Doggie Du Good

Had a private lesson with Karen it went so well that I signed up for group classes! She realized very quickly that my boy is sensitive and took a little time to get to know him so he could warm up to her. She made sure mom who is "a little" over protective was comfortable with corrections and training, BEFORE she did anything. She was very informative and gave me several options for correcting behavior and let me choose what I was comfortable with. She explained what she going to do before she did it, and made sure I was able to do the techniques as she did.

We love and appreciate Karen Smalley! She has worked with us since the day before we brought home our handsome English Labrador Retriever. She helped us set up his nursery and potty spot and gave us pointers to prepare us for his welcome home. I highly recommend this approach for first time puppy owners because it took a lot of the guess work out of our first 24-48 hours. His first lesson was a few days later and he/we had weekly and then bi-weekly lessons for about 3 months. We could see that our puppy had respect for Karen as he immediately worked to accomplish the tasks she was giving to him. We were amazed and called her the "puppy whisperer". Watching her train him helped us to know how to motivate him and encourage him to know our expectations. She has been supportive and encouraging to us while he has gone through the various puppy stages and helped to normalize what we are experiencing by providing feedback and helpful resources for various challenges. Our puppy has had boarding training at 5 months for 1 week, 6.5 months for 1 week and 8 months for 2 weeks. He adores Karen and we know that he has fun and learns a lot when he is at what we call "puppy camp." We love Karen's set up for boarding and as difficult as it is for us to leave him behind when we travel, we know that he is well cared for and socialized. The first week that we boarded him I thought I would need to check in every day, but I felt such ease when we dropped him off that I knew that he was happy and going to have a great experience. He did! (And I only checked in twice!) At the end of each boarding training, Karen reviews everything they have worked on and he is literally a perfect angel when we bring him home. Sometimes it is inconvenient or challenging to be consistent with boundaries and lessons he has learned when we are tired or busy, but we have seen that when are unwavering, we have the perfect puppy and that is due to the excellent training he has received during his time at "puppy camp". Karen's work with him/us has been invaluable. We are so grateful for all that she has done to help us navigate as first time puppy owners and how she has trained him to be a well-behaved member of our family. We constantly receive compliments from strangers whom we meet while shopping or on our daily walk who are amazed at how well behaved he is at such a young age. Thank you, Karen!

I've used Karen's training services in group class settings and private lessons. Karen is highly skilled and extremely professional and an absolute pleasure to deal with. She is constantly growing her knowledge around dog training, and she also has a rich decades long history and experience from which she draws. I have rarely encountered a professional who takes as much pride in their work as Karen does. This is not simply a job for her; she genuinely wants to help her clients have the best relationship possible with their dog(s). Her level of repeat customers speaks for itself in terms of her ability to train robust and reliable behaviors across various environments, including highly distracting environments. Her insight into dog reactivity and other nuisance and/or safety issues has been very helpful to me. She gets to know each dog she trains individually and is able to create and execute a specific training plan for each one. I could not recommend her more highly. You and your best friend will be in very capable hands.