BlueDog

My husband and I decided to rescue a second great dane because we love our first one so much and thought we could provide a good home. We soon realized after rescuing Willy that he had some issues. Being fairly experienced with dogs, we thought we could work on the training ourselves but soon learned we were in over our heads. Luckily we called BlueDog and found Kim and Eric to be just as dedicated to helping Willy as we were. Willy is a big guy (150 lbs), but he did not have a good life previous to finding our home which makes his an extremely nervous dog. He also knows that he is big and intimidating so when he would get nervous, he would lunge and growl at strangers and other dogs. He would very quickly escalate himself to the “red-zone”. Eric was extremely patient working with Willy and teaching us about training and body language signals. We went from day 1 where Willy wouldn’t even let Eric approach him to having Eric dog-sit for us while we were on vacation in the span of a couple of months. Kim and Amy also came over to help out during training sessions and expose Willy to new people and other dogs. We are eternally grateful for the training that they provided us (the people) so we could work on training Willy. I am sad to say that we moved away from the area and we really miss the BlueDog team. We continue to work with Willy and he is doing great with people and some dogs. Maybe someday he will like all dogs…. Anyhow, I highly recommend BlueDog for training, dog walking (Eric also walked our two danes during the week), and house-sitting. I never had to worry about how the dogs were doing when we were away because I knew they were in good hands and when we would return from vacation, they were better behaved than when we left!

Two positives- this is the only place within 30 miles that you can take an 8 week old puppy to interact with other puppies and the trainer Tom. Aside from that stay away from this place. Severely overpriced and they don't teach your puppy anything. They state on their site you can go unlimited times when you buy a package. Even state 12 times a week is a possibility. Completely false information. They do not offer 12 puppy classes for under 16 weeks old, ever in an week. Try to get your pup signed up 2 times in 1 day, denied. According to them, 2 classes 45 minutes is too much for a puppy to handle. My puppy was bored out of his skull in these classes. This company has been around since 2008, you would think the owners would have developed other ways of training for pups that have allergies or sensitive stomachs. They heavily rely on pushing treats onto your pup, like every 3 seconds. My pup developed both treat allergies and sensitive stomach issues during the 7 weeks I went there. I refused to bring treats, until the vet figured out what he was ultimately allergic too, yeast. Tom, the only positive person in their company, gave me options on different toys to use. So I went out and bought what he said. The very next class the owner ran it, and she told me to leave if treats weren't going to be used. Seriously!!! The husband and wife team owners are ignorant, out of touch, and inept at running this business. Final note, if your dog is a chewer i.e. the age bracket I paid for 8 weeks to 16 weeks, they are over possessive of their blue boxes they have out, those boxes you can by at Walmart for $5, they put your dog in the corner to make your pup learn a lesson, so in my case no one could hear the trainer as my pup got louder and louder, that box kept him from being bored and he was mute. Stay away!!