Helping Pets Behave

Mary was excellent with our Bullmastiff. She is very knowledgeable of dog behavior, which is what I was really looking for. I'm not one for only positive training. I wanted to find someone who spoke the dog's language and could teach me what to look for and what my dog is communicating. Mary has this down! On top of all this Mary is very personable. She took the time to listen to us and our situation and provided a great plan to help our dog. We started putting this plan into action while we were with Mary and our dog improved tremendously! On top of all this, Mary is affordable! I’d recommend her to anyone! Don’t give your dog up. Get your dog to Mary!

Mary has helped us and our dogs immeasurably: her calm, clear, confident manner, combined with her practicality and encouragement, got us (and our dog) through some tough times. If you work with Mary, you can expect her to give you her full attention, and provide clear instructions and feedback with explanations of the rationale behind each action. She breaks down training into manageable steps that build on each other, and with consistent practice, we saw real changes in our dog’s behavior. Most of all, by working with Mary you’ll have a better understanding of how your dog ticks and what they need from you. Example 1: We needed tools to help our rescue dog navigate our city neighborhood without getting worked up when encountering other dogs. In an hour and a half of training, our dog made a ton of progress—and most importantly, we got some basic building-block techniques to keep up the training at home. Example 2: Mary helped us navigate the very tough decision to re-home one of our dogs when they stopped getting along and couldn’t live together anymore. Mary worked with us for weeks to help us understand what was going on, and having her professional perspective and support made the process bearable. You can tell Mary genuinely cares about her canine and human clients. We can’t recommend her enough!

Having Mary work with our puppy, Mera, was simply an incredible experience. She gave us insights into her behavior as well as our own that produced immediate drastic results. Mind. Blown. A few simple training techniques and PRESTO! Mera was walking and behaving so much better. We had taken Mera to another trainer early on who gave us effective ways to teach commands but we have struggled with Mera's fearful behavior toward so many things. After our recent move to a new apartment, her fear jumped dramatically and the couple hours we spent with Mary gave us so much clarity into how WE should behave when she exhibits fear response to things in her environment. Mary's highly detailed and concise follow up assessment/ recommendations report was sent in less than a day which we really appreciate. We can tell Mary is very passionate about helping dogs behave and it shows in every bit of our experience with her. Highly recommend. 5 stars!

I took my dog to Mary after taking her to five different trainers in the area. NOTHING seemed to work with my dog-- she was still barking at strangers and other dogs on walks and I could not leave her alone at home (severe separation anxiety). I was ready to just settle with having to walk my dog during times when there were no people out and taking her to doggie day care every day. It was definitely a struggle and other trainers made me feel like it was my fault even though I was willing to put in the work and effort to help my dog's behaviors get better. After taking a training course with other dogs, one trainer asked if I wanted to surrender my dog due to my frustration with her behavior. That was completely uncalled for and it really upset me, as I love my dog dearly! I did reach out to Mary immediately after this experience and she told me my dog was not ready for a group training class and was willing to meet with my dog quickly to evaluate her and get working on steps to address my dog's behaviors. During our training session, my dog responded so well to Mary and the training techniques. I was surprised because I had had little to no success with other trainers. Mary was very understanding during our training session, even when my dog had an accident at the beginning of the session due to nerves. After leaving the session, I had a lot of hope and new tasks to work on with my dog to help with her behavior. I will caveat this with the fact that real progress with my dog did not happen overnight -- it took a couple weeks for my dog's behavior to start changing without reminders from me. However, after leaving the session - I knew how I would handle her behavioral issues going forward and that change was possible. I did not have these quick fixes such as clicker training or spray bottles that would work for a week and then stop-- I had an actual way to help my dog and understand my dog's behavior. Now, it is three months after our session and my dog is happier all around and she is able to control her barking during walks. She is also much more friendly to strangers and people that come to visit. Her behavior is not perfect 100% of the time, but we are slowly getting to that point -- which is a HUGE improvement. Additionally, I am now able to leave my dog at home alone when I need to. I am very thankful for Mary's help and her follow ups with me even weeks and months after the first appointment - and so is my dog!