly show signs of territorial aggression, especially when people would enter our home. Koda also showed signs of fear-based aggression. For a few months, I attempted to continue on with our training path using positive-reinforcement training and Zak George's Youtube videos. Koda was getting increasingly more nervous around strangers, and his barking turned into lunging and biting. I was stressed and sad, feeling like I might have to give my best friend up after he bit 3 people. I called Michael, and he was confident he could help as long as I was willing to put in the work. And he explained it was not uncommon for rescue dogs to have aggressive tendencies, especially rescue dogs that were born and raised during a pandemic with fewer socialization opportunities. Michael was calm and made me feel like change was possible. Michael is a behaviorist, meaning he reads the behaviors specific to your dog and teaches you to communicate in the dog's language rather than our dog's trying to understand our language. After our first session with Michael, I was extremely hopeful and confident in the process; I saw a complete shift in Koda's behavior just after one session - from Koda trying to attack Michael when he walked in the door to Koda sitting quietly and looking at me for direction. We taught Koda the "friend" command, and we "unlocked his brain," as Michael would say. For the remainder of the day, Koda was a completely different dog, he was smiling from ear to ear, all from 1 2-hour session with Michael. Koda never wanted to hurt anybody, he never wanted to take on a leadership role, but he felt like he had to. Once we were able to remove that stress from him, his whole demeanor changed, and Koda was happier and less anxious. In total, we did 5 sessions with Michael, having break-through moments each and every time. We utilized Michael's knowledge for any other behaviors that arose (i.e. Koda's fear of stairs or Koda's inability to listen outside in the snow). After all 5 sessions, Koda is all-around a quieter, calmer, happier, more obedient dog; he listens 100% of the time even in the presence of distractions, and he is equally as affectionate, if not more affectionate, than before. I am less stressed and Koda is less stressed. Koda and I communicate better and have a better understanding of respect and trust. Now, Koda can spend more time learning tricks and having fun. I can't thank Michael enough for all of his help. It takes work, but Michael walked me through all the tools and techniques necessary to make this change; he is gifted, and knowledgable, and truly cares about the dogs. Even after our final session, Michael called to check in on Koda's progress, and I couldn't be more pleased with the results. If you are open to a new style of behavioral training and willing to put in the work, I would highly recommend Michael for guidance.

Michael has been a true gift for our dog Mia. We found Alpha K9 Obedience while looking for a animal behaviorist to help our dog when she became aggressive towards other dogs and some people. The scary part was that her aggression was completely unpredictable. Mia is a rescue and, as most do, came with a sad background. Her DNA results said she’s a lab, cattle dog, chihuahua mix. Not at all what we were expecting. In the beginning she was fearful of most things and would nip at heals like a herding dog does with cattle. As we got locked down for Covid and she was socialized less and less her fear turned into aggression. She began going after other dogs and flipping out when a neighbor dog walked by our house. There’s been a few incidents of biting and we were at a point where if we couldn’t get her help we didn’t feel like we could keep her. We have two small kids and we were worried about what would happen if our kids got in the way during one of her outbursts. We first started looking for a dog trainer but website after website said they wouldn’t treat aggressive dogs. Then we found Alpha K9 Obedience and started to read all the testimonials. So many of the stories sounded just like our situation. In our first meeting we learned that Mia didn’t want to be the leader, she felt she had to take on that role since we didn’t provide much leadership for her. If we stepped up as the pack leader she would fall in line and not worry about needing to protect her pack from other dogs and people. My husband and I began doing training sessions with her a few times a day any within just a few days she was already more relaxed around the house and was listening so much better outside our home. Yesterday we had our fourth session at a local park where lots of dogs are always walking by and Mia did perfectly the whole time. Whenever we told her to “leave it” she would look up at us and never even look at the passing by dogs. She’s like a new dog and we are all so much happier, especially Mia. Our work isn’t done, we will continue to work with her on our own now that we have the skills to do it. But it was an amazing transformation and we are so hopeful for her to continue to improve!

We have been learning from Michael for several sessions now, and the results are dramatic. Before we found Michael, our 1 year old pup had a high drive to chase after people, dogs, and vehicles (every one of those could be her new best friend, and she wanted to find out!).She had a low drive for obeying when it wasn’t in line with her own interest. A leash was an absolute must anytime our pup was outside. Now, she obeys, even when she is wiggling with excitement to do something she desperately wants to do. We can trust her off leash, and people/animals/cars can go by our home, and she just watches them pass by. We are still amazed by the difference! What Michael has done as a Behaviorist is give us the fundamental tools to have our dog’s attention and respect, as well as supply her with the comfort and stresslessness of knowing where her place is in our family pack. The training of skills is incidental to knowing how to be her alpha, and alter her behavior. We don’t resort to bribery (treats) or intimidation, but rather reinforcing her place in the family, and praising her positive achievements. Michael has empowered us to unlock the fantastic capabilities of our sweet pup. We feel very fortunate to have found Michael, his ability to work with all of us’ in our home instead of a training facility is so helpful. For anyone interested in giving your pup and yourself the best education and results, we highly recommend his talent as a behaviorist. You will not regret it!