Hunter Canine

Have you seen the meme of a lab puppy depicted as a T Rex? That was our Maple before she attended training at Hunter Canine. Nothing was safe from her destruction including AirPods, glasses, and many other objects she grabbed from countertops. Taking her for walks really meant she dragged us down the street. Simply put she was a T Rex. We took Maple to Hunter Canine where she stayed for one month. During this time she worked with her trainer, Emily, who focused on everything we discussed during the intake. By the time we picked up Maple, the T Rex had transformed into a lovable lab. Now she is trained to walk by our side, sit when we stop to talk to a friend, she’s well behaved around other dogs, and can go into public places without any issues. Emily is an absolute rock star and excellent at training dogs. Our experience has far exceeded our expectations and we highly recommend Hunter Canine to anyone looking for help training their dog. The only regret we have is we wished we had gotten Maple trained sooner because we would still have our AirPods and glasses.

I usually write short reviews, but I cannot understate the impact that Emily and Hunter Canine have had on our family, including our dog Bogey. To understand how great this impact has been I need to provide background information. Our dog Bogey is approximately 6 years old. He was left in a shelter for over a year before we adopted him several months ago. After putting together many pieces of information and behavior we figure he was used as a stud for a breeder, most likely growing up and living in an enclosure or dog run most of his life. Bogey wants to love people he doesn’t know how. He wants to be a good dog just sometimes he doesn’t know how to. Bogey very much would not do anything Bogey did not want to do and was allowed to live that way for a long time. His usual means of getting his way is to growl and snap at you to get you to relent and leave him alone. This can be resource guarding or just not wanting to move from a specific spot or even going outside. We desperately needed help as we have trained several dogs over the years, however these were all puppies and did not have the emotional issues Bogey has. I researched Hunter Canine and read a lot of reviews online. I called and spoke with Kristi about our situation and training. She asked a lot of questions and listened to what we were experiencing and what we needed. She put me at ease very quickly by simply saying this is what we do and we got this. That was all I needed to hear. Due to our own scheduling, it was about 3 weeks before we started the training retreat. We met Emily who went through everything with us and provided us with videos to watch before we were to return in two weeks for progress training. We returned two weeks later to a completely different dog we were shocked at the transformation. Emily ran through the training circuit of what they had been working on. When he was done he ran to us like a little kid that had just finished a recital. He was so happy and proud of himself. Both my wife and I worked with Bogey on training then Emily sat with us and answered all of our questions. Soon he left with her to return to his dog run while we left. I returned one week later to complete another demonstration day with Bogey and Emily. Again I was just taken aback about the change in Bogey. He had purpose, he was more sure of himself. He was more in control of his emotions. One thing we needed to have Emily work on with Bogey was being able to be around other dogs with at least little to no reaction. Our daughter was coming home with her dog for Christmas. Her dog is very big and loving so think Clifford the Big Red Dog. We just needed them to coexist. Long story short those two dogs got along great and had a wonderful time. Bogey is starting to learn that he can wonder our back yard and enjoy being outside and even relax in the sun all with out being confined to a dog run or enclosure. We knew once we got home we would and will still have moments of smoothing out the remaining rough edges. Emily has been available for texts to follow up on any questions we have and has provided some further feedback on how to work with Bogey on smoothing out rough moments. Those moments are now minimal compared to what we began with. Emily and Hunter Canine have given us hope and the tools we needed to take a 6 year old institutionalized dog and help provide him with a structured loving home. We cannot wait to see what the next six months and year bring with him.

Violet trained our two Labradors. From the moment we met, Violet really took the time to understand our concerns and desires so that she could address them. Then, throughout the process, she kept us updated, which was incredible appreciated so that we knew how they were doing. We are so grateful for Violet, because with her help, we have no hesitation taking our dogs hiking and traveling everywhere we go. We no longer have to worry how the dogs will do, which before Violet really constrained us from what we did with the dogs. Overall, highly recommend!!