Cherry Hoggs

I sent my rottie, Deimos, to spend some time with Cherry Hoggs earlier this year. I had gotten him as an adult with lots of baggage. My understanding of things is that the owner drove semi cross country and left the dog with his girlfriend and 2 young daughters (plus she was attempting to run a daycare out of the home). So, we are guessing that things were constant children screaming and excitement. The result seemed to be that he thought he was alpha, and the children were his. He became aggressive toward the parents when they tried taking their children him. And I can only assume things about his treatment as I do not fully know, but he also exhibited a good amount of fear when he became overly excited. This made him very reactive. He seemed like he was happy and wanted attention, but quickly became nervous when people got close to him. He may have been punished for over excitement, perhaps because he got rough with one of the children. Needless to say, he came with plenty of issues. Some possessive, anxious/nervous, and some aggressive behaviors. He had come from the same breeder my last rottie came from and the breeder had reached out to me knowing that mine had passed away a year earlier to ask if I would take Deimos in to avoid him going to a shelter. I did not know the extent of the issues he was coming with. My previous rottie only had one issue, and that was obsessive licking if you got near his face. So, I had rottie experience, but not previous behavioral issue experience, and I was not 100% sure on the best way to approach his problems. His energy level was either 0, or 100, with no in between. Because of that, any emotion while reprimanding him turned his dial up higher and made him listen less. He had to be separated with any company over, walked in the middle of the night to avoid distractions, and generally did not get to experience anything other than being around me (which he did wonderfully when it was just us). External stimulation made him go excessive. The vet tried large doses of Prozac and Tramadol to calm him, and even knocked him out to perform visits. At one point he even grabbed my girlfriend's hand, causing damage, because he got extremely excited and didn't realize he could not get that rough. I can only assume that as a puppy there was a lot of roughhousing, not realizing it wouldn't be cute at 100 lbs. So, I decided to reach out and get help from Cherry Hoggs. From the initial conversations Frankie and Charlie were friendly, knowledgeable, and professional. They shared plenty of tips and information on how to deal with Deimos. It seemed as though a lot of what I was doing was correct, but I was not pushing him to deal with his problems (just avoiding them), so they were lingering. So, Deimos spent almost a month with Cherry Hoggs and had forced exposure to a full pack and people he was not used to. This experience helped his confidence a lot and helped him start to understand that he doesn't have to be at 0 or 100 all the time and it's ok to be in the middle. Since then, he has even been able to interact with my girlfriend's teenage daughters without being overly pushy about it. He still has his stubborn moments, and I am fully aware that whatever happened to him when he was young has caused him to likely always be a work in progress. I will always need to supervise and be aware of his issues. But he has improved a lot and should continue improving with time and effort. His exposures at Cherry Hoggs just gave him a boost to help him over a roadblock he had hit for some time. I am grateful to Frankie and Charlie for the time and energy they gave to helping Deimos, the knowledge they shared for me to continue helping him, and the photos and videos of his experiences while there. The overall interaction and experience were great, and I am glad I chose to do it. I highly recommend Cherry Hoggs in general, not just for over-the-top dogs like mine.

Cherry Hoggs is a wonderful oasis for dogs that may have unique quirks and ways of interacting with fellow dogs and humans. They are kind, patient, understanding and take the time to get to know your pet and create a training plan that best fits their need. They take the time to train the owner as much as they train the dog. It was a great impact for me to go on a supervised dog walk with them to understand how to handle my pup on leash for best habits. The best part? All the training they offer is treat independent. So many training facilities rely on treats and Cherry Hoggs understands that treats are not always available. Going here gave both me and my pup the confidence to be out and about in the world. I can’t recommend them enough.

We are so grateful to have our dog trained by Cherry Hoggs. Our dog is much better and calmer and we enjoy the peaceful daily walks with him. We are no longer have to struggle with him pulling when he sees other dogs or grabbing people’s pant, and it is much easier for arthritis hands. He patiently sits and waits when we stop. He had training at other places before, however, he still had a few behavioral issues that needed to be corrected before taking him for a long trip to Philadelphia downtown city center. We had been searching and talking to various trainers for a while and fortunately we ran across Cherry Hoggs website. Frankie and Charlie are amazing couple. They have great knowledge and understanding in dog psychology to help them breakthrough any behavioral issues the dogs have. Whatever the concerns we might have with our dog, Charlie always has the ability to cut down the chase and explains in simple terms of the causes and steps to correct it. Our recent trip to Philly was a live testimony of it. No matter how many questions we had for him, Charlie would always answered them all patiently without any rush. Their passion and love for dogs reflect in their actions caring for the dogs under their care. Our dog loves this place and he always got excited every morning when our car pulled up to their house. We could see the improvement in him even after the first day at the camp. Nowadays whenever people commented on how much better our dog is now, we all said the credits go to Cherry Hoggs, the best place in town!!!

Top marks to Charlie and Cherry Hoggs. We adopted a 1yr old Husky who had a very rough start to life and came to us with resource guarding, and sometimes aggression issues. Before Cherry Hoggs we paid (a lot!) to have a dog behaviorist do their thing with him and give us their recommendations. Long story short, their somewhat ‘touchy feely’ strategies only led to more of the undesired behaviors. We had Charlie over for a 1 hr in home session around 6 months ago and we can confidently say that the things that Charlie taught us and we implemented has changed our dogs life. The undesired behaviors have all but gone away, and when there is a ‘guarding’ issue, we have effective strategies to get past it. Go see Charlie before you go to a behaviorist! Thanks again

Cherry Hoggs is amazing! Frankie and Charlie are incredible, full of knowledge, experienced and their passion for training, and dogs in general, shines through in every single session. Their approach and philosophy are very unique and effective. We enrolled our dog Stella in bootcamp and we started noticing remarkable progress since week one. They've given us invaluable tools and tips to help our dog become the best version of herself and gave us (the pawrents) the guidance and confidence we needed to continue with her training at home. Stella now transitioned to day camp and she absolutely loves it, she continues learning each day while having the MOST fun with her Cherry Hoggs fam! We are very happy with Stella's improvement, she's living her best life :) If you're looking for exceptional training I would highly recommend!