Amy's Canine Kindergarten

Four years ago, we brought home two puppies (littermates, a male and a female). Over the years, we have watched them play, sleep, eat, and walk together. We loved them and they were fun, fun to watch them when they played, slept, and learned a new trick that we taught them. As they have gotten older, we discovered that although we loved them, not everyone else did. We started out with one of them in a basic obedience class. I will say that you cannot expect to take them to a class and then, “poof” they are just magically trained, you do have to spend time at home working on what you learn in class. Although Schroeder is not perfect, he is a better behaved dog than what we started out with. We still practice all the things we learned in class. Our biggest challenge I will say is the second dog we have put into a class. Over time, she has become more and more reactive to other dogs, especially after a couple of instances with off leash dogs who got in her face barking at her and not giving up until their owners got them away from her. It got so bad that we couldn’t walk by any dogs, even dogs on the other side of the street that were leashed without Marcie going nuts, pulling at the leash, barking, hair standing up on the back of her neck. We took Amy’s Reactive Dog class which not only exposed Marcie to an environment where the other dogs had some of the same issues, but there was control in the environment and nobody was off leash. Amy has been great. And I do feel as if we are making some progress with Marcie. In fact, the past couple of encounters when walking by other dogs have been a breeze compared to what we used to deal with. Marcie did still watch them, but she was able to walk on by, only whining a little. She even wagged her tail when she walked by one of them. The first time Amy met Marcie, she watched Marcie’s behavior and made me feel so much better when she told me Marcie was acting that way out of fear and not aggression, as I was sure all my neighbors were thinking. Amy is wonderful. Her patience is amazing and she truly wants to see all dogs be good dogs. She has called and emailed and even done two visits since our class ended so we could practice some walk-bys with dogs that are unfamiliar to Marcie. I would recommend Amy to anyone looking for a trainer. She will provide you with all the tools you and your dog need to be successful and get rid of the behaviors you don’t want. She will be there for moral support when you are at your wits end because you don’t see much change one week, and then she will be there the next week when you are so proud to see that all the time and practice are starting to pay off. So, if you are looking for a trainer for anything from basic obedience to reactiveness to other dogs, Amy is the trainer for you.